Saturday, June 30 - Tour de France, Prologue: Liege - Liege, 6,4 km

[DominicDecoco]

To qoute Jobiwan from last years opening Tour-thread:

Is this a tad early? Maybe.
Am I ashamed? Not in the slightest.

This is the second Grand Depart to be held in Liege. Last time was in 2004 with Fabian Cancellara as winner. This years Prologue is a pretty straight forward one of its kinds. With sweeping corners and wide roads the technical sections shouldn't be that difficult - apart from the U-turn at the checkpoint on Quai de la Goffe. We know Liege - and area around - is capeable of hosting hilly stages. Not today, though. The prologue is almost as flat as it gets.

Prologue start time: 14:00 CET
Approximate finish: 17:25 CET
Start list: http://www.grassyknolltv.com/2012/tour-de-france/Prologue-Start-Order-and-Times.pdf
Live streams: http://www.steephill.tv/tour-de-france/#tv-schedule

Favorites:
Alex Zülle
Andrea Tafi
Arvis Piziks

 

[Panda Claws]

Cancellara/Wiggins

 

[cineteq]

Sagan or Cancellara

This has been discussed already, maybe Mods can merge them?
http://forum.cyclingnews.com/showthread.php?t=17533

 

[Ruudz0r]

Going for Cancellara,

While your at it with opening stages, also open a thread for stage 1 Liege - Seraing more fun to discuss then a prologue imo!

 

[macnir]

Jimmy Engoulvent ftw.

 

[Lexman]

Top 5 :
Sagan
Cancellara
Larsson
Wiggins
Martin (Tony)

 

[Climeon]

I think your favorites for the stage need changing Dominic

 

[Bavarianrider]

Tony, easily.

 

[DominicDecoco]

I think your favorites for the stage need changing Dominic

Not going to happen.

 

[woodenswan]

Arvis Piziks!
I'd like to see the rationale behind that pick

anyway, i can't see Sagan pulling another upset

 

[Climeon]

Not going to happen.

? You think the stage favourites are: Alex Zülle, Andrea Tafi and Arvis Piziks

 

[UpTheRoad]

? You think the stage favourites are: Alex Zülle, Andrea Tafi and Arvis Piziks

That's right. They should be the prohibitive favorites without a doubt.

 

[jens_attacks]

zulle changed his name in hesjedal nowadays and he's canadian by the way

well i already gave my awesome prediction in the other thread....thread merging coming??

 

[killswitch]

Favorites:
Alex Zülle
Andrea Tafi
Arvis Piziks

No love for Thierry Marie and Bradley McGee?

 

[jsem94]

Cancellara.

 

[williamp78]

I've read that this is quite a technical course so i'm going for cancellara.

Wiggins will be close-by and highest of the GC rivals with EBH high and looking for the white jersey at some point in first few days (if he's still young enough; i can't remember!)

 

[DominicDecoco]

? You think the stage favourites are: Alex Zülle, Andrea Tafi and Arvis Piziks

Yes. And I'd suggest you to put a few tokens on either of them.

 

[BoxCoppi]

I've read that this is quite a technical course so i'm going for cancellara.

Wiggins will be close-by and highest of the GC rivals with EBH high and looking for the white jersey at some point in first few days (if he's still young enough; i can't remember!)

Hagen is still 'young'

Cancellera is my favourite as well, with Sagan/Wiggins/T.Martin (the usual) following. Wouldn't be too surprised to see Sagan taking it though.

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

Enough long straights that this will be won by a genuine TTer with a quality position.

 

[c&cfan]

Tony, easily.

let's save this.. canc to be 10s faster than tony, despite not being at his best.

 

[cycladianpirate]

What's a prologue without variable weather conditions??

Winner - Mother Nature

 

[maltiv]

What's a prologue without variable weather conditions??

Winner - Mother Nature

So true, we've had way too many ITTs with changing weather conditions this year. Actually, the weather (at least partially) decided the winner of the prologue in P-N, Tour de Romandie and Dauphine...

 

[theyoungest]

So true, we've had way too many ITTs with changing weather conditions this year. Actually, the weather (at least partially) decided the winner of the prologue in P-N, Tour de Romandie and Dauphine...

What's the difference with any other year? Changing weather isn't exactly a new concept.

 

[Afrank]

Cancellara will win this
Tony Martin 2nd
Sagan 3rd (wouldn't surprise me if he pulled off the win though)
Wiggins to be first of the gc contenders but doubt he will gain much time on guys like Evans, 5-8 seconds at most.

 

[c&cfan]

What's the difference with any other year? Changing weather isn't exactly a new concept.

cancellara isn't at his best, neither is tony. lol