Lance crushes his main rivals in stages 12 and 13 to La Mongie and Plateau de Bielle. Then marks his rivals in the Alps. Then in the final TT Lance shows his bitches who is the master and commander.
Then u fall of your bed and wake up!
this is ullrich year, write my words 
You need to be more specific. Exactly how does Jan plan to win? Let’s leave crashes out of the equation.
Ok…
So… Ullrich will always stay with Armstrong at the big mountains. Then in Stage 16 - Individual Time Trial to L’Alpe D’Huez Ullrich sets up a terrific perfomance and finishes 2nd with Mayo in 1st, Armstrong will suffer to stay within the 2 min gap to Jan.
Now Ullrich has the yellow jersey and in the final TT (Stage 19), once again Ullrich shows all his power and beats Armstrong (that finishes the ITT in 2nd) by 15-30 seconds.
Mark my words 
GO ULLRICH!
OOOOOOOK. Well, since Jan has NEVER beaten Lance up any mountain, how about this:
Stage 12: Lance beats Jan by 45 seconds
Stage 13: Lance beats Jan by 45 seconds
Stage 16: Lance beats Jan by 45 seconds
Stage 19: Lance beats Jan by 30 seconds
I’m being generous here!
Save this email!!!
But where does Heras fit into all of this? He can climb with Lance and is a real threat in the Stage 16 TT. He is not that far behind right now. Working with Mayo, he might be able to gain time on Lance in some of the mountain stages. I know he will have trouble in the final TT, but …
Heras will launch many attacks but I don’t think he will be a threat to Mayo, Jan or Lance.
The podium in this year’s tour will have Jan, Armstrong and Tyler in 3rd 
Oh yes, little Roberto. I don’t consider him a true GC contender because he will get crushed in the ITT and I don’t think he can beat Lance by as much in the mountains.
I’ll give Roberto 2nd on Stage 12 and 13. He’ll do OK up Alpe d’huez, maybe win it. Mayo might be worn down by the time they get to the Alps. He might blow his was near the Basque country, trying to beat Lance there.
My darkhorse guy is Bobby Julich, to place. He’s still in contention (1 minute), he has had his best year in a long time so far, and he’s on Riis’ team. He isn’t strong enough in the long TT to win, but I like him for 3rd rung on the podiumm behind Jan and Tyler. Armstrong finally has an off day in the mountains and finishes 6th.
wrong wrong wrong…you are all so very wrong
this is the year of Moreau…he’s playing possum I tellya
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I think that you are probably right. This is his only real shot at being on the podium in the TDF, and I would like to see him do well since he was on USPS. But, I am both pulling for Lance and believe that he will win again.
I want this to be more exciting, but lance will continue to crush the competition.* *It is an error for the other teams to aid USPS in any way.
BTW, Chris Charmichael has said that all of Lance’s tests show he’s in the best condition of his life. Combine that with his desire to set the record, and his rivals are going to have to have super-human efforts to win. I guess his biggest disadvantage is there are 3-4 quality contenders who are going to work to beat the crap out of him. This may be his toughest year competition-wise.
It’s going to be fun to watch, whatever happens…
Seconded.
The podium will be Armstrong, Hamilton, Julich.
Interesting result of the new TTT rules is that Hamilton only beat Jan by 12 seconds yet he pulled ahead of Jan by 20seconds due to the time losses being based on finishing order.
I see Hamilton pulling out a close GC win without winning a single stage. Slowly eating away at Lance lead and then gaining a lead in the last week in the mountains then holding of Jan and potentially lance in the last TT.
Matt
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Lance
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Tyler
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Jan
I expect the battle between Tyler and Lance will be epic, and Jan will be frustrated by yet another “weaker” team and yet more of the same poor tactics displayed in the past by T-M… To qualify, I’m a huge Jan fan and I WANT to believe in my boy, but even I can’t see him taking 50+ seconds out of Lance without some major mistakes made by USPS.
I think the battle for the 3rd spot will most likely be the most exciting, while Lance and the USPS boys defend the yellow into Paris.
Perhaps you should watch the DVDs from all the other years they raced each other up the mtns. On the only stage that counted last year, when the final outcome was on the line, Ullrich got dropped.
I’d love to see Ullrich win a few more times. By all accounts he’s a great sportsman, and an all-around good guy. Enormously talented rider, but admits cycling is not his first priority in life - which I admire.
But this tour, realizing it has a long way to go, is looking very much like '01. Everybody has come in good form, but Armstrong just seems to be above everyone else. And USPS is looking very dominant - did yesterday’s effort even faze them?
I’ll stand by my pre-tour predictions: Lance, Ullrich @ 4:10, Hamilton @ 5:20.