Tour de France 2010

[damonik]

Teams list, more to be updated as they are announced.

Radioshack:
Lance Armstrong
Janez Brajkovic
Levi Leipheimer
Andreas Kloeden
Sergio Paulinho
Dimitri Muravyev
Yaroslav Popovych
Chris Horner
Gregory Rast

Rabobank:
Denis Menchov
Robert Gesink
Oscar Freire
Lars Boom
Grischa Niermann
Koos Moerenhout
Maarten Tjallingii
Bram Tankink
Juan Manuel Garate

Cervelo:
Xavier Florencio
Volodimir Gustov
Daniel Lloyd replacing Heinrich Haussler
Jeremy Hunt
Thor Hushovd
Andreas Klier
Ignatas Konovalovas
Brett Lancaster
Carlos Sastre

Omega:
Mario Aerts
Francis De Greef
Mickaël Delage
Sebastian Lang
Matthew Lloyd
Daniel Moreno Fernandez
Jürgen Roelandts
Jurgen Van den Broeck
Charles Wegelius

Millram:
Gerald Ciolek
Johannes Frohlinger
Linus Gerdemann
Roger Kluge
Christian Knees
Luke Roberts
Thomas Rohregger
Niki Terpstra
Fabian Wegmann

Saxobank:
Fabian Cancellara
Andy Schleck
Fränk Schleck
Jens Voigt
Stuart O'Grady
Matti Breschel
Chris Anker Sørensen
Jakob Fuglsang
Nicki Sørensen
Gustav Larsson (reserve)

Euskaltel-Euskadi:
Samuel Sánchez
Egoi Martínez
Iván Velasco
Juanjo Oroz
Alan Pérez
Rubén Pérez
Gorka Verdugo
Amets Txurruka
Iñaki Isasi
Aitor Hernández (reserve)

Quick Step:
Carlos Barredo
Francesco Reda replacing Tom Boonen
Sylvain Chavanel Dries Devenyns
Kevin De Weert
Jerome Pineau
Kevin Seeldrayers
Jurgen Van de Walle
Maarten Wynants
Kevin Hulsmans (Reserve)
Wouter Weylandt (Reserve)

HTC Columbia:
Mark Cavendish
Bernhard Eisel
Bert Grabsch
Adam Hansen
Tony Martin
Maxime Monfort
Mark Renshaw
Michael Rogers
Kanstantsin Sivtsov

Team Sky:
Michael Barry
Steve Cummings
Juan Antonio Flecha
Simon Gerrans
Edvald Boasson Hagen
Thomas Löfkvist
Serge Pauwels
Geraint Thomas
Bradley Wiggins

Footon-Servetto:
Eros Capecchi
Fabio Felline
Giampaolo Cheula
Manuel Cardoso
Markus Eibegger
Alberto Benítez
Arkaitz Durán
Iban Mayoz
Rafael Valls

BMC:
Alessandro Ballan
Brent Bookwalter
Marcus Burghardt
Cadel Evans
Mathias Frank
George Hincapie
Karsten Kroon
Steve Morabito
Mauro Santambrogio

Katusha:
Pavel Brutt
Sergey Ivanov
Joaquin Rodriguez
Vladimir Karpets
Robbie McEwen
Alexander Kolobnev
Stijn Vandenbergh
Eduard Vorganov
Alexandr Pliuschin

Garmin Transitions:
Julian Dean
Tyler Farrar
Hesjedal
Robbie Hunter
Martijn Maaskant
David Millar
Johan Van Summeren
Christian Vande Velde
David Zabriskie

Astana:
Alberto Contador
Alexandre Vinokourov
David de la Fuente
Jesus Hernandez
Daniel Navarro
Benjamin Noval
Paolo Tiralongo
Andriy Grivko
Maxim Iglinskiy

Française des Jeux:
Christophe Le Mével
Sandy Casar
Jérémy Roy
Benoît Vaugrenard
Rémy Di Gregorio
Matthieu Ladagnous
Anthony Geslin
Wesley Sulzberger
Anthony Roux

