Christian Vandevelde / Kim Kirchen
Well Christian Vandevelde lost his chance to WIN the 2008 TDF yesterday, yet he still thinks he can get on the podium- story here - though Jonathan Vaughters (Garmin Chipotle’s team manager / owner) thinks a top five is more reasonable.
I think Vaughters is closer to right then Vandevelde, but I hope I am wrong. I would love to see CDV on the podium, but he is going to have to really put a hurting on the big men of the tour today as he can not make up 3 minutes (2 minutes maybe) on most of them in the TT to get a top 3. No way you are passing Evans by 3+ minutes in the next few stages short of a the worst three rides of Evans life and ALOT of mechanical issues.
Kim Kirchen of Team Columbia being top 7 this late in the race is a surprise to me. He has ridden well in the past and won some big races, but I never thought he could hang with the top riders over the big climbs. Take his mechanical problems out of the first Alpine climb and this guy would be top 5 (maybe top 3) at this point easy right now. I think he could wind up top 5 as well which would be a real boon for USA cycling - two US teams with top 5 riders in Paris. Even if it winds up two USA teams with top 10 riders in Paris it is a great result for them.
