Professional Cycling For the Fans - They better not make Floyd any madder...

It's 30% from Lance's War, 30% speculation and 35% bull****. So that makes it 5% true : ).

Hey that puts it off the charts on the Bike Forum accuracy charts!!


Well based on your caclulations my post was 95% accurate ;)

Well based on your caclulations my post was 95% accurate ;)

That is a stunningly liberal use of the term 'calculations'.

Possible top ten as in another top 10 finish.

Y'all do realize that he's 31 and thus his prime GT days are coming to an end? He's got maybe two years and his shot at winning are more or less done. Only five riders older than 31 have ever won the TDF and three of them have names like Copi, Armstrong and Zoetemelk.

How could you forget Hinault? Wasn't he like 35 the last time he won? (Or was that allowed to win?)

Jan isn't even close! (to the record) Joop Zoetemelk finished 2nd six times in his record 16 completions and only won once.

Here's what they're saying in Europe:

Basso, I 2.85
Ullrich, J 3.50
Vinokourov, A 8.50
Valverde, A 9.00
Landis, F 20.00
Cunego, D 25.00
Popovych, Y 25.00
Menchov, D 30.00
Leipheimer, L 35.00
Mancebo Pérez, F 35.00
Hincapie, G 40.00
Klöden, A 40.00
Rasmussen, M 45.00
Mayo, I 50.00
Beloki, J 66.00
Pereiro Sio, O 80.00
Simoni, G 80.00
Jaksche, J 100.00
Kashechkin, A 100.00
Moreau, C 150.00
Boonen, T 300.00
I'm a big Landis fan, only problem is I'm a fan of all of these guys, too, and cycling IS a team sport, so.... We'll see. It'd be great to see him win the TdF this year, though.

Now that a week & a half of the Giro has passed, what are the feelings of Floyd's chances against Basso? Although Floyd hung with Danielson on the steep slopes of Brasstown, Danielson was dropped early and crawled his way back to support Savoldelli. I don't think Floyd will be hanging with Basso on the climbs. We'll get a better idea after tomorrow's ITT who's stronger in that arena. Both Basso & Floyd have been working on their weak areas & it's going to be interesting to see.

As for Jan, he has only won when there was no pressure on him. He has not improved on his weaknesses, such as accellerating on steep climbs. He's a poor tactician as evidenced by last year's race. And, he's arguably the worst bike handler in the peloton. He's in apparently poor shape as evidenced by his performance in the Giro & his bike handling hasn't improved based on his poor ITT performance of stage 1 which was a very technical time trial. In consideration of the number of great riders keying on the TDF this year as opposed to previous years where Lance dominated, I believe this will be his worst TDF. I would however, be very surprised if he does make the podium.