Can Christian Vande Velde win the 2011 Tour de France?

[Bike Boy]

At the age of 34 I can't see how Vande Velde could raise his level from being a top 10 guy to tour champ. All the mountains and lack of TT km doesn't bode well for him either.

 

[Eric8-A]

Most importantly, he needs to stay injury free and healthy.

I'm a fan of Vandevelde and Garmin is the team I root the most for, but Christian is unable to win the tour.

He has a shot at aiming for a top 10 and the reason will be the same reason as why Hesjedal moved down another spot on GC, he'll probably steal someone's spot in the final TT. A podium spot might be too much to ask for, but I don't see why he can't be up there.

All in all, I think Christian should aim to win a stage at the tour. He has said he wants to make his final years memorable and I don't see why he won't give that a try.

if all goes well, he will place better than Wiggo.

 

[who dat]

Now, we can add people like Evans (who was there but injured) and Basso (who wasn't there) to the list of potential candidates, for sure, and there's always a surprise interloper in the upper echelons of the GC, but I don't think that's as strong, on paper, as the lineup that started in 2009 or 2010.

Basso was at last years tour just he was in no condition to compete properly after winning the giro even though before hand he told everyone he was going for the win(unrealistic goal imo). If my memory serves me correctly I think he managed to finish between 25-30th(correct me if I'm wrong).

 

[Bike Boy]

Basso was at last years tour just he was in no condition to compete properly after winning the giro even though before hand he told everyone he was going for the win(unrealistic goal imo). If my memory serves me correctly I think he managed to finish between 25-30th(correct me if I'm wrong).

32nd place! aiming to win was clearly unrealistic

 

[who dat]

yeah he definitely didn't have much left in the tank after the giro. If anyone even considers riding the tour after the giro this year it would practically be suicidal