Tour de France 2007 who will win?

spookyload · 07-08-2007, 05:21 PM

I am putting my money on Vinokourov or Leipheimer. It seems really wide open this year as there isn't a favorite going in that has won it already. Should be a fun race to watch once we hit the mountains.

Centurion · 07-08-2007, 06:13 PM

It's hard for me to get excited over it this year, knowing some of the best riders out there are not in it. No Jan Ullrich, no Ivan Basso, no Floyd Landis.

Last year when Floyd bonked, and then came back the next day with an early breakaway was one of the most exciting races I ever saw. I hope you're right and that it is a fun race to watch, but with no clear favorites, I hope it just doesn't turn into one big peloton day after day.

*polonyc2* · 07-08-2007, 07:07 PM

Tour De France is tainted forever!!!...everyone is doped up

sorry...I don't follow the sport but I had to get that out

cycling isn't as popular as some other sports and maybe that's why the doping scandal can slip under the radar and not get as much publicity as say Major League Baseball, the NFL or NBA

spookyload · 07-08-2007, 07:32 PM

I know Kongo will have a race favorite.

ronbo 613 · 07-08-2007, 09:11 PM

The best bike riders in the world are racing in the Tour right now, only the riders who were caught doping are not. The dopers are not the best riders, they are the riders who use the best dope.
Pro bike racing has trouble with doping and it has nearly ruined the sport, but pro baseball and football players use illegal performance enhancing drugs as well, but everybody looks the other way for those All American heros. Landis, Basso and Ullrich are out, but Barry Bonds is an All Star? Give me an f'n break.
It's a wide open race, that will make it interesting. Vino has a great shot to win the Tour, maybe Kloden or Kashechkin have a chance from the same strong Astana team. Moreau, Shleck, Evans and a few others all have a shot. I'd like to see Leipheimer win, but I'd be afraid if another American wins the Tour, he would probably wind up testing positive for some kind of illegal substance.
I don't like the dopers, but I've got my doubts about the testers as well.

**k0NG0** · 07-09-2007, 10:22 AM

Klöden or Vino sound like good contenders. So does Leipheimer. I haven't read that much about it this year. I don't have a TV any longer, so I won't watch much of it either.

I wouldn't be the slightest bit surprised if a relatively unknown rider goes bananas in the mountains and takes the title. That would be great. Someone mentioned Cadel Evans in an article over here, for example.

Magnus Bäckstedt, the gentle giant, didn't get to race, which irks me. Being a local boy and everything. He's complete pants as soon as there's a long-ish hill with an incline of more than 4%, but still. I remember that long break-away a couple years back when he rode like a mad man in the headwinds and finished 3rd or whatever. It's always fun to see him, twice the size of some Spanish mountain goat you could mail with just two stamps attached, in the middle of the peloton. No luck this year. (At least he took his first Swedish championship win in the road race recently. Finished 2nd in the TT too.)

XJ. · 07-09-2007, 10:48 AM

I know Vino is the favorite, but my gut says Klödi will take it. I'd love to see Levi take it, but I don't think Levi will be able to hold his own in the Pyrenees.

ronbo 613 · 07-09-2007, 10:34 PM

I don't have a TV either so I like to follow the daily live coverage on the internet at www.cyclingnews.com. Most of the time, the races are just finishing as I wake up and get going each morning. www.velonews.com also has live coverage and daily video highlights.

spookyload · 07-10-2007, 12:07 AM

If you go to www.cycling.tv you can watch the highlights on the website. Pretty sure you can watch it from Europe online for free Kongo. I was able to watch Magnus live win the title on cycling.tv. He is truly a favorite of the announcers.

**k0NG0** · 07-10-2007, 10:11 AM

I found a really neat TdF / Google Maps mash-up, but it wasn't working well when I tried it out (on account of Google Maps being weird, it was like that on other mash-up sites as well). It's supposed to show live stats (including heart rate), live positioning all integrated onto a zoomable Google Map.

http://www.ubilabs.net/tourdefrance/

Didn't know about cycling.tv. Will have to reboot to Windows, I think, because Linux support looks iffy (the mplayer plug-in for WMV is hit-and-miss, unfortunately). Thanks for the tip!

If what you heard when Bäckstedt won the Swedish championship was the live announcer, it was most likely Roberto Vacchi doing some yelling. He's one of the commentators on Eurosport's Swedish broadcasts as well, and just brilliant. Although he will yell as if he's on fire as soon as someone falls over, starts sprinting or, y'know, takes a sip of water.

ronbo 613 · 07-10-2007, 10:21 AM

That is a cool site, too bad they don't have more riders so you could follow your favorite.
Stage 3 seems like a bit of a parade after the big crash yesterday.

