Recent content by lastplacerider

Agree with Froome and Contador as 1 and 2 or 2 and 1. Also agree with Valverde, Nibali, Talansky, Mollema, VDB, and Costa as challengers for 3rd. Mathias Frank has some good placings this year - 4th at Romandie and 2nd at TDS. I bet he feels a top 3 is possible. Seems to have a good team with...

So, do Kittel and the flat road sprinters retire after stage 13?

Think Gerrans dropped out of PV last year too. Just saving himself for Amstel. Cunego did well in PV...until final stage ITT. May not be a winner at AGR but I like his podium chances. He is a former winner.

Only a handful of sprinters...looks like stage 6 may be their only chance. How did they get so lucky to be in this race?

Would have thought Rojas would have been listed as an outside possibility. He has had very nice results this year and just finished P-N in 4th place. May not have the top end speed of years past but appears in good form and should be able to complete 300km.

I agree Kittel but not 5 lengths. Then Greipel, Viviani, and D Van Poppel. On second thought does Van Poppel have a lead out train with Trek?

Rojas on stage 1? Seems he usually does fairly well in this race and if in ok form should be able to get over the climb.

After looking at the Dauphine 32.5km, flat TT, where Froome came in 3rd at 52 seconds, I may have to change my predictions. Fuglsang was 25th at 2:43. The stage 11 TT is a little lumpy but nearly flat so time loses to Froome could be under 1:30 for most contenders.

will Porte go all out or conserve his energy? Top 10 after ITT Froome Contador Kreuziger Costa Quintana Valverde Peraud Kwiatkowski Fuglsang Mollema

There are 10-15 riders from the top 5 teams of sky, movistar, saxo, bmc, and katusha. That still leaves 15-20 gc riders at 1:30 or less from yellow. Is there anyone they will not chase down? Are Poels, Anton, Navarro, Peraud, Niemiec a threat? Peraud is having a decent year and does a pretty...

Who is TGBM?

Sprints: Coquard, Kristoff GC: Niemiec, Peraud, Med Mtns: Gallopin

Froome Contador Porte Rodriguez Quintana (or Costa) Pinot Rolland Van Garderen Peraud Niemiec What would a prediction be without a few upsets? Is there a thread on surprise top 10 finishers?

Coquard from Europcar seems to be having a good year so far. Could be top 10 but probably no lead out train.

Not so sure stages 2 & 3 will see Cav, Greipel, or Kittel sprinting for the win. Looks more like Sagan, EBH. How many sprint stages will Kittel have to allow Degenkolb to be Argos' top man?