Dauphine Libere starts on Saturday!

[theswordsman]

If Contador sticks to his plan to race without too much pressure, there’s no shortage of contenders ready to step into the void.

Perhaps the Dauphiné could deliver a French winner (Cyril Dessel or Pierrick Fedrigo) or a young rider (Romain Sicard or Teejay Van Garderen). Others to watch include Denis Menchov (Rabobank), Chris Horner (RadioShack), Tom Danielson and David Millar (Garmin-Transitions), Jurgen Van den Broeck (Omega Pharma-Lotto) and Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Sky).

The parcours seems tailor-made for a Contador victory, however, with a mix of sprinter stages, a long time trial and two hard days in the Alps.

http://velonews.competitor.com/2010...ong-to-luxembourg-contador-to-dauphine_119473

 

[taiwan]

Stage 7 could be a hard one for the leader at that point to control, if the race is close.

 

[theswordsman]

Cervelo
Davide Appollonio, Stefan Denifle, Daniel Lloyd, Joaquin Novoa, Oscar Pujol, Gabriel Rasch, Martin and Dominique Rollin Reimer

Milram
Christian Knees, Markus Eichler, Thomas Fothen, Roger Kluge, Dominik Roels, Thomas Rohregger, Roy Sentjens and Wim De Vocht

Omega Pharma-Lotto
Mario Aerts, Christophe Brandt, Michael Delage, Jean-Christophe Péraud, Jurgen Roelandts, Staf Scheirlinckx, Jurgen Van den Broeck and Jurgen Van Goolen.

Sky
Edvald Boasson Hagen, John-Lee Augustyn, Sylvain Calzati, Russell Downing, Peter Kennaugh, Nicolas Portal, Geraint Thomas and Davide Vigano.

http://www.biciciclismo.com/cas/site/inicio.asp

 

[Tangled Tango]

I think Contador can be taken for his word that he won´t push too hard in the mtns for a win. Then again he may do so well in the long TT combined with his climbing prowess, that a win may be unavoidable, unless he backpedals. He will also be fine tuning his Tour selected teammates and checking how well they do in the mtns among other aspects.

 

[KazakhNeRider]

Astana Team:

* Alberto CONTADOR (SPA)
* David DE LA FUENTE (SPA)
* Dimitriy FOFONOV (KAZ)
* Jesus HERNANDEZ (SPA)
* Daniel NAVARRO (SPA)
* Benjamin NOVAL (SPA)
* Paolo TIRALONGO (ITA)
* Andrey ZEITS (KAZ)

Sport manager: Giuseppe Martinelli

 

[ratatata]

Astana Team:

* Alberto CONTADOR (SPA)
* David DE LA FUENTE (SPA)
* Dimitriy FOFONOV (KAZ)
* Jesus HERNANDEZ (SPA)
* Daniel NAVARRO (SPA)
* Benjamin NOVAL (SPA)
* Paolo TIRALONGO (ITA)
* Andrey ZEITS (KAZ)

Sport manager: Giuseppe Martinelli

Pretty solid team

 

[Sasquatch]

I reckon Contador will let David De La Fuente loose on the Alpe.

 

[theswordsman]

Euskaltel-Euskadi
Samuel Sánchez
Jorge Azanza
Iñaki Isasi
Egoi Martínez
Alan Pérez
Romain Sicard
Gorka Verdugo
Iván Velasco

 

[trompe le monde]

Bbox:

Pierrick Fédrigo
Pierre Rolland
Cyril Gautier
Steve Chainel
Vincent Jerome
Laurent Lefèvre
Giovanni Bernaudeau
Nicolas Vogondy

Rolland finished in second place at the recently completed Circuit de Lorraine. He is Bbox's GC hope for Le Tour, so it will be interesting to see where his form stands. I wonder if a good performance by Gautier gets him on the squad for Le Tour. He did win his first pro race at the Route Adélie earlier this season.

 

[theswordsman]

Caisse d´Epargne
Juan José Cobo
Imanol Erviti
Christophe Moreau
Fran Pérez
Luis Pasamontes
Mathieu Perget
Rubén Plaza
Juan Mauricio Soler

DS Yvon Ledanois

I'd like to see Soler in the mix on the Alpe d'Huez stage

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

I reckon Contador will let David De La Fuente loose on the Alpe.

he can let him loose, but DDLF wont be causing too much trouble on alpe.

