Le Tour a ete "Sastre-ated"

Carlos Sastre and his CSC teammates sack tapped the Tour bunch and came away with their greatest victory yet. After the craptacular 2006 Tour and Vino/Astana skidmarked 07 race, the 2008 Tour was a pretty good one. Sure the dumbass dopers tried to eff things up (Good going Ricco et. al.), but somehow this year felt different. Whereas the 06-07 Tours had clouds over them, the 2008 Tour seemed more resilient. The shit hit the fan, but rinsed right off.

Now, with his contract up this year, does Sastre "repay" Bjarne and the Team by staying with them to groom the Schleck's for the future or does he do the "profitable" thing, realizing he's at the end of his career, and go for the big money from other teams? I'll go on a limb and say he stays at Saxo Bank/Riis Cycling.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed we don't have any late test results that come in and screw up an otherwise fine finish for cyclings' biggest race.

Que CERA, CERA and more Tour tidbits

(The Tour Caravan 2009)

With Ricco and Piepoli getting caught for using the 3rd generation red blood cell booster, CERA, I started wondering to what extent teams and riders are going to go to in order to cheat. I'm betting we'll see the "Cheech and Chong Method" of dope delivery.

There's got to be some dumbass out there right now saying, "no, really, they'll never figure it out." o_O

Officials already know to search IN the cars of the riders' friends and family, just ask Papa Schleck. But, come on, what if the dope WAS the car? Uh huh, I'm telling you...

***

Contador would have won.

After watching the way the group rode through the mountains, I'm pretty sure Contador would have kicked ass in this years race. For all the attacking, team pulling and marking going on, what was missing was the EXPLOSIVE attacks of Contador.

I think his style would have neutralized the Schlecks (Andy is CRAZY good btw) and put everyone else in trouble. With race fit Contador, Kloden and Leipheimer, Astana would have rolled em.

But, we'll never know...

*** SPOILERS BELOW. DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE TOUR TODAY***







Cunego, damn.

I'm a HUGE DC fan and was disappointed that he left his "A Game" somewhere else. But I was especially bummed to hear of his crash and withdrawal from the Tour today. He couldn't even get a break. He's still young enough to go for some Grand Tour glory, but he may soon have ask himself if he's more of Classics rider and smaller stage races.

Hang in there DC!

Le Tour

I'm feeling it, yo.
(even tho my boy Cunego is struggling.)

The boys over at L'Equipe had a little survey on Evans chances.

LA QUESTION DU JOUR
L' Australien Cadel Evans remportera-t-il cette année le Tour de France?
Oui 35%
Non 60%
Nsp 5%

Hmm.

So if not Evans, I wonder who they pick? I'm throwing my support behind Christian Vandevelde (with Cunego making a wildly unexpected charge for the podium!! -I can dream, right?-).

Menchov is kinda "lurky, lurky" back in 5th. He's going to make things interesting.

B-game Fun Fest and Tour Time Goodness

I showed up at the Burlingame Crit and was AMAZED at the turn out for the kids ride. The Ryan Phua Memorial Kids ride had several HUNDRED participants!! We're talking something like 800 kids signed up! Too cool for words!!

Hung out with my Team Fremont/BBC/Velogirl/AltoVelo posse. ate some tasty Greek food and drooled over the soon to be MINE, Leopard bicycle. Doesn't get much better than that.

***

Now, on to the Tour.
Here's my early pics for TdF 2008:

GC
1. Menchov
2. Evans
3. Cunego
4. Valverde
5. Sastre

Points
McEwen
Zabel
Hushovd

KOM
Hmm... maybe Soler if he has form, but some French riders may try to nab this one.

Young Rider
A. Schleck

Team
Caisse d'Epargne

Expect early sprint action between Cavendish, McEwen, Ciolek, Steegmans and Friere. Cavendish should show to be the strongest early on, but McEwen will be right there. This should be good!

First TT:
Evans
Cancellara
Valverde

***

All that said, I'm rooting for Cunego. He'll have his work cut out for him, but he's a class rider. My brain thinks Menchov is the guy to watch, with Evans as his shadow. If Cunego brings his best climbing legs, he stands a chance of upsetting the favorites.