Tour De France Stage 9 and Guimard opinion
The opinon stuff first.
Cyrille Guimard - legendary cycling team manager (and the man that lied to Lemond about the gap between himself and Hinult guarenteeing Hinult a fifth win) - still thinks that there are a lot of riders (including several from Discovery) in the overall hunt for the Tour De France Win. Story at Yahoo News Here. Though he is a legend, I think he is wrong about that. Personally I think it is down to Kloden or Landis for the overall, and everyone else is racing for third. Those two are not going to let people get minutes on them in the mountains unless their bodies just completely fail. I am pulling for Landis to win this thing, but time will tell.
Talking about Landis, there is a story today that Landis will get a hip replacement post tour - story here. That alone shows me that Landis is work horse and will kill himself to win this tour. This would also keep up the US tradition of serious medical issues for those that win the Tour De France - Lemond gun shot, Armstrong cancer, (maybe) Landis hip replacement.
—————— Stage 9 Spoilers Below ————————
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Well Oscar Feire brought it home again today and won stage 9 of the tour. McEwen was second, Boonen fourth on the stage. The rest finished in the peloton togather. No change in any of the overall rankings. McEwen gets a few more points on Boonen on the green race though.
—————— Stage 10 Info Below ————————
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Tommorrow we see the mountains for the first time. Though there are a few big climbs the fact that there is a downhill section and then a flat section before the finish will likely mean that everyone will finish togather or close togather. Do not expect the sprinters after pulling themselves over the climbs to be ready to fight each other at 60Km for the final 2K, but the peloton will likey be togather. If a few riders 7 or 8 minutes down get away do not expect there to be a big rush to catch them. The favorites will mark each other and none will get loose tommorrow. The big attacks will come in a few days. Expect Discovery to test T-mobile’s commitment to the yellow a few times and for Phonak to work hard to protect Landis and hurt T-moble (who only has 7 riders). This tour is getting ready to get fun.
