Andy Schleck @ 8-1 is a decent bet. Everyone thinks contador is going to run away with this thing. He won't. I t will be close and Schleck is by far the second best rider out there. The price is right.
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At 8 -1 he is a good bet, but I still think old Contador wins the race.
I put the money on Contador to win, but i also took A. Schleck to beat Contador in the king of the mountains classification.
And every day that there is going to be a sprint finish, I will be putting the money on Cavendish. I don't care how bad the odds get, he will win at least 5 finishes this year.Comment -
Got Andy Schleck top 3Comment -
Time to start following this. I understand Lance put the hammer down in the prologue, should be a great battle this year in the mountains.Comment -
I honestly don't think Lance has a shot. I would love to see it, but it ain't going to happenComment -
I don't see ole Lance as having a shot either. He did do well to make up time today when he got shuffled around on the cobblestones, so maybe he does have something left in the tank. All in all however, he will be lucky to make the podium in Paris. The way I see it is Contador will win, Schleck will come in second if he can manage to stay on his bike and recover from a nasty wreck the other day, then Wiggins will come in 3rd. Actually I am hoping for Lance to beat Wiggins, because that will increase the chances that team BMC will beat team SKY.Comment -
Cavendish is looking awful this year. He came in as nr 12 today. And he was a huge favourite to win the stage ( around odds +125 ).
I am looking forward to seeing odds on the winner of the next sprinter stage.Comment -
Cavendish just doesn't look interested. I will now actively try to cover my investments on him for long term tour wagers if possible. I hope Pinny leaves up the total wins by Cavendish so I can load up on the under 3.5. At this rate, I don't see Cavendish finishing the race this year, and quite possibly he will be out of it by this weekend when the mountains come up and smack him in the face.Comment -
Cavendish has taken a few spills over the past few weeks, and his team is really missing George Hincapie to help organize up front to help with the charge. Things will start to move around starting this weekend when they hit the mountains. Andy Schleck losing his brother is really going to show when the climbing begins. Radio Shack and Astana will be the strong teams and will try to tempo ride teams into collapsing on the climbs. I truly believe Lance's only chance is to try and try a breakout on his own and try to steal a stage to gain time. There's no way he can do it in Time Trials or hope others falter. It being his last Tour I believe he's going to go out with guns a blazing, and eventually he'll go after it.Comment -
Lance will be okay. Never underestimate the Heart of a Champion.Comment -
It's not a question of heart or desire. Its about getting your ass over a freakin mountain faster than your rivals. I just don't see Lance making time in the mountains. He has several things on his side, a strong team, experience with the course, and a tatical advantage on all the disciplines. But, in the end, you have to stomp on the pedals and get there quicker than your foes, and I just don't see him "breaking away" from anybody and gaining time. The other competitors won't allow him to get too far ahead on an attack. His only chance is to use his team to shield him and wear out the competition with some up tempo riding up the mountains, then at the end attack to the finish line in an effort to gain small increments of time. That's how the race has been won for years now, and this year won't be different. Old Lance is already behind by over a minute on his rivals, this will be really hard to overcome. I think he is just trying to get on the podium in Paris, winning the thing would be shocking to me.Comment -
Cavendish just hasn't been at the right spot this year, in fact he has been unlucky in a few of the setups as well. Todays race concerns me a little on Cavendish. We will see. Watch out for Schleck in some of these mountains coming up this weekend.Comment -
Alberto Contador is pure evil. Whenever he does that pistol shot at the end of a race, I wish someone would fire back. I would hope Lance Armstrong kiscks his butt, but the reality of it all is that Lance is done.Comment -
It looks like Cavendish has a little left in the tank. I agree that the lead outs for him have been a little on the contested side, and the other teams are taking advantage of team HTC Columbia by sitting back at letting them do all the work during the sprinting stages. This is good news however for me because I don't think cavendish would have made it over the mountains this weekend if he didn't win a couple of times, and Petachhi will probably drop out of the race this weekend, I predict that he may try Saturday, but he won't be there for Sunday when the cat 1 climbs come around. Now all I need is a couple of more wins out of Cavendish, and I can break even on him or the year. If he would get his shit together, and have his team keep a close eye on Thor and a couple of others in the Green Jersy competition, he could climb back into that race as well, but I don't think they have the desire at this point, and Thor still has quite the lead on Cavendish.
