2wheeled

Starts Sunday.

I'm rooting for VANDEVELDE, I hope he has a good showing. I see Cadel, Contador & Sanchez are riding also, it will be interesting to see how their early season legs will show.

https://www.letour.fr/2009/PNC/COURSE..._parcours.html

Suzie Green

The Race To The Sun!! I have to remember to check VS and see if they are carrying anything on Cyclism Sunday. OK, enough fooling around, it has been a looooooonnnnnnnnnng winter and I need to get my head wrapped around the racing action again.

2wheeled

Yep, they should be showing it on Cyclism Sunday.
https://www.versus.com/epicevents

bdcheung

Vandevelde won't be much of a contender for GC.

Devil

I've been waiting for this. I love Paris-Nice.

Bacciagalupe

Levi is not racing P-N, due to that busted tailbone @ ToC.

Laggard

Anyone remember a few years ago how OLN had daily coverage of PN?

When I first started watching cycling in the 80s we were limited to an hour on Sunday afternoon during the TDF. Then when Lance hit suddenly there was all this incredible OLN coverage. One year they showed two hours of the Giro daily! Simply unimaginable twenty years ago. Sadly we now appear to be regressing to 1989 and I suspect in a few years we may again have nothing.

Ratfish

Where can I find a video of the highlights for free?

Devil

Yes, I remember that. I was very excited to see them air live every stage of the '04 Giro, but sadly that was the last year. Until now, I'm guessing. With Lance going for the win in this year's Giro I can't see them not devoting to it some significant coverage. But we'll see! I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Oh, and was today's stage in HD for anyone else? That was a pleasant development.

Suzie Green

Great stage today...Contador was on fire! Who would have expected him to beat the likes of B. Wiggins, L.L. Sanchez, and even my main man (sigh...)Jens Voigt? On the flip side, I was sad to see Vande Velde down in a crash, the road rash on his right shoulder looked nasty! It shapes up to be a fun race with all the climbing involved. But will have to check in on the web for stage details as VS is limited to a wrap up show next Sunday.

2wheeled

Go figure, I pull for Vande Velde and jinxed him. I hope he recovers to put in some strong performances. Contador was a surprize winner.

Little Darwin

Too bad Versus is only televising again next Sunday, showing stage 8, and a summary of the rest of the week... I guess I'll have to see what their web site's summaries are like while I wait.

Sci-Fi

This good enough?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dukibSDbFPk

gear

Anyone else think Contador will win Paris-Nice, Giro, TDF and Vuelta this year?

thump55

Added to my list of things I will never have to worry about:

- A helicopter covering my time trial slowing me down because it's too close (B. Wiggins)

40 Cent

David Millar's quote in the French press: ”You don’t win three big Tours in one year if you don’t have something special. And then we tend to forget that he’s young and improving. That’s crazy. He really is impressive. It doesn’t look too good for Armstrong… “

Little Darwin

Is he scheduled to race all four?

If so, I think it is possible... but it would be tough. The other teams/racers will obviously work hard to keep it from happening by taking the lead at any opportunity, as he will be marked as the one to beat.

Of course, we are talking about a rider who was called at the last minute to race in the Giro last year, and won it. There is also little doubt that he has a strong enough team to support him in the attempt. I think it depends partly on his health/endurance, whether anything like an accident or mechanical happens at the wrong moment, and on the team priorities.

LostViking

It's early on yet and a lot of racing to be done, but Contador looks to be in form that we can seriously consider the possibility.

However, I suspect Contador really wants the TdF and perhaps the Vuelta as well. We know Lance wants the Giro something bad - perhaps that's where LA and Conti will have their falling out?

I'm sure Conti would like to win Paris-Nice as well, but not at the price of burning out before the TdF.

That said, Conti will take Paris-Nice unless the opposition wakes up and smells the coffee, but if they do, I wonder if this is a big enough prize to lay it all on the line to win it? I suspect the other teams might push really hard to see how much Conti and Astana are willing to invest in a Paris-Nice win. In any event, we'll at least have our answer to that one on Sunday.

40 Cent

Contador is not riding the Giro to focus on the Tour de France according to reports I've read. Contador going all out in Paris-Nice won't have an affect on his tour; there's plenty of time in between. Riding the Giro might have, which is why he's abstaining (although I bet he could manage it). Lance and Alberto are scheduled to ride together in the Tour of Castilla y Leon later in March. A couple mountain-top finishes will be fun to see.

Sci-Fi

Maybe 3 out of the 4 and skip the Giro. Many now feel there's not enough recovery or training time between the Giro and TdF to realistically win both. Plus the team would be under a lot of pressure to keep Contador in front and defend challenges. Astana is a strong team, but is susceptible to burning out its support riders too.

Lance said he needed to lose some pounds, so who knows if he can do it and still be competitive in the Giro. Winning one of the other Grand Tours would deflect criticism that he was only interested in the TdF and cement his legacy as one of the greats.

2wheeled

I have not heard anything that Contador was riding the Giro, I think that's the main reason LA is riding it. However, if he's riding the other 3, then yes, he could well win them all.

2wheeled

Did you all see how Haussler punched out of the peloton with 250 to go. The overhead shot showed an impressive kick with plenty of time to celebrate.

Suzie Green

Unfortunately I have seen no video of Monday's stage, relying only on the write up on the Cycling News site. Renshaw is apparently pretty darn fast himself, what with successfully leading out Cavendish in the ToC, so Haussler's win must have been impressive enough!

2wheeled

Check it out Suzie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjPEx...eature=channel

Suzie Green

Wow! He came out of there like somebody gave him a track sling! It's like he got 10 meters on everyone and nobody could close the gap. Fortunately too for Contador, that crash came in the last 3 km!