**k0NG0** · 07-10-2007, 01:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ronbo 613

That is a cool site, too bad they don't have more riders so you could follow your favorite.
Stage 3 seems like a bit of a parade after the big crash yesterday.

Yeah, they're a bunch of sissies, one giant pile-up at 60kph and they become cautious all of a sudden

.

I had that idea about a TdF / Maps mash-up and figured I'd Google it before I lifted a finger, and of course there was one already. Velonews has a similar thing, but not real-time updates, I believe.

spookyload · 07-10-2007, 06:30 PM

CSC actually was doing the same thing at Tour of California this year. It also had a live feed straight from OLN/Vs in the screen too. You could watch everystage live from start to finish. Had technical difficulties at times, but it worked well.

KingTermite · 07-10-2007, 11:45 PM

My gut tells me Basso, but I'd love to see Hincappie or Boonen get it.

ronbo 613 · 07-11-2007, 12:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KingTermite

My gut tells me Basso, but I'd love to see Hincappie or Boonen get it.

Boonen is a cool dude and a great sprinter, but he'll lose hours in the mountains, never will be a GC threat. Green jersey, maybe, yellow in Paris, never. George is a great rider, if the planets were aligned correctly, there is a chance he could win. Paris-Roubaix, he could win and I'd love to see him do it. He's a tough guy and a great Classics rider, for the Tour GC, he would need divine intervention.
Super win by Cancellara today. The rider who wears the yellow jersey and world championship ITT rainbow stripes wins a stage. Great ride in yellow.
Basso is watching on TV.

07-08-2007, 05:21 PM	#1
spookyload IN-n-Out Expert Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Probably stuck in Iraq! Posts: 2,919	Tour de France 2007 who will win? I am putting my money on Vinokourov or Leipheimer. It seems really wide open this year as there isn't a favorite going in that has won it already. Should be a fun race to watch once we hit the mountains.
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07-08-2007, 06:13 PM	#2
Centurion NorthWest PA Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Northwestern PA Posts: 1,200	It's hard for me to get excited over it this year, knowing some of the best riders out there are not in it. No Jan Ullrich, no Ivan Basso, no Floyd Landis. Last year when Floyd bonked, and then came back the next day with an early breakaway was one of the most exciting races I ever saw. I hope you're right and that it is a fun race to watch, but with no clear favorites, I hope it just doesn't turn into one big peloton day after day. __________________ ASUS P4P800-D \| P4 2.4C @ 3.0 GHz (2-3-2-5) \| Mushkin PC3500 L2 (2X512MB) BFG 7800 GS OC \| LITE-ON CDRW/DVD COMBO (LTC48161H) \| LITE-ON SOHW-812S DVD WD 320GB & 120GB EIDE's \| ZALMAN CNPS7000A-CU \| WIN XP PRO SP2 \| DELL 2407WFP
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07-08-2007, 07:07 PM	#3
polonyc2 Helter Skelter Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: New York City Posts: 7,454	Tour De France is tainted forever!!!...everyone is doped up sorry...I don't follow the sport but I had to get that out cycling isn't as popular as some other sports and maybe that's why the doping scandal can slip under the radar and not get as much publicity as say Major League Baseball, the NFL or NBA __________________ ASUS Maximus Formula (X38) *** EVGA 8800GT Superclocked 512MB Intel E8400 * Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro G.Skill 4 GB (2 X 2 GB) DDR2 800 4-4-4-12 * Western Digital RE2 500 GB WD5001ABYS Lian Li PC-A70B (black) * Corsair HX620 AuzenTech Auzen X-Fi Prelude 7.1 * Creative Inspire P5800 5.1 speakers Lite-On DVD-RW w/LightScribe LH-20A1L-06 * Sony GDM-F520 21' CRT monitor (19.8' viewable) Vista Business 64-bit w/SP1 * standard 3.5" floppy drive Microsoft Laser Mouse 6000 *** Microsoft Wired Keyboard 500 (Black)
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07-08-2007, 07:32 PM	#4
spookyload IN-n-Out Expert Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Probably stuck in Iraq! Posts: 2,919	I know Kongo will have a race favorite.
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07-08-2007, 09:11 PM	#5
ronbo 613 Computer User Join Date: Jun 2004 Posts: 1,642	The best bike riders in the world are racing in the Tour right now, only the riders who were caught doping are not. The dopers are not the best riders, they are the riders who use the best dope. Pro bike racing has trouble with doping and it has nearly ruined the sport, but pro baseball and football players use illegal performance enhancing drugs as well, but everybody looks the other way for those All American heros. Landis, Basso and Ullrich are out, but Barry Bonds is an All Star? Give me an f'n break. It's a wide open race, that will make it interesting. Vino has a great shot to win the Tour, maybe Kloden or Kashechkin have a chance from the same strong Astana team. Moreau, Shleck, Evans and a few others all have a shot. I'd like to see Leipheimer win, but I'd be afraid if another American wins the Tour, he would probably wind up testing positive for some kind of illegal substance. I don't like the dopers, but I've got my doubts about the testers as well.
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07-09-2007, 10:22 AM	#6
k0NG0 Remembering TQ Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: Sweden Posts: 13,627	Klöden or Vino sound like good contenders. So does Leipheimer. I haven't read that much about it this year. I don't have a TV any longer, so I won't watch much of it either. I wouldn't be the slightest bit surprised if a relatively unknown rider goes bananas in the mountains and takes the title. That would be great. Someone mentioned Cadel Evans in an article over here, for example. Magnus Bäckstedt, the gentle giant, didn't get to race, which irks me. Being a local boy and everything. He's complete pants as soon as there's a long-ish hill with an incline of more than 4%, but still. I remember that long break-away a couple years back when he rode like a mad man in the headwinds and finished 3rd or whatever. It's always fun to see him, twice the size of some Spanish mountain goat you could mail with just two stamps attached, in the middle of the peloton. No luck this year. (At least he took his first Swedish championship win in the road race recently. Finished 2nd in the TT too.) __________________ Use Firefox - "the one that blocks all the schmutz" Feeling multicore elation? Remember this correlation: Amdahl's Law.
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07-09-2007, 10:48 AM	#7
XJ. ... Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: NH, USA Posts: 6,076	I know Vino is the favorite, but my gut says Klödi will take it. I'd love to see Levi take it, but I don't think Levi will be able to hold his own in the Pyrenees. __________________
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07-09-2007, 10:34 PM	#8
ronbo 613 Computer User Join Date: Jun 2004 Posts: 1,642	I don't have a TV either so I like to follow the daily live coverage on the internet at www.cyclingnews.com. Most of the time, the races are just finishing as I wake up and get going each morning. www.velonews.com also has live coverage and daily video highlights.
(Offline)

