Stage 1: Saturday, July 2 192 km Passage du Gois → Mont des Alouettes
 

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Zorro u never let us down! Thanks!

No prolog this year? Is this because of the TTT?

Oh good Lord...

I think it's going to be a dangerous stage for the GC contenders because a lot of people are going to be nervous and that often leads to crashes. If I were a GC contender I would definitely want to ride near the front to avoid trouble.

For the win, it would be a good stage for a sprinter that has a good uphill kick, such as Gilbert, Hushov, Pettacchi, or Freire (if he's recovered from his surgery).

They're not actually racing that part, just riding it. There will probably be some carnage on the normal roads, though.

Freire isn't starting.

Gilbert wins this one.

My question as well. I don't recall the Tour ever starting without a prologue. I suppose they'll explain why at some point.

EDIT: After some quick googling, it appears that there also wasn't a prologue in 2008. Shows you how good my memory is!

If you're into conspiracy theories you could say they got rid of the prologue to benefit Schleck. He lost 42 seconds to Contador last year.

I wonder how the ratings were for the prologues. TTs are kind of boring to watch and Cancellara takes all the suspense away.

yes, chapeau yet again for USAZORRO for putting all the tdf stage threads together. thank you.
uphill sprint finish? gotta go with gilbert, hushovd or cunego.

Boassen Hagen? or perhaps Rojas?

Only one individual TT as well. Interesting to see if AS can win this year.

On a recent recce Cav said "I've won on tougher finishes and been beaten on easier ones... So we'll see."

No prologue give sprinters a real chance for a yellow, even up hill finishes. I'd love to see The Cannonball in yellow..

I'll go with a dark horse sophomore Peter Velits.

Rojas

Two things:

Showing who has done what percentage of work on the front amongst the riders in the breakaway is AWESOME.

The new Road ID commercial with Bobke and Hincapie is HILARIOUS.

I'm looking forward to this intermediate sprint. I wonder how hard certain guys are going to go for it.

That was weird. What's the "spoiler status" of these threads? There's no warning in the title, so I'll abstain from commenting. There's a special level of hell for people who spoil TdF stages.

Very interesting sprint. A little disorganized, but it was fun. I know Garmin has been saying they're working for Farrar instead of Hushovd for green, and it looks like they were telling the truth. Could be interesting if Hushovd wins the stage, though.

I thought for a minute there that Cav was going to go for it, but I guess not.

There's a special level of hell for people who whine about spoilers. These threads always have spoilers in them.

Edit: Check this thread for confirmation.

HTC weren't in sync. His easing off was a couple of points lost.

Definitely. Maybe he wasn't just being coy when he said he wasn't going for green. He has no chance for victory today, so he might as well have used all of his energy there. I'm not sure he has the mentality to go for minor points like that. It's either first place or nothing for him. Serves him well at the end of races, but not for the green jersey. It could be a tight race and he needs all the points he can get.

That's the spirit :rolleyes:

Correct