I'm not looking for Andy Schleck to make too many moves in the mountains this weekend just yet. If anything, I'm looking for team Radio Shack to take up the control and put the pressure on the others in an effort to get old Lance some time back.Comment -
Today was a great win for Cavendish, great setup and powered it home.Comment -
Some climbing to be done today (stage 7), finally, finishing on an uphill category 2 climb, maybe some action today?Comment -
Lance appears to need training wheels
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Yeah Schleck was money.Comment -
And Schleck is in Yellow tomorrow. Although Contador is right behind him. Its going to be between these two for teh next week and a half.Comment -
Yeah Old Andy is playing Contador's game better than Contador. I did however increase my bet on Contador because Andy isn't as good of a time trialer. I'm not one of those dudes on versus who says he needs 3 to 4 minutes on Contador come the tim trial because I know that somehow if Andy is in Yellow come that day, he will ride it like he stole it. I just don't think he can come within a minute of contador.
My king of the mountains head to head with A. Schleck and Contador is going well, but my shot in the dark Cavendish as a green jersey is done, that money is dead.
Look for Cavendish to bring a stage home this week before they get to the other mountain stages, and keep me in the game for 4 stage wins by him.
And if I don't get back, look for Contador to win in stage 12. It doesn't look like much when you look at the profile, but keep in mind the last incline of 10.1% is right up Contador's alley. Of course old Schleck is a climber also, but I still like Contador in this stage.Comment -
Yeah your Cavendish is a gonner, but I think he has a couple more shots coming up before they really hit the mountains next week.Comment -
Contador is the winner in my opinion ..but I like such days like today with the victory of Sergio Paulinio. It is good sometimes to win competitors which are not assumed to be one of the final winners.Comment -
Is there a team time trial this year? If so Andy should make some solid ground with Saxo looking a lot stronger than Astana. Also i agree that Andy will only need say 1 minute 30 seconds to stay in yellow through the solo time trial.Comment -
Yeah I always loved the team time trials, so cool to watch. But they killed it.Comment -
They should have a downhill time trial. Instead of climbing up the mountain, let em cut loose and see who can get down the mountain the fastest. They call the Time Trial the race of truth, so they can call the downhill the race of balls.Comment -
Well Schleck is still in yellow with only a few more tough ones to go.Comment -
I've read that stage 15 runs right along the Spanish boarder. What are the odds a rider from Spain wins today's stage? Seems like the Spanish riders will be more motivated in front of their fans.
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Contador takes yellow today on some controversal shit. Personally I feel that Schlecks problems were of his own making, and I don't think contador tried to take advantage of him too much. At the top of the climb Schleck was only down 15 seconds. Any way Contador is as close as a lock comes in the world of sports for winning this thing. Everyday I increase my wager on him over at Pinny to win the GC. I hope andy comes out tomorrow and gets pissed enough to get over the mountains enough to pick up more points than Contador in the mountain climbing classification so I can win that investment as well.Comment -
Oh, and I don't even have any money on it, nor am I a Schleck fan.Comment -
I can't say that I blame Contador, watching the replay and looking at who else was attacking (remember it wasn't just Contador in that lead group). Either way I would have loved to have seen how today would have finished if Andy didn't have the technical issue he had. I would love to see Andy come back and kill it tomorrow and Thursday, but I don't see it happening, even if he comes out hard, and retakes yellow he is really going to have a hard time holding it on Friday in the Time TrailComment