07-10-2007, 12:07 AM	#9
spookyload IN-n-Out Expert Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Probably stuck in Iraq! Posts: 2,919	If you go to www.cycling.tv you can watch the highlights on the website. Pretty sure you can watch it from Europe online for free Kongo. I was able to watch Magnus live win the title on cycling.tv. He is truly a favorite of the announcers.
(Offline)

07-10-2007, 10:11 AM	#10
k0NG0 Remembering TQ Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: Sweden Posts: 13,627	I found a really neat TdF / Google Maps mash-up, but it wasn't working well when I tried it out (on account of Google Maps being weird, it was like that on other mash-up sites as well). It's supposed to show live stats (including heart rate), live positioning all integrated onto a zoomable Google Map. http://www.ubilabs.net/tourdefrance/ Didn't know about cycling.tv. Will have to reboot to Windows, I think, because Linux support looks iffy (the mplayer plug-in for WMV is hit-and-miss, unfortunately). Thanks for the tip! If what you heard when Bäckstedt won the Swedish championship was the live announcer, it was most likely Roberto Vacchi doing some yelling. He's one of the commentators on Eurosport's Swedish broadcasts as well, and just brilliant. Although he will yell as if he's on fire as soon as someone falls over, starts sprinting or, y'know, takes a sip of water. __________________ Use Firefox - "the one that blocks all the schmutz" Feeling multicore elation? Remember this correlation: Amdahl's Law.
(Offline)

07-10-2007, 10:21 AM	#11
ronbo 613 Computer User Join Date: Jun 2004 Posts: 1,642	That is a cool site, too bad they don't have more riders so you could follow your favorite. Stage 3 seems like a bit of a parade after the big crash yesterday.
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07-10-2007, 06:30 PM	#13
spookyload IN-n-Out Expert Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Probably stuck in Iraq! Posts: 2,919	CSC actually was doing the same thing at Tour of California this year. It also had a live feed straight from OLN/Vs in the screen too. You could watch everystage live from start to finish. Had technical difficulties at times, but it worked well.
(Offline)

07-10-2007, 11:45 PM	#14
KingTermite The Shade of Lazarus Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: PM me to keep in contact Posts: 26,003	My gut tells me Basso, but I'd love to see Hincappie or Boonen get it. __________________ Bye Bye ABXZone.....Rest In Peace.
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