2013 Tour de France

[kirky92au]

I made a SBS Fantasy League for anyone interested.

http://cysb.silentmanager.org/league.as ... e&id=10482" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

PW: bna123

Or you could just join the league that has already been created at 2013 TdF Fantasy League BNA

Cheers, I hadn't seen that.

[KL.]

Teams are starting to be announced, so, time to get your tips in .. http://www.sbs.com.au/cyclingcentral/home/fantasy
Maillot Jaune (Yellow, Leaders Jersey) ..
Maillot Vert (Green, Sprinters Jersey) ..
Maillot à pois Rouges (Polkadot, King of the Mountains Jersey) ..
Maillot Blanc (White Jersey) ..
Teams Classification (Yellow Dossards) ..
Lantern rogue (Last rider to finish) ..
Honte Congé - First rider to be expelled for drugs ..

[KL.]

The following are my guesses ..

Maillot Jaune (Yellow, Leaders Jersey) .. Cadel Evans or Froome
Maillot Vert (Green, Sprinters Jersey) .. Cavendish, Sagan or Greipel
Maillot à pois Rouges (Polkadot, King of the Mountains Jersey) .. Voeckler or Tejay Van Garderen
Maillot Blanc (White Jersey) .. Qintana
Teams Classification (Yellow Dossards) .. BMC or SKY or Saxo
Lantern rogue (Last rider to finish) .. someone
Honte Congé - First rider to be expelled for drugs .. One of the MoviStar team

thanks KL

[flex5150]

The following are my guesses ..

Maillot Jaune (Yellow, Leaders Jersey) .. Froome
Maillot Vert (Green, Sprinters Jersey) .. Cavendish
Maillot à pois Rouges (Polkadot, King of the Mountains Jersey) .. Voeckler
Maillot Blanc (White Jersey) .. Qintana
Teams Classification (Yellow Dossards) .. Radioshack
Lantern rogue (Last rider to finish) .. someone
Honte Congé - First rider to be expelled for drugs .. Contador or Frank

[rogan]

Those of us old enough to remember how Indurain rode are not looking forward to another diesel Sky procession. But that is the most likely prospect. Contador (in form) might be doped, but he's interesting to watch and can spice things up. I don't see it happening this year.

We can wish all we like for Taaramae or Pinot or Rolland to burst through and have a career defining first Grand Tour win. It isn't going to happen.

Froome and Cavendish are specials for the yellow and green, unless they fall off.

Polkadot is a real lottery. Probably someone we've heard of before like Jeremy Roy. It's not won by real climbers any more, but by guys who get in breaks on 2 or 3 mountain stages.

White jersey - no clue.
Teams - Saxo or Sky
Lantern Rouge is a real lottery. A lead out sprinter having a tough last two weeks.
Hopefully no one will be kicked out for doping. But if it happens, it happens. Unlikely to be a "name" - those guys, if they are doping, know how to manage their glow time and have the "right" medical support.

[Walsh95]

So in the week leading up to tdf, I've been thinking about Cadels chances, and have come to the conclusion that the only way he will beat Froome, is on the descents, where Froome seems most vulnerable. From what I've seen of Froome this year, he's better than Conta on the mountains, better than him in the TT, and has a better team. I'm not sure of Conta's descending, but from the 2011 tour, I'd say not up to Cadels level, at least in the wet.
Following this line of thought and having seen the tour stage profiles, a few of the big mountain stages ending with descents, I think that despite the fact that Cadel might not be looking as good as Conta to challenge Froome, he has actually got the best chance of all the favourites to get time on Froome leading into Paris....lets just hope his TTing holds good...

[im_no_pro]

Have merged the new thread from the road biking board into this existing one.

[Summernight]

If anyone feels like putting their Tour tipping into a chance to win a bike bag in the colour of the jersey they correctly pick, Wiggle is having a competition on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/wiggle?v=app_158086484245654" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[hiflange]

With out a doubt... NICE TTT!. You get to see so much more at a TT as you can wander around the buses when they are warming up, Nice is a loop so they will come back to the same area so a chance to see the teams more than once. Of course for those that aren't going to Corse this will be the first day the tour is on the main land, add that to being in a city and the south of France... it is going to be freaking busy!.

Thanks TLL, great tip. In the final analysis it turned out we didn't have time to go south and we'll limit ourselves to Paris for the week we're in France. The good news is that since I first posted the question we've booked for the English stages of 2014. My mother in law & sister in law live in Leeds and harrogate respectively. Day one and two of the 2014 TdF area in Leeds and harrogate

[toolonglegs]

Ran into ( not literally! ) a certain mr Porte & froome on the Madone this morning... Posed up for a pic or two... Nice way to start the day

[ldrcycles]

Ran into ( not literally! ) a certain mr Porte & froome on the Madone this morning... Posed up for a pic or two... Nice way to start the day

COOL!!

[gabrielle260]

Ran into ( not literally! ) a certain mr Porte & froome on the Madone this morning... Posed up for a pic or two... Nice way to start the day

I'm green!
Very jealous!!!!!
Andrew

[toolonglegs]

It was good timing... We were having a snack halfway up the col de Madone and they stopped for a pause prostate as we call it here.
Queuing up for a ferry to corsica at the moment.

[toolonglegs]

Corsica is truly stunning!... It is like having the alpes right next to the coast!.
Looking forward to Cav in yellow tomorrow

[biker jk]

Ran into ( not literally! ) a certain mr Porte & froome on the Madone this morning... Posed up for a pic or two... Nice way to start the day

Lucky bugger. That's the climb that Armstrong would use (with Dr Ferrari in attendance) to make sure his "preparation" provided the required power-to-weight ratio to win the tour.

[find_bruce]

Corsica is truly stunning!... It is like having the alpes right next to the coast!.
Looking forward to Cav in yellow tomorrow

I suspect Cav will have a few jersey changes - maillot jaune for stage 2, then maillot vert for stage 3 until Sagan loses yellow, then back to team jersey

[warthog1]

Anyone watch that documentary on the history of the TDF on SBS1 last night. Pretty depressing, almost 100 years of doping

Some of the stuff we don't see on the ASO sanctioned (sbs) race coverage. Showed a fair few negative slogans on the road and some aggressive crowd behaviour.

[biker jk]

Anyone watch that documentary on the history of the TDF on SBS1 last night. Pretty depressing, almost 100 years of doping

Some of the stuff we don't see on the ASO sanctioned (sbs) race coverage. Showed a fair few negative slogans on the road and some aggressive crowd behaviour.

I watched it and also recorded it. Some great footage from the early years. I hadn't seen the clip of Armstrong gifting the stage to Pantani from front on before which made it so obvious. The documentary did highlight how commercially driven the TdF was from the start. On doping, the amphetamine eyes of some of the riders was alarming.

[jamesn184]

not to mention making it national teams only to avoid corruption...?

[biker jk]

Watching TdF live now.

[PomBike]

some of these bends look lethal...

[ningnangnong]

Orica-GreenEDGE bus stuck at the finish line. Brilliant.

[ningnangnong]

Cavendish and Sagan both out of the running due to a crash... the bus has been moved. It's all happening!

[Fresh]

That backup finish line looked like a nightmare! Lucky they didn't end up using it as that corner would've been deadly.

\

[toolonglegs]

That was fun!... We were at the 4.5k to go mark... Turned out to be an exciting spot!.