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[Supermercado]

So I know I'm the only one that watches this but I figured I might as well start a thread and reply to myself, anyway

I was going to start this last night or earlier this morning but didn't and now I've got the mother of all shakeups to start the thread off with:

The two favorites, Ivan Basso and Jan Ullrich, have both been banned from this year's tour because of doping allegations. They also banned the guy that finished fourth, I think, last year. Lance of course finished first so that knocks out 80% of last year's top 5. That's just insane. On the plus side, it does open the door for some Americans, notably Levi Leipheimer, Floyd Landis, and the one I imagine I'll be rooting for, George Hincapie.

I was thinking it was going to be an interesting race because Lance won't be there to dominate it and the field would be more even. And now, I think it may be even more even. This one could end up going all the way to the wire.

[elmono311]

Now we get to see another guy possibly dominate it

[Supermercado]

I don't know if there's anyone in the field that can dominate with Ullrich and Basso both out. Those two were picked to battle for the win by I'm sure better than 90% of the media and fans.

[Supermercado]

Alexandre Vinokourov is also out. His team was decimated by the bannings that took place earlier and they no longer have enough riders to qualify for the race so he gets shafted. After Basso and Ullrich and Mancebo were booted earlier, he would have probably been the best choice remaining to pick a winner.

Wow.

[Supermercado]

Oh, and based on all the bannings and Vino's team getting yanked, I will have to make my pick to win Levi Leipheimer. Hopefully he can keep the yellow jersey on the shoulders of an American in the post-Lance era. Even though he rides for a German team, heh.

[Supermercado]

Woohoo! George Hincapie is in yellow after day 1. He finished second yesterday by .7 seconds and got a 2 second time bonus for finishing third in one of the intermediate sprints today and took the yellow jersey by those 2 seconds. He now has a 2 second lead over Thor Hushovd. I'd say that Team Discovery has its undisputed leader now.

Maybe I need to rethink my prediction and go with the guy that I'm rooting for to win.

btw, Hushovd may be out of the race. Within a few meters of the finish, a fan reached out and grazed his arm with a plastic foam finger thing and sliced him open pretty badly. He finished 9th, I think, but he was cut up pretty badly and will need stiches and it may be serious enough for him to not be able to continue. We'll see. Hopefully he's okay.

[Supermercado]

Well, from what I can tell, today's stage was interesting. I don't know if any breakaways got out or not but the peloton finished en masse, which means that the sprinters were going to have their day. Robbie McEwen ended up winning the stage. Thor Hushovd, the rider injured yesterday, finished third, which means he gets a time bonus and that time bonus was enough to put him back ahead of George Hincapie so Hushovd is back in the yellow jersey for tomorrow's stage.

That's just from reading ESPN's article on today's stage and it sounds like it was a good one so hopefully it will deliver tonight when I have a chance to watch the expanded coverage. Yay, Bob Roll!

[jitspoe]

Due to recent events, they've decided to rename the competition to the Tour De Headbutts.

[Supermercado]

Bahaha.

[Supermercado]

Good news, folks. After today's second stage in the Pyrenees, Floyd Landis is now in yellow after finishing third today. At this point in the race, he's probably the favorite to win, which is good, because he's American, yay!

[Supermercado]

After letting go of the yellow jersey over the weekend, Landis is back in yellow after today's mountaintop finish at Alpe D'Huez. The stage just ended and Landis was able to get out about a minute and a half ahead of the yellow jersey at the start of the day. The gap at the start of the day between Pereiro and Landis was roughly that same time. The stage just ended so I haven't seen the official gap at the end of the day but Landis is back in yellow. With two more tough days in the Alps to go and the individual time trial - which Landis should do well in - and the mostly ceremonial parade stage that ends on the Champs-Elysses Sunday, Landis is looking like a very solid pick to be up at the top of the podium in Paris.

Other Americans today... from what I gather, Hincapie had a decent ride and was out with the break for much of the day but was dropped at the end and passed by the main GC men near the top of the climb. Levi Leipheimer was also up in the mix from what I can tell and he should be near, if not in, the top 5 on the GC.

Can't wait to watch the replay of the stage tonight. Looks like it was a good one.

Edit: Time gaps are in and it looks like Landis finished 1:39 ahead of Pereiro. The gap at the start of the day was 1:29 so Landis doesn't have yellow by much, but he's got it.

Edit 2: Gaps have been posted. Landis is in yellow by 10 seconds.

[LostArtofRolando]

10 seconds, that ain't much of a lead in a days-long event....

[Supermercado]

No, it's not. But it's enough. And it should widen tomorrow and the day after. Pereiro isn't as good in the mountains as Landis and both tomorrow's and Thursday's stages are in the Alps. I'm not sure how good Pereiro is on the time trials but there's one more of those on the second-to-last day.

[Supermercado]

Wow. 10 seconds ended up being nothing at all. I'm not sure what happened but Landis got dropped today and it looks like he may have lost 5 or 6 minutes on Pereiro. I think Pereiro got in a good group, Landis had no teammates with him - which has been one of the strikes against him, that his team isn't considered to be super strong - and got dropped and struggled to the finish 5 or 6 minutes behind Pereiro's group. Unless that happens in reverse tomorrow - unlikely - Landis' shot at this year's race may be over. He's going to fall today and unless he hits a grand slam in the time trial, that time is going to be very very hard to get back.

I think the chances of seeing an American in yellow on the Champs-Elysses are pretty well gone now. 'tis a shame.

[Supermercado]

Wowwowowow!!!!! After exploding yesterday, Landis came back and dominated today for the stage win. They're still coming in so we won't know quite yet how the yellow jersey race will shake out but Landis is going to be back within a few minutes of it.

This has been the most crazy Tour... it ain't over yet, folks.

[Supermercado]

The GC classification following Landis' dominating performance on the way to a stage win is up. Landis beat his nearest competitor, another GC man and number 2 overall after today's stage, by nearly 6 minutes and beat the yellow jersey by about 7, I think. In two days, he's gone from 1st by 10 seconds to 11th by about 8 minutes to 3rd by 30 seconds. There's now three guys within 30 seconds of the yellow jersey.

It seems like every day, the tide of this race just completely changes. Can't really say that Pereiro is the favorite to win now because Sastre and Landis are nipping at his heels with only two more days to go before the Champs-Elysees on Sunday. I'm not sure of the profile of tomorrow's stage but they're out of the Alps and headed back towards Paris so it should be flattening out quite a bit as the travel across the north of France. Then there's the penultimate stage, the individual time trial where the race is likely to be decided unless someone goes out on a break tomorrow. If any of the GC men have anything at all to say about it, that will not be happening tomorrow. There's virtually no chance that Landis could do tomorrow what he did today. Pereiro and Sastre and Kloden and Evans and Menchov and their teams won't let it happen. Which means it should come down to the TT Saturday. If all goes well, Landis will put together a bang-up TT and take it from there. That's one of his strengths and *knock on wood* provided nothing like yesterday happens, Landis has seriously ridden himself back into contention.

I love the Tour de France.

[elmono311]

Your boy Landis might be a doper.