Real deal GC contender? Or pretender?..your opinion? Columbia seems strong, but strong enough too support the yellow jersey...i hope so.

won't win

???? well evans have a quite weak team in the mountains, and popo is not doing that well... same situation. Valverde has the team, thats why everybody was waiting for him to do something today.

There are still some pure climbers in this race? doesnt like there are not many this year.

Things should shake out a lot more by the end of stage 10. For me, my money is on Menchov!

My man Menchov. Two time Vuelta a Espana winner.

Luxembourg sure is kicking &&& this year. 3 riders in the top 18 for a country the size of Rhode Island.

Menchov is the big favourite, nothing wrong with Valverde either.

Watch Kreuzinger.

I would love to see Vande Velde continue to ride strong. Its seems though that the Garmin team is trying to decide who to go with in the GC Millar or Vande Velde ...

Damn fine first name for a guy!

Maybe he could party with Lilian Jegou.

I had the privilege to be able to tour Team Columbia’s facility in San Luis Obispo and visit with Bob Stapleton, what a rush.

He's a tough guy, he won't win but won't leave easily.

He's from Luxembourg and no matter the outcome will give it everything that he's got.

from qpsblake:
Luxembourg sure is kicking &&& this year. 3 riders in the top 18 for a country the size of Rhode Island.

Thanks for noticing. My family still lives in Luxembourg and they're pretty proud of their cyclists.

Team Columbia is absolutely strong enough to defend. One could argue that they are, in fact, the strongest team in this year's tour. Now can Kirchen climb well enough in the high mountains? That's the real question.

... Brad

+1 All my hopes are on Columbia and Kirchen. They sure haven't disappointed so far!

THe good about this year is that there are not serious climbers. I mean probably there are some around but is not that noticeable as last year with soler, rassmussen and others. Thats good for Evans and Kirchen.

+1 on Team Columbia. Looking at Kirchen's results from last year, it's hard to see him keeping pace in the high mountains, but he was tough and consistent enough to finish 7th last year, so with some of the contenders absent and a bit of improvement, a move up is possible. he has not been really gapped on any climbs so far this year, and that's more than a lot of people can say.

i have hope for kirchen, i just don't see evans or menchov closing the deal, especially evans. i wanna see it go to someone who's aggressive and who goes after it, not sits and defends and waits for it to come to them.