Top 10 Tour de France

[trevim]

I just looked at the profile of every stage of the Tour and how bad is the route!?
A bunch of stupid flat stages: they could at least put some 3rd and 4rd category climbs Giro-style to make some of them a bit better.
And that final stage to Semnoz must be a joke: not even a chance to attack from far out! I'm truly amazed how bad they did it. What about some decent Alpine climbs, even the over used Croix de Fer or Galibier in the run in to the Alpe? And why is the Alpe twice, that's completely stupid and nobody that likes cycling wants to see crits in mountains.
And a complete lack of decent intermediate stages. Only Gap can provide something: rain please (Andy shut up )
Also, why is Gilbert so desperate to make the Tour team? There's absolutely nothing there for him but a couple of random breaks.
Just a big let down this route....

 

[MellowJohnny]

Heart over head

1. Froome
2. Porte
3. J-Rod
4. TVG
5. Contador
6. Van Den Broek
7. Rui Costa
8. Rolland
9. Zubelidia
10. De Gendt

 

[Jason_Mercier]

1 Froome
2 Contador
3 Rodriguez
4 Van den Broeck
5 Quintana
6 Mollema
7 Porte
8 Pinot
9 Rolland
10 Porte

Marginal Gain?




Ok. I'll tell you which riders are going to complete the Top10



1) ALBERTO CONTADOR. (Exhibition in Le Grand Bornand. Attack in Glandon, with Nairo Quintana, Andy Schleck and Thibaut Pinot in the breakaway. Sky totally destroyed, Porte arrives with Froome at 8'35")

2) CHRIS FROOME. (Dominates the first 2 weeks but fall down in the key moment)


3) THIBAUT PINOT (The french people get crazy with the new GT star in scene, the road is full of Fignon banners)


4) NAIRO QUINTANA (Lost some time in the Pyrenées which cost him the podium. The new Marco Pantani in the Alps)


5) JOAQUIM RODRÍGUEZ (Nothing to say with his careless 1 km to go "attacks")


6) JÜRGEN VAN DEN BROECK (Same stage wins in 21 days as in his whole career)


7) TEJAY VAN GARDEREN (Arrived late at the start in Chorges)


8) PIERRE ROLLAND (Superb in Alpe d'Huez. Second victory here)


9) ANDREW TALANSKY (Very brave)


10) MICHAL KWIATKOWSKI (500 Watts in MT Ventoux)


11) ANDY SCHLECK (The come-back babe)


...........

22) Bauke Mollema

...........

40) Rui Costa

 

[blaxland]

1st=Contador
2nd=froome
3rd=Pinot
4th=Tejay
5th=Valverde
6th=VDB
7th=Porte
8th=Rolland
9th=Quintana
10th=Meyer
side note=Evans to win a stage and ride for Tejay.Froome to loose time in the first week.Contador to win 2x mountain stages solo.Meyer to get into a break and gain 12 minutes advantage.Pinot to win a stage aswell...just some thoughts.

 

[Vino attacks everyone]

1. AC
2. Froome
3. Birdsong
4. Quintana
5. JRod
6. Kash
7. Valverde
8. Pinot
9. Rolland
10. VDB

 

[IndianCyclist]

1 Froome
2 Contador
3 Rodriguez
4 Valverde
5 Evans
6 Van den Broeck
7 Mollema
8 Talansky
9 Pinot
10 Porte
11 Quintana
12 Fuglsang
13 TJVG

 

[Jericho]

No love for Janez Brajkovic? Not even one top 10?

 

[Taxus4a]

Difficult to put a top ten, so for me, the favourites are in this groups:

***** Froome

****Evans, Contador, Valverde, Purito, Hesjedal

***Mollema, Andy, JVdB, Porte, Fulgsang (anyway he was injured recently)

**Quintana, Pinot, Rui Costa, TVG, Dan Martin

* Talansky, Kiatlowski, Kloden, Zubeldia, Tony Martin, Igor Anton, Kreuziger, Rogers, Braijkovic, Amador,...

 

[taiwan]

Froome
Rodriguez
Porte
Contador
Van den Broeck
Costa
Peraud
Mollema
Pinot
Van Garderen

 

[taiwan]

40) Rui Costa

Why is Costa going to bomb after being in the top 20 last time?

 

[airstream]

Well..people have big troubles with admitting that Froome is a better climber than Contador mano-to-mano. Still dwelling in some fantasy 'Contador-Quintana-Valverde collective attacks' scenarios...

 

[Ferminal]

Froome
Rodriguez
Contador
Valverde
Schleck
Martin
Klöden
Pinot
Van den Broeck
Evans

 

[nick101]

contador pre- comeback was significantly better than froome. To say that he wasn't is silly. I think it's going to be a very even match between contador and froome. Froome doesn't have much to improve with his form as he's already at a very high level, while contador is relatively unfit so has a lot of possible improvements. expect a massively improved contador at the tdf imo. Should be interesting to see who is better. I think froome will stay with contador and out sprint him in the final 100m of most mtf's unless contador can produce another verbier. They're both similar ability time trialists (froome maybe only slightly better) so it should be a very even race.

