flythebike

He's the next American Tour Winner-hopeful-guy! Well I guess with flandis suspended facing a hip operation even if he beats the rap, Hincapie going back to being a classics contender (his true calling anyway), Tyler Hamilton eyeing a possible life ban, Saul Raisin busy learning to tie his shoes again (brain injuries totally suck, poor guy), and Tom Danielson looking at his first Tour in 2007, Levi is all we got left. Much love Levi!

Could be worse, I could be French or Belgian, English or Italian, those guys don't really seem to have any contenders at all.

And we've got some guys who can pull of stage wins, times have been worse.

So, while Euro wishing the mainstream American's a good day on the lake or the links may be true for the masses, at least the good ole USA's faithful still have some guys to root for.

erader

levi will never win the tour. he's not good enough and has too many bad days. he's exciting to watch ike claudio chiapucci but just can't put it all together.

ed rader

flythebike

Yeah well these days you never know. Nobody thought Pereiro could win. But I think your comparison of him to Chiapucci is interesting and it has some validity. At this point though Chiapucchi had a lot more success than Levi has.

But yeah he has had too many bad days. But don't forget this year I think he took his best shot in June at the Dauphine, becuase he needed to get himself something assured, and I don't think he though he had a real chance at the tour with Basso and Ully set to line up, then everything changed...maybe being with Disco next year they'll encourage him to level all guns at the Tour.

1slowbastard

Riding for Disco isn't going to change things much for Levi. He is good enough for the top ten, but will never win the Tour.

a_fire_inside

I'm not so sure abou that. I know Levi has been a top 10 rider for the last few years, but next year he will have a team that can drop the hammer. Gerolsteiner and Rabobank are no DIscovery. We may be surprised.

Maybe I'm just dreaming.

Laggard

Liek they did this year?

Rabobank had a much better TDF this year than Discovery did.

simplify

Agreed. He's the Sasha Cohen of cycling. And, he's now been linked to Dr. Ferrari, so he's probably not even clean. But then, who is? Besides maybe David Millar.

scroll down to mid-page
https://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?...l06/jul06news4

rgerve

If Leipheimer is the best American rider, than the USA may have a short drought of top ten finishers. Unlike the "Euros" who had 7 of the top ten, including 2 Frenchman. Also including several stage wins by "euros" and 2 by Frenchman.
I personally like American riders. But you seem to be ignorant about europeans and particularly of what it takes to race as a pro.

erader

i think the first TT was a tell for levi. your team can't help you in the race of truth .

ed rader

flythebike

Yeah the Germans have Kloden. But c'mon, you really think Christophe Moreau is the next Yellow Jersey? Other than Cunego, who is a poor time trialist, who do the Italians have but Basso? No Brits, are GC riders, and no Belgians. I didn't say the Euros have no shot. I respect Moreau, and he continues to turn in great rides but I don't think he's going to see the podium. It was nice to see what Dessel did this year but he cannot TT at all. Levi has at least won the Dauphine and Tour of Germany, but for sure it is a leap from doing well in a week long stage race to a three week race. I mean nobody is talking about Bobby Julich winning the Tour and he is a proven week-long stage racer.

This post for me was somewhat tongue-in-cheek, because while Levi is nothing to sneeze at, he doesn't exactly inspire fear, does he?

Debateable whether Mechov is a Euro or not, Zubeldia and Pereiro from Spain, with Sastre. Throw in Aussie Cadel Evans and you have your top ten.

I mean really what you see is that none of those guys are perfect, none of them are infallible, they all have shown weakness and have had bad days.

I'd love to be a bookmaker these days because it is going to get awful hard to make picks next year. NO safe bets.

flythebike

Levi is a weak time trialist on some courses. But he has done some top five time trials in stage races. This year I really, really think that he psyched himself out of the Tour before the race started, and when Basso and Ulrich got kicked out, he had already lost the race becuase, as he admitted as the race started, his training was off-line. Basically he pulled a Mayo ('04 Dauphine winner), only it wasn't quite as bad.

