Wow! Tough decisions and great perspective. Now I respect you even more.

Red Rider,

I think I recall you going through a similar spell some time ago. I also think when something pisses you off you get extra motivated and come out swinging.

You got your group hug. Hermes advice was spot on, now just HTFU.;)

I like the way Wiggins has trained: very focused on exactly what is needed to win. I also like the team philosophy, which is to go out to win every time: to get the yellow and hold onto it. It's going to be a really interesting tour.

If he pulls it off, cycling is going to go stratospheric in the UK. The track team, especially in Beijing, and Cavendish in successive Tours, have already raised its profile dramatically. Hoy won the BBC Sports personality of the year competition (highly prestigious over here) in 2008, the first cyclist to do so since Tom Simpson in 1965. Cavendish won it last year. As a result there are more and more kids getting into racing, and cities - especially London - are stuffed with cycle commuters. MAMILs (middle-aged men in lycra) are all over the place. But all this will be as nothing if Wiggo wins the big one, we'll go ballistic.

I thought the article was good and it was more matter of fact than over confidence. VAM can be converted to watts/kg but is a better metric for the public to digest and it is easy to make comparisons. The 6.7 watts/kg metric to win the tour is more esoteric and few cyclists divulge their real power numbers. However, climbing times are easily determined and public.

With Andy Schleck out of the tour, the main competition is Evans. Winning the tour will be determined by who has the best team and form in the last week.

Like you, Cleave, I opted for CBR over Masters States. I was flip-flopping all week, but seeing the relatively stacked 50+ 2k field (including Ex) helped push me toward CBR. I wish I could do both, but they will probably be happening about the same time. I noticed Jay W. is signed up for both... they are right next to each other, but will be tight.

I also hope to make the afternoon session of the July 7th TT. Although that morning is my club's annual TT event (20k up PCH, Trancas to The Rock). So we'll see.

Not riding the tour this year is IMO the best decision Andy ever made.

Evans hasn't had the greatest team support, other than Hincapie, but then Hincapie knows when and how to get someone on the podium. I think Wiggo has the overall team advantage, notwithstanding the need to get Cav to the line. However, I proved last year that I suck at fantasy cycling, so I wouldn't listen to anything I say. I'm in three leagues this year (BF and Faster on Velogames, and an AZ group on NBC). We'll see if I've learned anything. I could probably improve my results by reading the scoring rules more closely, but that would be like doing core exercises.

Oh, and a note to George: The legs of your bib-shorts need to be longer, and they need sticky strips! It's like wearing a damned speedo!

Exactly. You have to go back to Armstrong in 2002 to find a Dauphine winner who didn't implode in the Tour, and that's a guy who didn't do much of anything that year to that point. Mayo looked imperious at the Dauphine and abandoned the Tour.

I like where Cadel is right now.

Team-wise I wouldn't bet against a lot of sniping if either one of the Sky stars starts to think they are getting short sheeted. I don't think there's a lot of love lost after their Olympic blow up.

The other wildcard will be one of those 20 minute breaks. I can see the other teams firing a lot of guys out there to force Sky to chase.

It'll be an interesting Tour in any case.

The team with the yellow jersey controls the front of the peloton and who gets in a break. But for the team time trial, the team adds no value in the ITTs and generally, the GC men duke it out on the mountain top finishes. Granted, having a couple of very strong climbers who can decimate the peloton to a Wiggins or Evans advantage is valuable but the contenders will be there together anyway. A key to winning the tour, according to Bruyneel, is not having the yellow jersey all the time and allowing other racers to win stages that do not impact the GC standings hence conserving GC energy. Defending the yellow jersey day after day, is too hard and it is important for a team to have the legs so that they can take whatever steps are necessary to put the leader in the best position to increase or hold his lead.

It would be great to see Team Sky and Wiggins dominate the tour and Wiggins win every key stage. Many people criticize modern racing because no one goes out and wins everything like Merckx did. However, there is a dark side to being too good. My prediction is that if Team Sky and Wiggins do really well and dominate, the press are going to scream drugs even if there is not a shred of proof. They will use innuendo and he said she said to create stories. I sincerely hope that does not happen. The theory will be no one is that good.