1 contador (produces a verbier/ Fuentes de working with Quintana, schleck, de gent and martin to gain two minutes on froome)
2 Froome (fades in the final week due to the tiring season and loses by under 30 seconds, isolated on alpe d'huez and riders take turns attacking him like at the vuelta)
3 rodriguez (stage win ax-3)
4 pinot
5 Quintana (loses a minute or two in the first week due to lack of racing and too much altitude training, but emerges as the next pantani winning at least one mtf)
6 valverde (key rider in derailing sky's stranglehold)
7 TJ
8 schleck (return of the old andy possible stage win )
9 dan martin (narrowly out sprinted by rodriguez but emerges as a potential gc contender, causes porte to bonk with the effort of chasing down all his attacks)
10 igor anton (returns to his 2010 vuelta form)

evans will be too tired from the horrendous giro to make top ten, mollema will have a bad day at some point and lose up to ten mintues. not sure about Rolland especially given the controversy surrounding him atm. Porte will be too busy working for froome and trying to hold off all the attacks to do well in gc

 

[Afrank]

Well..people have big troubles with admitting that Froome is a better climber than Contador mano-to-mano. Still dwelling in some fantasy 'Contador-Quintana-Valverde collective attacks' scenarios...

This year, yes, Froome has been the better climber. But at this point I don't think we can declare him the overall better climber until we at least see them go mano-to-mano in the Tour.

 

[gooner]

Froome
Contador
Valverde
Rodriguez
Porte
Van den Broeck
Pinot
Quintana
Evans
D.Martin

 

[auscyclefan94]

Froome
Contador
Rodriguez
Hesjedal
Van den Broeck
Evans
Porte
Van Garderen
Schleck
Fuglsang

 

[movingtarget]

Froome
Contador
Evans
Porte
Rodriguez
Pinot
Quintana
TJVG
Mollema
VDB

Throw in Rui Costa, Valverde, Rolland,Talansky, Zubeldia. Very hard to pick the top 10. Most open Tour for years. Will be the best quality top 10 for a long time in the Tour.

 

[Winnen]

1 Froome
2 Contador
3 Rodriguez
4 Quintana
5 Van den Broeck
6 Costa
7 Porte
8 Pinot
9 Mollema
10 Schleck

 

[Leendert82]

1. Christopher Froome
2. Alberto Contador
3. Richie Porte
4. Joaquim Rodriguez
5. Tejay Van Garderen
6. Alejandro Valverde
7. Andy Schleck
8. Bauke Mollema
9. Jurgen Van den Broeck
10. Thibout Pinot
11. Rui Costa
12. Nairo Quintana
13. Robert Gesink
14. Jakob Fuglsang
15. Wout Poels

 

[theyoungest]

Froome
Contador
Evans
Porte
Rodriguez
Pinot
Quintana
TJVG
Mollema
VDB

Throw in Rui Costa, Valverde, Rolland,Talansky, Zubeldia. Very hard to pick the top 10. Most open Tour for years. Will be the best quality top 10 for a long time in the Tour.

That's what we said two years ago as well. However, it turns out half the contenders crash out in modern day TDF racing. And this year, with about 10 flat sprint stages and a very nervous start on Corsica, it won't be any different.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Pretty confident about top spot, others depend on the way the wind blows:

Froome
J-Rod
Contador
JVDB
Valverde
Pinot
Porte
Quintana
Evans
Fuglsang

 

[Kwibus]

That's what we said two years ago as well. However, it turns out half the contenders crash out in modern day TDF racing. And this year, with about 10 flat sprint stages and a very nervous start on Corsica, it won't be any different.

Exactly.
I was thinking about making a top 10 and quickly realised it was hard to pick 10 riders besides the obvious few top 10 riders since there are so many potential top 10 riders taking part of the race.
Then I realised it's useless anyways since there will be so many crashes again. :/

 

[aussie_triguy]

1. Froome/Contador
2. Contador/Froome (can't decide between the two)
3. Valverde
4. Porte
5. Rodriguez
6. Quintana
7. Pinot
8. Evans
9. Mollema
10. VDB

Other contenders: TJVG, Talansky, Costa, Schleck, Hesjedal and Rolland
I think the 3 strongest teams (Sky, Saxo and Movistar) will all get a rider on the podium. Andy has shown nothing (I know this is standard) but without Frank I don't think he'll be close.
Without time bonuses/really steep finishes, I don't think J-rod can gain enough time to stop the top guys taking too much time in tts.
I expect evans to be top 3 until ventoux where he will crack and drop out of top 5.
Porte and Quintana are my biggest wildcards. They could either be top 3 or out of the top 15 (depending on what they sacrifice for team mates etc etc.

 

[notrolfsorensen]

1. Contador
2. Froome
3. Quintana
4. Evans
5. Pinot
6. Mollema
7. Purito
8. Fuglsang
9. Talansky
10. Nieve

Hesjedal, Rolland, Andy, Valverde, Moreno, Kreuziger, Brajkovic, Dan Martin, Costa, Cunego, TJVG, VDB2 all loose major time in one of the deciding stages

A lot of good contenders this year. And to think that Porte is going to be able to reel them all in by himself. Not a chance. Porte will be spend before the end of week 3. Apart from Nieve on place number 10, Porte being finished before end of week 3 is my most confident prediction. + Contador winning

 

[hoerpi]

Taxus4a puts Tony Martin as a bigger GC hope than Mikel Nieve

1. Froome
2. Contador
3. Purito
4. VDB2
5. Schleck
6. Evans
7. Pinot
8. Porte
9. Valverde
10. Nieve (of course)

We all know what happens if Nieve finishes outside top 10...