But just becuase he didn't peak for the Tour I'm not saying he woulda-coulda-shoulda won, just saying he didn't line up with the right stuff to be competitive this year. Perhaps Disco will let him put all his eggs in the Tour basket next year - it'll be fun to see if that changes him.

erader

levi is from northern cali like me and i think he's exciting to watch and i certainly wish him the best. i recall the first time i saw him.............

ed rader

EURO

Let's keep out fingers crossed that Levi wins by three major contenders being removed due to drug scandals and being gifted 30 mins in a tactical error! Go Levi!

G. Bucci

Levi excels at shorter stage races. Tour of Germany, Dauphine and a good showing at the tour of Swiss. There's nothing wrong with that. It shows that he is a very strong rider, but a 3 week tour will always be out of his grasp.

On Team Discovery, I would go with Popo.

Helmet Head

Levi finished 6th in the 2005 Tour. You can't say a race is out of someone's grasp who can finish 6th to the likes Armstrong, Ullrich, Basso, Mancebo and Vinokourov, three of which are heavily implicated in doping scandals. If it were shown that Ullrich, Basso and Mancebo cheated in 2005 and they were thrown out, that would put Vino in 2nd and Levi on the podium.

I wouldn't bet a lot of money on him winning, but I certainly wouldn't rule it out. With the help of Lance, Bruyneel and the whole Disco organization, it could definitely happen.

flythebike

Ahhahahaa.

Yeah but my point still carries don't you think? The Tour is a really race-type-race now, not this super-controlled (no pun intended) kind of race that we saw in the Lance Armstrong era.

While I wouldn't characterize him as a favorite, he is a solid outsider who can't be ruled out in this era.

TdG *SPOILER** (kind-of)

I've enjoyed watching him in the Tour of Germany on cycling dot tv, also Jens Voight, a rider I like very much. Will be fun to see the ITT tomorrow.

flythebike

I may have spoken too soon about Cyril Dessel?

https://www.cyclingnews.com/road.php?.../tourdelain061

Nice to see him confirm his good ride in the Tour. Still has to be able to tt though...

Bacciagalupe

Just a smidgen. He did come in 7th (soon to be 6th), after all, and had a few excellent hill days IIRC. Too bad he didn't earn the right to wear the MJ on Bastille Day -- well, there's always next year.

Also Cunego put on a damned fine performance this year. I doubt he'll take the MJ in 2007 but he looks like a strong contender down the road.

How you can root for a guy who looks like an accountant, though, is beyond me....

flythebike

Yeah as I have heard it said, Levi needs to 'notify his face.' He needs to let what he is feeling show a bit more? Perhaps it is his 'poker' face so the others don't know when to attack him?

I'll tell you one thing though, for a bland looking guy, his wife is smokin': https://www.tourofthegila.com/pics/2k...SSA%20GUNN.jpg
https://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...ssa_glam.shtml

He should let the rest of us see what she sees in him - the real person.

rgerve

Perhaps or Cyril Dessel - or someone else. There have been times in the past when 'weak' riders have won the tour because a Giant like MerckxHinaultIndurainArmstrong wasn't there. (Lemond?

flythebike

I suppose he has about as much chance as Leipheimer...or anybody else for that matter.

rgerve

Except that Leipheimer is too old and Disco seems to not have a clear direction for next year.

sweetjt

Yeah, it must really suck to have nothing but Tom Boonen to root for. The Belgians must be so miserable with nothing but a world champion.

Bacciagalupe

I like Boonen, but let's face it, he got his helmet handed to him by McEwen in this year's TdF:



Not to mention he bombed out in mid-Tour, leaving Axel as the highest-ranking Belgian.... at 31st (soon 30th) place. It's a far cry from the days of the Cannibal.

EURO

....Paris Roubaix winner, double Ronde winner etc etc etc.

The Belgians don't give a crap about the tour. Really.