Le Tour de France 2012

[Templar+]

Any fans of cycling here?





Missing some big riders this year but that won't dampen the tour for me since we could have our first ever British tour winner

Would love to hear what your top 5's are! I can't really see past Bradley Wiggins for winning overall and it's going to be interesting to finally see Sagan Vs Cav in the sprints too, I'm a huge Cav fan but seeing Sagan's form and talent scares me i hope he eats Cav's dust!

My top 5:

GC-
Wiggins
Evans
Nibali
Valverde
Gesink

[Love Muffin]

Im a fan

I think Evans will beat Wiggins, as much as I hope Wiggins wins I just feel that Evans is better he wont need his teams help to win, he'll just sit in with the Sky team.
Wiggins will probably hold the yellow jersey for a few stages

I can see Sagan doing well, and he'll probably win a few stages like Gilbert done last year he could probably win the green jersey, Cav will want to do well but his main focus is on the Olympic race

Cav, Goss, Renshaw, Rojas, Griepel, Kittel, Farrar and Sagan in the sprints is going to be good to watch

Top 5

Evans
Wiggins
Nibali
Gesink
Sanchez/Froome

[Templar+]

L.L. Sanchez or Sammi Sanchez? i'm a fan of Samu!

I would have liked to have put him in top 5 myself but after his crash in the Dauphine i feel as though it might have an effect on his performance speaking of the Dauphine the reason i rate Wiggo so highly is because of his performance in that he gave Evans a good old bashing and his team manager says that he hasn't even peaked yet! Evans could have been sand bagging i guess but i cant really see it lol

I can see Cav pulling out after the first half of the tour to concentrate his efforts on the Olympic road race like you said so i can't really see Cav defending the green this year i think it could be between maybe Greipel, Sagan and possibly Goss.

[Love Muffin]

Samu!

The mountains start later in the tour, so I was thinking he should be ok and ready for them

[Templar+]

You know L.L. Sanchez might not do too badly himself with all the TT Kilometers in this years tour allthough i suspect he will be working for Gesink mostly, yea Samu should be good in the latter part of the tour should be interesting

[Templar+]

What a drama filled ITT! kind of expected Wiggo and Chancellara up there in top 3 wow really expected better from Evans finishing in 13th Sagan should have been up there if he hadn't almost fallen off his bike i still put him down to about 7 seconds from Chavanel even if he didn't slip up and poor Tony the worst thing that could happen did to him he would have smashed it if he didn't have that darn mechanical, it's gonna be bloody exciting from here on in.

[Love Muffin]

Sagan is gonna get that green jersey

[Templar+]

Meh! todays stage was tailor made for him also hated the fact he clung onto Chancellara's for the last 1.5k stop sucking that wheel and come through for a turn! lets see how Mr Sagan performs in tommorows stage 2 it's absolutly pan flat! Cavendish Vs Sagan Vs Griepel Vs Goss (missed Renshaw out don't rate him )

[Love Muffin]

Wiggins and Froome doing well, I think Froome would win this if he didnt have to look after Wiggins, expect some attacks from Evans and Nibali over the next few stages.

Be interesting to see if Wiggins gets droped and if Froome helps Wiggins out or goes after Evans and Nibali

[Templar+]

Only way i can see Wiggins losing the Yellow now is if the GC work together to try and isolate him in the mountains i think it's fair to say Froomey is Wiggins right hand man without him well then Wiggins might not be doing as well as he is now it's going to be an interesting week for the tour i really can't wait for it to get blown to pieces! would have really liked to see Froomey as team leader for Giro/Vuelta because he is more than capable it's going to be interesting to see how Froome developes now and i hope he can pull off consistent results in Grand Tours.

[Rico]

I've been waiting 28 years for this moment, ever since I started watching le Tour on Channel 4.

When Sky ProCycling was launched in Jan 2010, with the stated aim of "a British winner within 5 years", I was sceptical and thought it was a very tall order. However, they've not only delivered, they've delivered a British one-two. Absolutely astounding!

I can't wait 'til I next see Wiggo at the local track.

[Templar+]

That's awsome Rico i bet you are in a state of euphoria with the way Wiggo performed this year, I'm still a newbie when it comes to the pro cycling scene only been following cycling for about 3 years properly but seeing Wiggins form from the start of the season up until now is phenominal

Wonder if he will defend next year or hand over the reins to Froomy should be pretty exciting to see what developes over the coming few years in the british cycling scene.

I wasn't really too satisfied with the way the tour has been this year despite an historic win by Wiggo, i'm really really looking forward to seeing what happens in the Vuelta probably because i'm more a fan of the mountains than the ITT's.

[Rico]

The mountains make for great drama, and certainly there have been a lot of memorable moments on the slopes. Armstrong starting into Ullrich's eyes and then accelerating away; or Stephen Roche almost catching Pedro Delgado. Memories that live strongly in my memory...

I love mountains and summit finishes, but there have to be Tours for all riders; this year it was more one for the all-rounders and TT-specialists. No doubt next year will be one more for the climbers. It'll be interesting to see what Froome does...

[Love Muffin]

Great tour for us British people, and a massive day for British Cycling.

Team Sky completely dominated this tour and will be interesting to see how they do next year, Wiggins will want to defend the Jersey but I think Froome will have the better chance to win with there being more focus on the mountains and with Andy Schleck and Contador back in the frame.

I think Cavendish will be better at a seperate team though so he can focus on winning, maybe a move to Omega Pherma Quickstep, which dont really have a team leader and with some of HTC there along with Boonen and Chavanel he could put together a good team and maybe even Renshaw following him.

Peter Veilts, Tony Martin, Sylvain Chavanel, Tom Boonen, Mark Renshaw, Mark Cavendish

with 3 other riders would be a good team for him

[Rico]

Roche & Delgado - This was the last mountain stage and Delgado was in yellow, but there was a long time trial to come and Roche was a much better TT rider than Delgado, but Roche was dropped on the mountain...






Armstrong leaves Ullrich for dead on Alpe d'Huez:






The mountains rock.

[Templar+]

Suprised you haven't put any Pantani in there!!

[Rico]

I did only pick two out of loads of great mountain moments. =) Nothing Pantani did is as engraved upon my memory as those two though. I mostly remember the 1998 Tour for the Festina affair...

[Templar+]

Oh dear possibly the lowest point in the history of the sport with the Festina affair

I like to think the sport is so much more cleaner with the time gaps being so close in the last few years.