It is pretty amazing when you lose a multiple Olympic Gold Medalist like Ekimov and you have the luxury to restock the team with Giro podium studs like Salvodelli and Popowych. How do the other team even compete with this depth.
Then again, T-mobile is pretty stacked. When you have Jan, Vino and Kloden all TdF podium boys working together…
The saddest part of this Tour is not having Zabel in the mix. This is sad. Truly sad. A Tour without Zabel is just not right. This guy is in the mix from Feb to October and always fighting it out at the pointy edge of the peloton. It would be nice to see him go out with a green jersey and a stage win by the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. I can see Olaf Ludwig getting some serious flack from the legions of Zabel fans in Germany!
How do you see the other teams fitting in against these two power houses. I think that CSC should have a great showing this year as well. What about Phonak. Floyd looks like he is in good form.
Maybe Riis can lure Zabel over and resurrect his career like he’s done with so many others…
Of course Zabel seems like the ultimate loyal dog…team management keeps kicking him and treating him like just so much cycling meat…and he keeps coming back…loyalty…there’s something to be said for that…
As for T-Mob being stacked…yes, they certainly are…but we can’t forget an extremely important piece of the success pie at Discovery…Bruyneel…Discovery has good management…T-Mob…well…not so good.
That would be nice to see Zabel jump over to CSC and join his old teammate Riis. As for Phonak, I really don’t think Floyd has a hope in the Tour. He will have more than one bad day in the mountains. I podium contender needs zero bad days in the mountains. Santiago Botero is likely their better hope, although he can go from stud to dud in less than 24 hours (and then back to stud the next day)
I personally think their tour lineup is looking a little slim in the TTT and FlatLand department. I think Eki’s absence will be thoroughly missed and that they will not dominate the TTT as they have in the last two years. There aren’t many people out there that can truly bury themselves for the benefit of the time like Eki does in the tour. And Ironclm thinks he’s hot too…
I think if Discovery does not dominate the TTT like other years, it will be more due to other teams raising their games, than Discovery being less capable. Eki is a diesel motor, to be sure, but the two new guys are no slouches in the TT department, and everyone else seems to be even better…I’d put Hincapie on par with Eki in terms of value to the TTT effort THIS YEAR, based on his performances so far. But so many of the other teams are really working on TTT now, because Discovery, and Once before them, showed what it can do for the overall race, even with the new rule enforced last year where teams can only lose so much time… Teams like Gerolsteiner and CSC know that they cannot afford to give away ANY time in the TTT if their GC man is to have a prayer in the overall.
Phonak has 3 GC contenders. Disco has 1. Every man on Disco knows the job is to get LA on the top of the podium in Paris. Phonak isnt sure who will be leading. Floyds chances are slim.