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Tour De France 2015


OlegTinkov

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With the TDF grand depart from Utrecht this Saturday, wondering will anyone be tuning in to follow things?!

Any predictions for how the overall standings will look by Paris or backing anyone in particular?? I'm hoping Froome and the Team Sky lads can do it, but sure Contador/Nibali/Quintana will have something to say about that.

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Looks like Astana have been upto their old tricks. Lord knows why the UCI didn't revoke their team license the first time they got caught doping. Cheating bastards. I've no doubt Vincenzo Nibali is a class rider, but Astana's reputation hangs like a bad smell over it all

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Yep, unbelievable that they're still going given their history of antics, and just last year the scandal with the two Iglinskiy brothers, I remember Jens Voigt in one of his many epic outbursts saying it would take a bear in the Pyrenees to stop Astana from victory that year; little wonder when they were all up to there gills in EPO and hormones. As usual they try and slither out of it but what credibility the team has left, remains to be seen.

Aside from these cases it looks set to be a great tour! :)

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That was an epic ride from Rohan Dennis to get below 15mins for that time trial. Tony Martin nearly got to him as well. I love time trial racing, so much better than road stuff

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Yeah impressive indeed for him to see off the likes of Martins and other TT specialists, with out doubt makes for better viewing than watching them just glide through a stage, the team time trial should be another good stage looks so smart how organised they are!

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Amazing the time gaps for this stage into the tour. At least he's got Geraint Thomas along side him on the cobbles to show him how its done, but if it does rain it'll undoubtedly be sketchy in parts.

Geraint Thomas should lead Team Sky in my opinion, the man's a legend. Perhaps he doesn't TT and climb quite so well as Froome does, but I'd like to see him given the opportunity.

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Nice to see the sprinting big guns battling it out today on what was a reasonable flat stage. Thought Sagan would win but Greipel got the better of him. Missed the last 2km, shower time for work

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Cav's definitely not everybody's cup of tea, comes across as being incredibly arrogant in interviews, however, would still like to see if he's got anything left in him from his 2009-2012 days when he was the man to beat come the last 500m- but it would seem not :P

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Cav's definitely not everybody's cup of tea, comes across as being incredibly arrogant in interviews, however, would still like to see if he's got anything left in him from his 2009-2012 days when he was the man to beat come the last 500m- but it would seem not :P

... I agree, but he's now without Tony Martin which isn't going to help. Today is a sprint stage, we'll have to see what happens. I reckon Sagan or Greipel will get it.

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Annoyingly Etixx Quickstep essentially built one half of their team around the sprint train for Cav: with Mark Renshaw, Matteo Trentin and Tony Martin in front of you I genuinely reckon you'd be hard pushed to find a better lead out train.. and yet it just goes to show that the likes of Greipel and Sagan's raw power alone beats these teams scrupulous preparations in what would seem like an effort to thwart Cav's demise from the top.

I may well eat my words after today's stage but it seems like they've put far too much faith in him to return to the form he was in when he was part of HTC Highroad in 2011 by just surrounding him with the big guns previously mentioned. With their yellow jersey gone and the points competition not going quite to plan they must be feeling pretty frustrated about putting too many eggs in one basket.

Edited by OlegTinkov
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Cavendish will probably win 3 stages, and Greipal will win 4 or 5. Whilst it won't be vintage Cavendish, it will paper over the cracks and stop the tour being a washout for Etixx Quickstep. I'm not sure he's peaked (he's just turned 30 and Greipel is 32) but he's going through a bad patch and the whole world is watching.

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My take on his situation was probably harsh, it's not even that he's got slower over the last few years just his competition seem to have got quicker. He's always there or there abouts and can consistently finish in a top 3 position on most sprint stages its just that last little bit that has been challenging in the last year or so. He'll without doubt get a good few more stage wins, and as you say at 30 he's still got a future ahead of him, but maybe not the complete stranglehold that he once had ( which after all makes for better competition) :)

Edited by OlegTinkov
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