Tour de France Stage 3 Wanze - Arenberg Porte du Hainaut, 207km

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Aug 12, 2009
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EBH or Hushovd to win the stage. Maybe Eisel from HTC in a break.

I have a feeling Wigans will have a mishpap. Apart from that, it should be a little better than the previous days. I suspect there will be gaps, but Contador and the Schlecks will be fine. Not so sure about Liquigas though. How good is Ivan on cobbles? Astana are well prepped, they will be fine. Saxo have tremendously strong classics riders, so they to will be fine. Cuddles should be ok as well. Sastre and the Rabo boys? Anyone's guess. I think Dennis and Carlos will be good, but Gesink is a basket case...will he even start let alone not blow time? Exactly...he probably will not. Lance should be fine, but I cannot say the same for Levi. LL is a sook. I think Samu will sail by and nobody will notice. Watch out for this man. Mick Rogers should be fine as well along with Kreuziger.

But here is the catch. We saw at the Giro a number of teams lost time on their GC boys because one or two riders around them fell and they were caught in the aftermath and lost minutes. Will their opposition pounce at the Tour after yesterdays surprise peloton reaction to a few crashes? Depends who is holding the cards at the time. Lance will and I think Sky will if they are given a chance. I do not think they will stop for a fallen opponent. Lance will need to get 5 plus minutes today for GC ambitions...highly unlikely to happen.
 
Mar 10, 2009
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So are we going to have a neutralised stage today? Has Spartacus organised the slaves overnight into a rebellion, or is he back to dreams of his Tour glory on the pave? Anyone heard anything via Tw a tter?
 
Apr 21, 2009
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No, there will be a late selection in the pave, and a strong attack from Phillipe Gilbert for the win!

But Cancellara will be back in yellow, and Peter Sagan will move into 2nd.
 
Mar 10, 2009
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kukiniloa said:
No, there will be a late selection in the pave, and a strong attack from Phillipe Gilbert for the win!

But Cancellara will be back in yellow, and Peter Sagan will move into 2nd.

One of those three might come true. Two of those predictions are impossible.
 
Apr 21, 2009
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reality check $$

Mellow Velo said:
Saxo won't go anywhere. Cancellara O'Grady, Voigt and Breschel to be paired off with the Schlecks.
Shack will want the front, but won't want it hard. All their climbers are hurting already. I'm only surprised, given the carnage, that neither Levi or Horner have broken anything............yet.
BMC? Could........but when was the last time Cadel cobbled? Plus, Hincapie kissed the tarmac twice, yesterday and limped home.
QS? All about control
Rabo? Haha
Garmin? The not so magnificent 7

It will happen and it will be Cervelo. (sorry Carlos)

Iban Mayo was 2004, btw. USPS were joined by Hamilton's Phonak and CSC, in killing him off (what a surprise there)

Who was in yellow and got caught up and delayed in the crash, so lost the maillot?
Thor Hushovd, that's who.;)

This is obviously Saxo Banks day to shine, but why is everybody ignoring Quick Step???
 
Mar 13, 2009
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BeachBum said:
I agree and disagree with you. True, the helpers cannot do the riding for their leaders, the GC guys will have to get over the cobbles on their own. Also agree that some of the classics guys will have to wait until they know that their GC guys have made it through all the cobbles before they go for the win.

Disagree that this plays into Thor's hands. If something happens to Carlos, SOMEBODY (ie Thor) has to pace him back up to any other GC guys who may be ahead of him, same with Flecha/Wigans, Cancelara/Shreks, Hincapie/Evans, etc.

My pick to win tomorrow would be a guy who is good on cobbles but doesn't have a GC guy he will have to babysit, somebody like Garmin's Maskaant (sp?). Lotto probably has somebody they can send up the road as well.

Also agree with earlier poster that said Chavanel will be too exhausted from today's effort to put the hammer down again tomorrow on cobbles. QuickStep is a cobbles team, but they may decide they have to keep riders with Sylvain.

As usual, all prognostications guaranteed or double your money back.


No way Thor will babysit Sastre. Jeremy Hunt could do that easily.
 
Mar 13, 2009
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Publicus said:
If Radio Shack can attack with Popo and Rast, and it is seen as a credible threat to AC, then I don't know why Vino, Grivko and Iglinsky seem so implausible. And I forgot Noval.

Why the heck would be Popovych or Rast a threat? :) Unless Popo wins by 20 minutes.
 
2 of the favorites for a normal Paris Roubaix would be Cancellara and Hushovd, both came out of yesterday with no crashes, and both look strong. Both teams have other guys to protect the leaders, and both teams see this as a potential stage win, so I see no reason to not believe both will get free reign on the stage.

my third favorite would have been Tyler based on his cobbles performance earlier this year, but I think with his injuries he probably won't make the finish of the stage near the front.
 
Scirea said:
Why the heck would be Popovych or Rast a threat? :) Unless Popo wins by 20 minutes.

They are the two Radio Shack riders with Paris-Roubaix experience. If the Shack is going to lay down an attack, it won't be coming from Levi, Klodi, Horner or Jani. That fearsome foursome will likely be holding on for dear life as well
 
Oct 18, 2009
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Hawkwood said:
Re: Hunt, is making your Tour debut aged 36 some sort of record?

I think it probably is.
btw O' Grady will win this stage by approxomately 1 minute.
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The Shack?
Yesterday's chase was quite telling, IMO.
Liquigas and Sky did almost all and the only Shacker able to pull a little was Popo.
Didn't look very strong, then, so why now?

Oh and why are we still not a sticky, mods?
 
Mar 13, 2009
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hrotha said:
Didn't O'Grady barely make it into the squad for the Tour because he wasn't really in form and was included mostly because of his veteran status?

That's right. He will be ordered to look for the Schlecks.
 
Mar 13, 2009
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Just saw a cool feature on France 2 about what the Schlecks and Contador think about the pavés.

Many people speculated about whether or not the Saxo Bank would wait for Contador if he fell, and Fränk said in this feature:

"If Contador gets caught in the wrong bordure, that's his own fault. But if he falls, Saxo Bank will not ride at the front. We don't want to win the Tour because Contador fell"
 
Mar 22, 2010
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Any people up early today?

So who got up at... what? Like 4:30 am on the west coast of the US? What time is it in Australia? like midnight?