Cofidis:
Damien Monier
Rémi Pauriol
Samuel Dumoulin
Stéphane Augé
Julien El Farès
Christophe Kern
Sébastien Minard
Amaël Moinard
Rein Taarämae

Liquigas:
Ivan Basso
Francesco Bellotti
Kristjan Koren
Roman Kreuziger
Aliaksandr Kuchynski
Daniel Oss
Manuel Quinziato
Sylwester Szmyd
Brian Bach Vandborg

Lampre-Faranese Vini:
Grega Bole
Damiano Cunego
Mauro Da Dalto
Francesco Gavazzi
Danilo Hondo
Mirco Lorenzetto
Adriano Malori
Alessandro Petacchi
Simon Spilak

[im_no_pro]

Saxo look the strongest out of that lot IMO. Radioshack look pretty darn impressive on paper, will be interesting to see how/if that converts to results though.

[JV911]

Saxobank = a cracker of a team

A full strenght BMC team will be good too with the likes of evans, hincappie and burghardt

Top Twelve Tour Contenders

[MichaelB]

A full strenght BMC team will be good too with the likes of evans, hincappie and burghardt

Frank & Morabito also acquitted themselves well. But for Evans to have a crack at overall, he needs better climbers to be able to support him.

Or is the BMC focus going to be more for jersey's & stage wins rather than overall ?

[norbs]

Saxo look so strong. I was hoping Porte might make an appearance somewhere, but it is hard to see who he could replace.

[JV911]

I was hoping Porte might make an appearance somewhere

saxo said they dont want to burn him out being a rookie and all - might see him at the vuelta though

[hannos]

I was hoping Porte might make an appearance somewhere

saxo said they dont want to burn him out being a rookie and all - might see him at the vuelta though

I heard the same. I didn't expect to see him anywhere near the TdF (this year). I think his giro performance was a bit unexpected.

[JV911]

Australian contingent's tour de force

A RECORD number of Australians are in line to start the Tour de France on Saturday week. Four Australians were yesterday confirmed for the race - six less than the record of 10 Australians in 2005 and 2009 - with as many as 11 others likely to be confirmed in the coming days.

Joining Heinrich Haussler (Cervelo), the NSW-born German rider, among the confirmed Australians yesterday was teammate Brett Lancaster, Giro d'Italia King of the Mountains winner Matt Lloyd (Omega Pharma-Lotto), and Olympic team pursuit gold medallist Luke Roberts (Milram), who last rode the Tour in 2005.

Haussler, who last week crashed in the Tour of Switzerland the day after winning a stage, is a stage-winning hope, but he will also probably have to help Norwegian teammate Thor Hushovd's bid to win the green points jersey. Lancaster will also be there to help Hushovd.

Roberts's job will be to lead out his German sprinter Gerald Ciolek in the bunch finishes, and after that assist German Linus Gerdeman for the overall classification.

Lloyd is likely to be designated as one of Belgian top-10 hope hope Jurgen Van den Broeck's principal helpers for the mountains. Although, if opportunity knocks, he could be regarded as a potential stage winner in the mountains, or even an outside chance for the climbers category.

From the pool of Australians riding for the 22 teams invited to Tour, estimations are that at least 11 more will be confirmed.

That includes the two Australians candidates for the Tour podium overall who will certainly be officially named - dual Tour runner-up Cadel Evans (BMC) and Michael Rogers (HTC-Columbia), who was ninth in 2006.

[jules21]

i reckon dodger is a dark horse, after his ToCalifornia triumph.

[Chuck]

Frank & Morabito also acquitted themselves well. But for Evans to have a crack at overall, he needs better climbers to be able to support him.

Or is the BMC focus going to be more for jersey's & stage wins rather than overall ?

Agree Michael. I don't think Cadel can win the overall, Radioshack and Saxo have far stronger teams and their leaders are just as good if not better. If the opportunity comes up to grab a stage or climb into the yellow jersey I think Cadel should go for it and not hold back thinking about the GC and the stages that follow.

