It has been a strange Tour de France with Basso and Ulrich out. Landis is now in the yellow jersey after the fist big mountain stage. At this point he looks hard to beat. My man Levi Leipheimer (from Butte Montana) had a good showing and just missed out in a sprint for the line. So it went Menchov, Leipheimer, and Landis 1,2,3. I was supprised to see Kloden dropped so close to the line but we will hear more from him. Perhaps his team-mate Rogers on T Mobile is the one to watch.
To make predictions I think we need to look back at the stage 7 time trial. Landis got second in the Time Trial behind Gontchar who is now probably out of contention at the ripe old age of 36. Menchov todays winner was 10th in the stage 7 TT. So he is a real contender. Carlos Sastra now sitting in 5th over all was 18th in the stage 7 TT so he replaces Basso (out due to doping suspicion) as CSCs leader. One of my favorites Andreas Kloden is 2.29 back and still in contention, was 8th in the TT. Rogers however is 3.06 back and was 4th in the stage 7 TT.
Levi Leipheimer who is now in 13th position at 5.39 back was 96th in the stage 7 Time Trial. But there is something odd about that poor performance in the TT. Leipheimer might claw his way onto the podium but it will be hard for him to take 5 minutes out of Landis.
It looks to me like Lance Armstrong's teams hopes are over for this tour. Hincapie and Salvodelli are both over 20 min off of the lead. Azevedo is in 18th position 7.29 back from the lead. Plus he only got 42nd place in the stage 7 time trial.
So I'm thinking the guys with the best chances at the podium will be Landis, Menchov, Sastre, Rogers, Leipheimer, and Kloden. Probably in that order. But a lot can happen between now and the finish.
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Hi there!
I haven't been keeping up with the Tour de France and I like your commentary on it.
Do you think Leipheimer will race in next year's Tour de France?
You should have checked out Butte's 4th of July parade this year. At least half the floats had "Go Levi!" stickers on them.
Hi Diane, Yes I'm pretty sure Leipheimer will race in the tour next year, I'm not sure about his contract with his team but he will be most likely be in the race. We can't count him out of this tour yet. Anything can happen so keep your fingers crossed.
That is cool about Butte's 4th of July parade. It used to get me that on TV they would always call Lance Armstrong the Texan, but never mentioned that Leipheimer was from Montana. I've even heard them say he was a Californian! He lives in California now so he can train year round I imagine.
I rode my bike to work and at lunch. While I was on the bike path at lunch I ran into two missionaries on their bikes. I didn't collide with them, but I did decide to engage them. (in a bicycle log way) I'll post about it tonight.
Thanks for stopping by. Go Levi!
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