What shovel said....
Finally getting back on the bike, family going out of town for a week...me home alone....:) riding till legs and stress fall off.

I think the approach Sky has been taking is that, while it places a burden on the team, it is easier on the GC contender to cover attacks and not get dropped than it is to have a succesful attack to make up time and take the lead. Look at what happened with Cadel trying last ditch mountain attacks to try and get back in the game after losing too much in the TT. Huge heroic effort, but it didn't work. Wiggins gets ahead, and then does just what is needed to stay there. My big question is, if it plays out with Wiggins ahead early on (he has been a TT demon), how is the team needing to chase breaks going to impact Cav? Will there be anyone left at the end to lead him out? I guess I've become a Sky fan-boy, as I'm hoping they can balance everything and pull it off. It's going to take some strong leadership to do it, that's for sure.

A little bit of that might work in their favor. Nobody works harder than someone trying to prove a point.

Cavendish is not the only sprinter. Other teams with sprinters will chase breaks and in reality a sprinter only needs one good lead out man. And Cavendish has proven he can win without one.

So do, some don't. Wiggans has historically done poorly outside of a cocoon where people are blowing smoke up his arse.

He can, but he will be challenged for the green this year. IMO that will be the most exciting part of Le Tour 2012.

A'Jet, Was this your maiden ride?

I read he's down 9 pounds for the Olympics, willingly sacrificing some power to get over the road race climb.

Cav can be obnoxious, ill-spoken, and a whiner at times but I've never questioned his desire to win. I think he'd slice his own head off before pulling a Schleck and saying he was happy with second.

He's one of those guys that you almost don't want to beat because you know it just makes him try harder.

Cav's 5 Tour wins in 2010 including two after Renshaw was thrown out for head butting and cutting off another rider.

I forced myself to take the day off, and a miserable day off it was. It was darned near perfect weather, too.

OTOH, I'm well-rested for tomorrow's TT.

I'm opting to wear the maglia rosa jersey tomorrow, instead of last year's skinsuit. We plan to pin our jerseys into submission. As of 9 pm PDT we're the only tandem racing. We'll see the truth tomorrow. Results to follow.

Hmmm...you might be right re the similar spell. You're spot-on re your second sentence.

I have a black wristband. Sometimes I forget to look at it.

Today I was called "dumb f***ing c***" by a New Yorker in a fancy pickup who took up 2 parking spaces. Once the insult settled (I'm not accustomed to such epithets) I was yelling at a truck out of earshot. It was NSFW. I was extra-p*ssed that I didn't get the last word.

I'm back...heh, heh.

RR,
Just keep your signature line in mind when you get discouraged!

I'm going to have the temerity to disagree with RacerEx and say that barring accidents, Wiggins will win. And I don't think for one moment that Cav will give up the points jersey without a fight.

I'm not planning to race again until mid-August, so broke my training schedule today to do my local sportive. It's become a big event, 4500 riders, about half of them doing the 104-mile, >7000ft of climbing ride. It's a course for climbers, really, which I am emphatically not, but I took it at a relatively leisurely pace, finishing in 7hrs 23 mins including timing/food stops, about 6:50 on the bike. And I rode the 20miles each way to the start, so all in all that was a pretty big day on the bike. Back to my endurance riding roots.

Windiest TT I've ever done -- really glad to have c_gallagh in front. The wind was absolutely non-stop and brutal. What else would it be in the middle of a wind turbine farm? :rolleyes:

Our team did well -- the tandem and women's 3/4 2-woman teams took first. :thumb: The men's 4-man team was DFL and rather embarrassed. :lol:

Not bad for a girl from New Jersey! Coming from a girl from New York:p!!!

RR, I'm a bit pissed you didn't get the last word on that ***h*le in the pickup truck, too. You being from the Garden State, I know you could have delivered a stinger. Yessssssssss....!

AJ absolutely NAILED IT on that second sentence. Channel it, girlfriend.

I'm so glad you're back!