Who will win Le Tour de France this year?

Question

Who will win Le Tour de France this year?

Answer 1

If Sastre and/or one of the Schleck brothers can keep exending their lead through the Alps, they might be able to hang on and beat Cadel Evans.

But they're going to need to have more than a two-minute advantage going into the individual time trial.

My money is on Christain Vandevelde of Garmin-Chipotle, actually. He's better than the CSC climbers in time trials and a much better climber than Evans. The down side is that he hasn't got much in the way of support to hold off any attacks from the other teams. If he waits for Stage 17 (Alpe d'Huez) to claim the jersey, he has a legitimate shot at keeping it all the way to Paris.

Answer 2

I remember a few years ago when Lance Armstrong was leading Jan Ulrich by 61 sec. and Ivan Basso by almost 2 minutes and the talk was about how close the tour was.  As of stage 15 there are six riders within 49 seconds.  WOW!!!

Everybody, I guess, has their favorite. Mine on day one was Valverde. He is still 4 minutes out, but rode an impressive stage 15. I don't count him out.  

Although the odds on favorite is Cadel Evans, I don't think he can win because he does not have any team at all on the mountain stages. Frank Schlek, on the other hand, has the best team in the Tour.  Also, for the same reason don't count out Carlos Sastre.

The biggest surprise of the Tour is Christian Vande Velde. I am rooting for him.  If, and that's a big if, he can remain about where he is now (38 sec.) he will wear yellow in Paris. Vande Velde is a much better time trialist than the other 5 contenders.  The question is can he maintain that time in the next 2 mountain stages.

Answer 3

Dennis MEnchov. i will tell you why. he was strong last stage in the alps, and well if it wasnt for his fall while he was attacking, he may have cut alot more time from the yellow jersey. also, Menchov is the only guy who can hang with cadel in the time trial. ..so i think menchov will make more moves to cut more time off cadel, and beat the likes of sastre, kohl and Schleck in the TT.

also i want him to win..lol

Answer 4

Frank Schleck or Carlos Sastre. Team CSC is really showing it's depth as the tour progresses. Of course I'm biased because I'm a Cervelo rider myself.

Answer 5

Cadel Evans

Answer 6

I agree, Cadel Evans has a very good chance. After looking at his webpage I noticed that he's placed in a lot of races he's ridden in so far

(i.e. http://www.cadel.com.au/results/results.... )

Plus his wife Chiara's pretty s**y (http://www.cadel.com.au/chiara/chiara.ht... so hopefully that'll help him too!

I know I'll be rooting for him.