Saturday, July 08, 2006

Gontchar gets yellow jersey

Sergei Gontchar won the first real time trial of the Tour de France. So cool for Ukraine. I think that is the first Yellow Jersey for Ukraine in the TDF and perhpas the first stage win. So piva all around! My man from Montana, Levi Leipheimer had a very bad day. He is now over 5 min down. But he can really climb so he might be able to pull that back.

Leipheimer did the Western Montana Hill Climb in 13 min and set a hill record for his age many years ago. He was 13 years old back then. I did it as an old guy recently in 18 min. My goal was to break 20 min so I was happy. But something went wrong with Levi today as he can also time trial pretty well.

Floyd Landis got second so he is on form. He had no excuses and gave full credit to Gontchar. He is a good sport. His parents are from a strict religious background. I doubt very seriously that Landis has ever used drugs. I'm at the point that I suspect everyone.

T-Mobil has a very strong team even without Ulrich. If I were going to pick one of them, I think the guy to watch is Andreas Kloden. He got 4th on the time trial stage today I think. I remember 2 years ago he was very strong in the TDF. He can climb and time trial. I'm not sure how well Gontchar can climb. But he has the yellow jersey now and he will have it for several days until they get into the mountains. So we can watch T-Mobile and get kind of a feeling for them.

Landis can also climb. My prediction is that it will become a battle between Landis and Kloden. But who knows? I'm sure Gontchar will stay in the mix.

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