Wednesday, July 27th, 2005
“Are you all still awake?”
Tour de France Wrap Up Spectacular!
I picked Armstrong to win. No surprise there.
I tipped Rasmussen for the king of the mountains but I did not pick him for the biggest mental collapse in the history of the Tour so that was a surprise.
I went, and stuck with, McEwen for the points jersey but Vino’s final stage antics put paid to his chances. That’s fine as I am not a big fan of McEwen anyway.
Best young rider? Who cares?
Rider by rider:
Lance Armstrong (USA), Discovery – Rode the most conservative Tour of his 7 victories. Just like Indurain would ride. I think the only thing more boring than a traditional Armstrong victory would be a conservative riding Armstrong victory. Snooze….
Paolo Savoldelli (ITALY), Discovery – Much fresher legs than a winner Giro d’Italia should have had. This guy rode really well and will be doing great things in the future.
Thomas Voeckler (FRANCE), Bouyges Telecom – Not as successful as 2004 but he was up front quite a bit looking for some stage wins. Good ride.
Matt White (AUSTRALIA), Cofidis – Way to finish. Nice job.
Robbie McEwen (AUSTRALIA), Davitamon Lotto – Tip for 2006, limit the head butting if you want to wear the green in Paris.
Iban Mayo (SPAIN), Euskaltel Euskadi – You did not see it on OLN but Mayo pulled over to the side of the road during stage 15 and quacked out an egg.
Fabian Cancellara (SWITZERLAND), Fassa Bortolo – CSC for 2006. More firepower on CSC makes them the strongest team for next year.
Levi Leipheimer (USA), Gerolsteiner – Solid ride, got screwed on the final stage by the officials.
Vladimir Karpets (RUSSIA), Illes Balears – Big zero for 2005.
Roberto Heras (SPAIN), Liberty Seguros – Will be riding for Vino next year as he proved, once again, that he can’t handle riding as team leader in the Tour.
Joseba Beloki (SPAIN), Liberty Seguros – Survived. We’ll see what he does next year but he may never get back on top.
Santiago Botero (COLUMBIA), Phonak – Solid Tour until he rode into the crowd on the final TT. Still has to be happy after being in the weeds with T-Mobile the last few years.
Floyd Landis (USA), Phonak – Did OK for his first year as team leader. Needs to improve for 2006.
Tom Boonen (BELGIUM), Quick•Step – Tip for 2006, stay on the road during the mountain descents. You are not going to win the green jersey in the mountains but you can lose it for sure.
Chris Horner (USA), Daunier Duval – Fantastic ride. Almost won a stage. Up front quite a bit even when it got hard. Horner is back in Europe, but for how long?
Ivan Basso (ITALY), Team CSC – How much better would Basso have done this year without having raced the Giro? Hopefully we shall see next year.
Bobby Julich (USA), Team CSC – Solid Tour, great job as super domestic.
Jan Ullrich (GERMANY), T-Mobile – Needs the Tour to be four weeks long to have a chance at victory. Also needs to avoid the motor pace workout the day before the Tour starts.
Alexander Vinokourov (KAZAKHSTAN), T-Mobile – Not 100% in the mountains, or maybe he was? Either way he rode a solid Tour but I find it difficult to see him as a winner in Paris next year. Manolo Saiz continues his efforts to hire star riders with a questionable ability to win the Tour by bringing Vino to Liberty Seguros for 2006.
Andreas Kloden (GERMANY), T-Mobile – Solid team riding until a broken bone in his wrist knocked him out of the race.
Michael Rasmussen (DENMARK), Rabobank – Risked everything to take the polka dot jersey in the Alps and held on in the Pyrenees. Too bad about his collapse in the final TT but I think his team may have been putting some unrealistic expectations on him to stay ahead of Der Kaiser. The image of him climbing out of the ditch holding his head in frustration after his 2nd crash was very sad.
Cadel Evans (AUSTRALIA), Davitamon Lotto – Solid Tour after being forced to miss the recent Tours due to team politics and injury.
George Hincapie (USA), Discovery – Lucky SOB. He would have never won that stage if his team did not have the jersey. Got towed all the way to the top of the mountain. Those who think George can win the Tour are living in fantasy land!
OK! My predictions for the 2006 Tour de France:
Overall
1 Basso
2 Ullrich
3 Vinokourov
Mountain Jersey
Rasmussen again
Green Jersey
Tom Boonen. I think he can outgun McEwen if he stays off the deck.
Best young rider.
Who cares?