 

[ericthesportsman6]

I reckon Contador will let David De La Fuente loose on the Alpe.

I'd rather see him let Tiralongo go

 

[richo36]

Is there any live feed??????

 

[Jamsque]

There will be all kinds of live feeds richo, no need to go buck-wild on the question marks.

 

[craig1985]

Bert Grabsch to get a TT win in the race.

 

[ttrider]

David Millar appears to be really targetting the win
i just dont see him pulling out enough on the like of contador before Alpe d huez

 

[Sasquatch]

I'm looking forward to the prologue.

Boasson-Hagen and Millar head to head.

Also Contador could blow them all away if he's on form.

That longer Time Trial will be interesting too.

Grabsch, if he has the legs could prove to be too strong.

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

David Millar appears to be really targetting the win
i just dont see him pulling out enough on the like of contador before Alpe d huez

If Contador is going to soft peddle and not bother making an explosive attack though, and with the motivation of holding a race lead, Millar can easily make it up the Alpe in the top 15 in this race - look how he climbed in the Criterium when there was a race on it.

Without a Contador attack, I wouldn't be shocked for the Millar to lose under a minute to whoever wins that stage, and equally I wouldn't be shocked if he puts a minute in to whoever wins on the TT.

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

I'm looking forward to the prologue.

Boasson-Hagen and Millar head to head.

Also Contador could blow them all away if he's on form.

That longer Time Trial will be interesting too.

Grabsch, if he has the legs could prove to be too strong.

Boasson came 3rd last in the Bayern TT, he's very much riding like it's January at the moment - pretty clear from his June schedule he's now off to the Vuelta, not the tour

 

[Jamsque]

Boasson Hagen has no form, and Millar isn't the prologue specialist he once was. I'd be surprised if either of them took the win.

As for Millar's overall ambitions, I think they are (for want of a better word) ambitious. If Contador decides to ride either the TT or the Alpe to his fullest ability then Millar has no chance, and even if Contador is just here for training I'm not sure he can gain enough time in the TT to make up for how much he will lose on the Alpe.

 

[ruamruam]

I think Moreau could target the yellow jersey

He can target it but I doubt he will win it.

 

[theswordsman]

Millar beat Contador in a TT earlier in the season by taking the advice to ride like a (sorry, don't recall the exact quote). But he rode it all out, and took chances. Even if he's just training through this, I think Alberto would go all out in the 49 kilometer one.

He also likes to reward the hard work of his teammates, so since a lot of these guys will be with him in July, and the Alpe d'Huez just sitting there as a challenge, I think he goes for it. Not a big margin of victory for the eight days, but a win to give the guys confidence. This might be his last race ever with some of them, and could be the second last with the rest.

Quick Step

Dario Cataldo
Kevin De Weert
Mauro Facci
Branislau Samoilau
Kevin Seeldraeyers
Andreas Stauff
Kevin Van Impe
Thomas Kvist

Radio Shack
Jani Brajkovic
Ben Hermans
Chris Horner
Markel Irizar
Geoffroy Lequatre
Sérgio Paulinho
Tomas Vaitkus
Haimar Zubeldia

 

[sublimit]

Millar can get the long TT, I think he was told to ride like a junior with controlled panic or something..

I'd love it if Downing grabbed a win somewhere but i'm not certain theres a stage for him though, working to lead out Hagen i presume.

 

[Frosty]

Saur-Sojasun werent selected for the tour this year and so will be looking to peak for this IMO, both because it will be their biggest race around now, and because it will make things a little awkward for the ASO if they do well and help their chances of getting selected next year. Jerome Coppel finished 10th in Paris-Nice this year (9th without Valv.) and at only 23 may well want to make a name for himself as France's next big thing. Not saying he'll do it but he could make top 8 or even top 5. Not sure what his tt'ing is like but he came 5th in the french nationals last year.

Van den Broeck has had disappointing form this year, be interesting to see how he goes in this one. Someone earlier mentioned Rolland, dont think the tt will be to his advantage but could be active in the mountains. Peraud is an interesting one too - he is a very good tter and it will be interesting to see how he does in the high mountains.

 

[tgsgirl]

Van den Broeck has had disappointing form this year

Second in the first stage and the GC of Ruta del Sol, 5th in the first stage of Pais Vasco (10th in GC), and 18th, 19th and 20th in LBL, Flèche and Amstel respectively. Not stellar by any stretch of the imagination, but not a complete disaster either, especially if he's targeting TdF.