You need to add Valverde to that list. Assuming no crashes, my money is on Porte. He's had a great start to the year and then taken a step back with a nice buildup - he's also brought quite the team with him.

---

_______________________________________________

No Nibali at the Tour this year, he's skipping and doing the Vuelta instead but hopefully Porte, Valverde, Contador and others can put up a fight for Froome and Sky

FYI - NBC Sports Network has daily 2 hour wrapup shows for this race.

I love how the stages set up for the GC. I love the variety of mountain stages in that we have a HC climb and descent to end Friday, a HC climb with some kickers before another short Cat 2 Saturday, then a straight HC summit finish on Sunday. GC contenders and their teams will be put to the test on all aspects of racing. Tactics, decision making, and strategy becomes a lot more wide open given that the GC should be very tight going into the weekend.

How did I forget the original Mr. Orange Juice Valverde. He make the Buffalo Bills version of OJ seems rather weak LOL! But yes, should be awesome. I am not sure I will get a ton of work done before 11 am EDT next week!

I'm rooting for Contador, but I do love Froome and that round bottle he uses on his TT bike.

Hey it's all about "marginal gains"......................................oh wait:(

---

Genetics load the gun, lifestyle pulls the trigger.

Hey you guys have until the Dauphine TT for me to not complain about pro cyclists using round water bottles on TT's....did you guys see that almost all the top guys had aero ones for the final Giro ITT?



Any yes, I am going for Mr. Beefcake Contador. At least give me a stage win on Alpe d'Huez with some panache reminiscent of Lucho Herrera's 1984 TdF win. I got to watch LeTour that day when they rolled from from Grenoble to Alpe d'Huez. I did not have much idea about pro cycling then, but was bike touring in France as a 19 year old and read in L'Equipe that it was doing to be in Grenoble and I was really close in Annency and rode over on my way to Nice. I got to watch the TdF in Grenoble, but did not know what Alpe d'Huez was. I should have gone over but did not. But I saw the entire crew go by.




here he is on the lower end of the mountain (Colombian Champ Jersey) with Hinault (La Vie Claire), Fignon (French Champ) and Robert Millar




Herrera was in exclusive company in that his 1987 time (i kind of have to assume non EPO assisted) is still in the top climbs ever. The bold are those busted for doping

Top 35 times ever in Alpe d’Huez
1 37′ 35″ Marco Pantani 1997 Italy
2* 37′ 36″ Lance Armstrong 2004 United States
3 38′ 00″ Marco Pantani 1994 Italy
4 38′ 01″ Lance Armstrong 2001 United States
5 38′ 04″ Marco Pantani 1995 Italy
6 38′ 23″ Jan Ullrich 1997 Germany
7 38′ 34″ Floyd Landis 2006 United States
8 38′ 35″ Andreas Klöden 2006 Germany
9* 38′ 37″ Jan Ullrich 2004 Germany
10 39′ 02″ Richard Virenque 1997 France
11 39′ 06″ Iban Mayo 2003 Spain
12* 39′ 17″ Andreas Klöden 2004 Germany
13* 39′ 21″ Jose Azevedo 2004 Portugal
14 39′ 22″ Nairo Quintana 2015 Colombia
15 39′ 28″ Miguel Induráin 1995 Spain
16 39′ 28″ Alex Zülle 1995 Switzerland
17 39′ 30″ Bjarne Riis 1995 Denmark
18 39′ 31″ Carlos Sastre 2008 Spain
19 39′ 44″ Gianni Bugno 1991 Italy
20 39′ 45″ Miguel Induráin 1991 Spain
21 39′ 50″ Nairo Quintana 2013 Colombia
22 40′ 00″ Jan Ullrich 2001 Germany
23 40′ 46″ Fränk Schleck 2006 Luxembourg
24 40′ 51″ Alexander Vinokourov 2003 Kazakhstan
25 41′ 18″ Lance Armstrong 2003 United States
26 41′ 21″ Samuel Sánchez 2011 Spain
27 41′ 30″ Alberto Contador 2011 Spain
28 41′ 46″ Cadel Evans 2008 Australia
29 41′ 50″ Laurent Fignon 1989 France
30 41′ 50″ Luis Herrera 1987 Colombia
31 41′ 57″ Pierre Rolland 2011 France
32 42′ 15″ Pedro Delgado 1989 Spain*
33 42′ 18″ Thibaut Pinot 2015 France
34 43′ 12″ Ryder Hesjedal 2011 Canada
35 43′ 12″ Thomas Danielson 2011 United States
If you take out all the dopers in bold and add in Indurain and Bugno, Herrera's 87 time is 5th fastest all time.

LOL! Big Mig at 80KG must have been on something!

If he wasn't a doper he must of been an early adopter of mechanical doping: those times for him are on another planet.

I'd like to see Martin do well and think he might, although Alpe D'Huez is probably too long for him.

You might as well take Sastre off that list too.

The Daphine will be good, but it seems that the main Tour contenders don't shoot for the overall that much anymore, but the stage up the Alpe should be phenomenal to watch!

2 things....

1. Is there a UCI rule on pad width? Good lord Q, you look ridiculous with your arms so spread out, there is no way he's not giving up time with that position.

