Before I begin, I must confess I have NOT watched the Tour at all this summer. Ulrich & Basso's suspension combined with a busier-than-normal summer made coughing up the cash for satellite a non-option. Perhaps next year....
That being said, the little I've seen/read/heard has sounded very much like a "weak" tour. I can't put my finger on it, but it looks like some of the "good oles" are struggling (Mayo being a prime example) while it sounds like the overall shape of the peloton is surprisingly bad (hearing that 20% of the peloton would have been dropped ?yesterday? had they not shifted the cutoff surprised me). Again, I haven't followed closely, but it sounds as if a large number of riders figured "Oh, Lance won't be back this year so I don't have to train as hard. It's not like he'll be plowing up the mountain one day and I'll get caught by the cut-off." I don't know. If I'm just misinterpreting what I hear, let me know but it sure sounds like a "flabby" peloton this year...
