Has to be one to favour Ullrich...if his legs hold it together. But can the boy get himself climbing fit ?

I've seen it referred to as: The Tour de France or
le Tour de France, never il Giro.

But that's just me.

Sorry, I was referring more to the other comment about il giro d'italia below... I should have replied properly

Ulli needs to respond well to the first set of mountain passes. This year (as always) he was about 3rd best (behind Armstrong and Basso) during the second set of mountain stages. If he can hang in there during the first mountain stage then I predict good things for Der Kaiser!

Dave in VA

I'm with you. It was fun to watch, but i don't feel it has a place at the Tour. I think it would be just plain wrong if someone won the GC based on the time they gained on another in the TTT.

yes, I'm going to miss the TTT. Not sure what the rationale was ?

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"It is a good feeling for old men who have begun to fear failure, any sort of failure, to set a schedule for exercise and stick to it. If an aging man can run a distance of three miles, for instance, he knows that whatever his other failures may be, he is not completely wasted away." Romain Gary, SI interview

Funny thing you mention Disco....I have Discovery Channel right here in my office today with a camera crew doing a shoot for a special on biometrics....but I digress.

Here is my take on the route. The 3 days around Bourg D'Oisans are going to shred the legs off any remaining contenders. The Izouard-Lauteret-Alpe d'Huez stage will be tough, but the next say will shred them even worse, going back up Lauteret to the summit of Galibier, a quick jaunt over Telegraphe and then an "ITT" section on the flats in the Maurienne valley before Glandon. Glandon is one of the more underrated climbs from the North side. There are sections up at 13% and this would be the place for Basso to attack Ullrich. That being said, Jan is always strongest in week 3, so with all this stuff happening in the last few days, he has to be the favourite.

It will be great to watch. Unfortunately, I will be in my Ironman Lake Placid taper and not in France to watch these last few stages. If you can plant yourself around Bourg d'Oisans for these stages, you should. It will be like the "UNITED NATIONS" of cycling. I was there for the 2004 stage and it was absolutely insane. Book something now, or you will be camping on the side of the road. I'm gonna be there two months too early at the end of May and will be riding some of the same mountains with some other ST dudes and assorted tri-posers !

The biggest beneficiary of eliminating the TTT has to be the likes of Euskatel.

I think the TTT is a skill, just like an ITT, sprinting, climbing, breakaways. It is not only the super teams that do good. Liberty was a surprise last year, and Phonak was a very bad surprise. They had a great team and blew it. Plus with the limited losses, you can't lose near as much time as in years passed.

I liked it. I guess Hincappie can focus on his climbing now. GO GEORGE!

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Brian

Bear in mind Liberty pretty much used to be Once who were great at ITT until the last 2 years.

Like that Alberto "500W" Contador dude from Liberty Seguros?

I'll give you that both those climbs will be hard, but a 10k climb at 7.7% more then 40k from the finish line isn't that big a deal on the first mountain stage of the Tour. A good well timed attack could open up some space, but only with teammates up the road to help keep things moving over the descent and run into the finish.

The Alp d'H stage is going to be very hard. The Col of Izoard is harder then it seems and the long climb to Lautaret is not steep but a good team can really push the pace. Alp d'H is an average of 8% but as i'm sure you know it's the steep start & the speed on the first 5k that seal the deal for most people in contention at the base.

its a team sport

Yes, & it's damn hard to win it without a strong team. All the help and support on the other stages is fine, but in the TTT it's just too much. I want to know that the guy who wins gc doesn't just win because he has team of better TTers than someone else.

Hasn't really been an issue as Lance has obviously been the strongest guy the last 7 years and could have won even if he had to ride the TTT with one of the slowest teams.

I like the team aspect of the race. There are a lot of other races where individual talent alone will carry you. But the TTT in the tour was something that made it different than just being another hard race where the strongest guy wins.

The TTT takes practice and forethought. Remember a few years back when LA's team was horrible in the TTT? But they kept at it and improved until they were the best.