2. Not list Indurain as a doper? LOLOLOLOLOL His doping is basically what inspired Lance's doping program.

It will be a preview of Le Tour. Sky train every day up front and Froome staring at his power meter. Not exciting racing. Cheering for AC. He is exciting to watch and he is just beautiful to watch ride a bike. Froome will win.

I like that Col de Sarenne route. Looks harder than the traditional route up Ad'H.

So tempted to book some flights to France this year... wasn't going to go, but...

I did not do the bolding. I pulled it off the stickybottle.com website.

Here is Lance's inspiration for the full on dope program. Go to 3:18. Tour de France 1994, Indurain blows past Lance like he is going backwards in the itt:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGPGm38wt5g

In this TT Indurain puts around 2 min on world hour record holders Tony Rominger and 5ish minutes on Boardman.

I like Porte for the GC this year, he's in fine form and rested.

BTW, Velogames has a fantasy Crit du Dauphine, who's in?
https://www.velogames.com/

---

res, non verba

Did I miss that they are going up Sarenne to ADH? I have only been down Sarenne after climbing the 22 switchbacks. I need to go back and look at route profile.

   

here is the"reverse route story from the Dauphine website (below). The interesting thing is that once they leave Bourg d'Oisans, there is actually some good climbing (8-10%) grade to get to the Barrage to Chambon, which is technically where the Sarenne climb starts. This climb tops out at 1999 meters, which is higher than Alpe d'Huez by a bit (ADH = 1860).

Here are some pics from my climb over there in 2015 including the Sarenne Gorge just part the ADH Summit.






----------------

Although 29 finishes on the Tour de France have taken place on the Alpe d'Huez since 1952, the Critérium du Dauphiné has only stopped off once, in 2010 (when Alberto Contador triumphed). For their return to the ski resort on Saturday 10th June, the riders of the pack will not be taking the usual route. Only the last four kilometres will be identical.This year's variant, by heading over the Col de Sarenne pass in the opposite direction to the 2013 edition of the Tour de France, will provide opportunities to the riders hoping to shake up the race hierarchy.
The idea has been a brewing for a long time. During the month of July 2013, the hundredth edition of the Tour de France revisited the Alpe d'Huez on a stage that ascended the famous 21-bend climb twice. To achieve this loop, there needed to be a means of plunging back down into the Oisans Valley after the first climb. Beforehand, there was no road to make this possible, but the refurbishment of the road on the Col de Sarenne pass opened new horizons for the pack, involving a rather technical descent. However, on a day when Christophe Riblon went on to pick up his second stage victory on the Grande Boucle, Gilles Maignan was already looking ahead to the potential possibilities of this route… by tackling it (why not?) as a climb! “I kept this idea in the back of my mind. The opportunity to return to the Alpe d'Huez arose and we thought it would be interesting to test out this new format, to breathe new life into this finish,” explains the sporting director of the Critérium du Dauphiné. “With this change, there are a total of 19 kilometres of climbing on the run-in, with sections that will shake up the race as well as break the rhythm. Right at the end, there is a small descent before getting to grips with the last four kilometres with which everybody is familiar. I'm virtually sure that it's more difficult than the traditional climb”.
The major battle between the favourites for the title could well take place on the slopes leading up to the Col de Sarenne pass, which are especially conducive to a large-scale skimming off of pretenders for victory if the opening shots have been fired on the slopes that the pack will encounter on leaving Bourg-d'Oisans and on reaching the Barrage du Chambon dam. There are an infinite number of scenarios, depending on the classification established after the time-trial at Bourgoin-Jallieu or the struggle on the Mont du Chat, but the terrain means that fortune is likely to favour the brave: “Perhaps the time-trial will mean specialists like Froome or Porte will have the advantage,” muses Maignan. “However, that stage against the clock is only 23 kilometres long, so attackers like Contador or Bardet will very likely have a hand to play. Indeed, it might be to Froome's advantage to show his rivals that he really is on top form on this type of climb”. Nonetheless, whatever the result of this forthcoming battle on the summits, the dice may not be definitively cast on the Alpe d'Huez, because there will still be another 24 hours before the finish of the race. The route designer underlines that “on the 115-kilometre stage finishing at the Plateau de Solaison, there is not a single metre of flat. It could be chaos!”

You know, now that I Nordicskier mentioned they are using Sarenne, it COULD help Dan Martin (you mentioned ADH being too long). It is more climbing and a few steeper pitches going up Sarenne than ADH's 22 switchbacks, but there are breaks in the Sarenne climb that may help Martin. But the steeper pitches might allow for bigger gaps to form. Let's see next Saturday.

I`m in for velogames. Is there a slowtwitch leage?

I don't know. I'm going legit with NBC Gold for this one. Just turning the sound off and putting on some thumping house music in the background. Announcers are pretty bad.

Made one just now

League Name: Slowtwitch
League Code: 02152530

Thanks! Bumping so we can get more people

The Equipe announcers complete with Mr. Triple Crown Stephen Roche (1987 Giro + TdF + Worlds Champ) was pretty good for the Giro IF you are a French speaker (they were a bit over the top with Pinot, but his riding was deserving of the French hype)! Big thanks to you for that link!