The Astana situation might be interesting again this year. We all know what Vinokourov likes to do when he's feeling good, leader or not, as Jan can atest to

[MichaelB]

There is an unhappy camper in the Rabobank camp - Weening was left off and he was "apparently led to believe he was riding" - Cycling news quote him as being so upset he could smash a 2 metre wall

And HTC have no Greipel either - now is this due to Giro (too buggered) and will do Vuelta instead, or because of rthe rift between him and Frodo ? Or a sign that he is negotiating with other teams .......

And murmurs that Boonen may not ride due to his knee injury..... I wonder if A Davis is chuckling a bit

[JV911]

And HTC have no Greipel either - now is this due to Giro (too buggered) and will do Vuelta instead, or because of rthe rift between him and Frodo ? Or a sign that he is negotiating with other teams .......

or that Cavendick is in the team and would be hard to have two top sprinters competing for stage wins?

[damonik]

Updated with HTC Columbia and Quick Step teams.

[MichaelB]

Stage 3 hopefully will be one to watch, and hopefully cauise some big splits that will animate the race later. Here is a tweet from Robbie Mc

@mcewenrobbie recon'd TdF st3 cobbled final w/ Stijn Vdb, going to be CARNAGE! The TdF will explode on this stage, will eliminate some GC & green riders

Will probably be one of the few early stages where I will watch the whole thing !!!!

[toolonglegs]

Still need to look at the map properly...but from the 9th to 16th everything is within two hours ...hope the twinnies like camping!.
I am hoping for a Dodger reawakening ...don't mind if Cadel grabs his coat tails.Hope LA has a great tour...2nd would be OK...AC to lose lots of time on the cobbles and then have to fight like a dog to get it back! (which I hope he does).Tommeke to ride well again finally!...and give Cav a run for his money...and for Basso to be right up there as well.
This tour has the most contenders in YEARS!!!...sweet .
Jack Bauer for president...or at least a protour contract!!!.

[MichaelB]

...I am hoping for a Dodger reawakening ...don't mind if Cadel grabs his coat tails .....

Maybe HTC and BMC can form a pact - BMC to help with the Green Jersey, and Cadel & Dodger to team up and gang up on Bertie & the Schlecklets....

I won't comment about being close to 7 stages ....

Enjoy !!!!

[JV911]

I am hoping for a Dodger reawakening

apparently he was "90%" at ToC and should be peaking at le tour

[toolonglegs]

I am hoping for a Dodger reawakening

apparently he was "90%" at ToC and should be peaking at le tour

Yeah I hope so...but then so was everyone else who is aiming for the tour.

[Chuck]

...and for Basso to be right up there as well.

I know there's plenty of talk about Andy S and LA has the team, but imo if anyone can beat AC it's Basso.

[Chuck]

Haussler and Boonen out

[damonik]

Teams updated.

[redcorpsjames]

...and for Basso to be right up there as well.

I know there's plenty of talk about Andy S and LA has the team, but imo if anyone can beat AC it's Basso.

Really? i would have thought he will ride for nabali and roman kreuziger after his giro win

[HAKS]

Sucks for Haussler, poor guy has had a shocker of a year with injury. Boonen.....meh, didn't expect much from him anyway.

[Uncle Just]

Boonen was the leader for Quickstep and the first 3 stages particularly stage 3 were his best bet being in Belgium with a Belgian team. Pity he's out as stage 3 was made for him where their enormous classics experience could have shattered the race over the 13 kms of cobbles.

[Baldy]

BMC looks good, recent form in the giro/toc/suisse. Ive only heard of some of them for the first time during those races and still learning how the season works, different races having them peaking at different times and all the other ins and outs I know bugger all about. All I know is I can recognise most of the names in that list by what they have done lately, they seem like hard workers.[I know who Ballan, Hincapie are so not really counting them, just the newer guys I had not heard of like Bookwalter, Burghardt, Morabito and Frank.

I like the BMC team in general so I'll be cheering them on this year. I found it hard to like lotto, so only really cheered on cadel as an individual[and Italralian] It will be nice to be able to follow the whole team this time.

Anyway im really looking forward to it, its going to be so much more interesting this year now i know a little more about it and the riders.

Vi va la skippy