The TTT is back!

What are we waiting for? Let’s start now! Al Trautwig is as prepared now as he’ll ever be!

He says there,

“One word sums up the Tour route for me, ‘interesting.’ It’s really going to draw out the general classification riders pretty early on so I’m going to have to be very attentive throughout the race. Just like this year, though, it could come down to the wire on Ventoux. It’s going to be a very tiring race.”

That’s the thing. GC guys will be involved very early on. Waiting to peak for the Alps will be a losing strategy.

Nice all-in-one summary at steephill

From a local point of view, around here we are very excited with the addition of the 4th climb on stage 17 – the Col de Romme.

This is an amazing little road – not very well known and very steep. It starts near the start of the classic north side of Col de la Colombière but climbs the side of a cliff and ends up well above the normal route, then descends down and rejoins it.

The descent will give viewers a mandatory helicopter shot of the Chartreuse de Reposoir 12th century monastery – stunning.

It’s an exciting new addition that turns a category one climb into a Hors Categorie climb.

It’s a little extra fun when they add a great unknown local route to the tour

“Racing the Ventoux on the penultimate stage! It’s daring. If the Tour can be decided there, it would be fantastic.”

“It’s for a strong rider, it’s that simple. All the typical ingredients are there, with the mountains, the time trials and the addition of Ventoux. The strongest rider wins every Tour and I can’t see this being any different. With regards to our invitation, I’ve not had any indication that we won’t be allowed to race next year. In fact we signed an agreement with the teams that promises we’ll be at the start. Alberto comes for sure, but we’re not sure about Lance [Armstrong] yet. But you have to know that the reason he’s coming back is due to his mission on cancer. We can’t say for sure about the Tour until we see how he goes in his first races at the Tour Down Under and the Tour of California. At this moment we’ll design a programme to get him ready for the Giro d’Italia.”

“If he [Lance Armstrong] doesn’t feel an atmosphere of respect and serenity, he won’t do it [the Tour]. For him, the goal of a comeback is not linked to an obsession to win an eighth Tour.”

“Nothing has been decided yet. We know that Lance will definitely race the Giro d’Italia. For the Tour, it’s still 50-50. But one thing’s for sure. He’s fitter at this period of the year in 2008 than he was, say, in 2003 or 2004.”

“His [Lance Armstrong’s] chances of doing the Tour are 50-50 for the moment. We have to see if he is physically able to cope with it. Personally, I think he is capable. Today is October 22, 2008 and I can tell you he is in better shape than on October 2003 or 2004 because he used to take a big break after the Tour. He now needs to get this extra one per cent that will make the difference. He is here to raise awareness of his fight against cancer. He is not obsessed by the Tour.”

“I am a little shocked by the course, this is not typical. But as long as all the ingredients are present, it is difficult that the best rider does not win. Over the past 20 years, it is always the best rider won.”

“I like this Tour de France. I really think that everything will be decided before the Mont Ventoux but for the one wearing the yellow jersey at this moment, there will be a terrible pressure. In the head, it will be extremely tough. The individual time trials are shorter than usual and I will not lose a lot of time. There is also this wonderful finish in Barcelona that makes me dream, at the summit of the Montjuic hill where I won when I was young. To do it again would be fantastic.”

“I am delighted with the renewal of our engagement as sponsor of the maillot jaune. For a large bank like LCL it is an exceptional opportunity to show ourselves to our clients and the public.”

"It is a long and difficult, very different, different than the previous Tour stages with slightly longer and shorter time trial and difficult. The prologue of Monaco will be very selective and technical. The preparation will require long time, concentration and work teams. However, this Tour will be exciting for the spectators. The return of Armstrong is a good thing, which increases the interest in this sport. "

“If there’s one person who can come out of retirement and win the Tour it is Lance Armstrong.”

“One word sums up the Tour route for me, ‘interesting.’ It’s really going to draw out the general classification riders pretty early on so I’m going to have to be very attentive throughout the race. Just like this year, though, it could come down to the wire on Ventoux. It’s going to be a very tiring race. On paper I’d say that it’s a really good Tour for Astana – perhaps even made for them. We’ll have to see if Lance rides but even without him they’re a really strong team. My team is also shaping up really nicely. Of course we lost someone this month [Kohl] but it’s good to catch the cheats and I’m always going to stand up for the fight against doping. But it’s a loss to lose a rider so late in the season, but we have Tomas Dekker and Charley Wegelius. I’ll be much better supported in the mountains next year.”

"It [signing Kohl] looked on paper to be the perfect situation, a guy that good who wants to come to the team and work for us, [and] obviously a bit more support in the mountains. It looked like a good situation, we’re all set, and then there’s a spanner in the works. There is no one to replace him. Climbers of that caliber, there aren’t that many in the world."

“The classification is going to be fought from the start right to the finish.”

“Twice I’ve finished just off the top step of the podium, so I have to believe I’ve got a chance.”

“It’s murderous. You could lose six minutes on that climb [Ventoux] alone, and the Tour with it. The team who comes out of the Pyrenees with the yellow jersey is going to find the second week long.”

“It’s a strange Tour. We’ll be going to new places that we’ve never been to before. The organisers are saying that there are ten flat stages but I don’t agree with them. I think the stages they’re talking about will be a lot harder and better suited to Tom Boonen than Mark Cavendish. We’ll also look forward to the time trials. We have riders that will be able to compete in [Stijn] Devolder and [Sylvain] Chavanel. Last year, Devolder was sick before the Tour even began and that really affected his form. We had to right off the Tour for him right there and then but we learnt a lot and next year he’ll be doing less in him preparation. He’ll be aiming to win, but he’ll be doing a lot less riding to get there.”

“You can definitely say that it’s a lot different to previous years. To me it looks very spectacular and you could envisage the overall changing all the time. The race certainly won’t be boring from a spectator’s point of view. The course also suits my leader Christian Vande Velde down to the ground. The first time trial will be good for him and he’s better than all the climbers on a course like that. They’ll be the ones chasing him up the overall perhaps. On a personal level though, it’s all about the Monaco time trial and then the team time trial later on. But overall, it’s going to be about Christian and working for him. The whole team will be geared towards this.”

"If the big teams tell themselves ’let’s wait’ in the Pyrenees, you could have other riders building impressive gaps with attacks a long way from the finish," competition director said."

"The Ventoux will blow things up."

“I think he [Lance Armstrong] will rapidly realize that things are not the same. […] I will believe it when I see him on a bike. A three-year break is a long time.”

“The Tour de France is the greatest race in the world, it is its duty to go abroad.”

“The objectives of the race designers nevertheless remain exactly the same: to provide a varied terrain, in terms of both sport and aesthetics, in order to fire the imagination of champions and thrill enthusiasts, and to stimulate interest and suspense throughout the event.”

"No one will be able to say ‘alright, I won the Tour because I have a 2:30-advantage before the penultimate stage.’ But I will not say that Contador is going to say that he does not like the route."

"Nobody will be able to say they’ve won the race before they cross the finish line of the Ventoux. Nothing will be certain beforehand."

“The stage is set for a dream of a landmark finale, exactly twenty years after the most extraordinary final in the history of the tour. Never, in over one hundred years, has a mountain been so close to Paris.”

“It is up to him [Lance Armstrong] to decide whether he wants to come or not. His return would neither be a bad, nor a good thing. Of course he is a special character, but for the Tour he is a rider like others. We never had any direct contact with Armstrong. Riding the Tour or not will be his decision.”

“You may have noticed we tried to erase the images of certain riders who shone at this year’s race. It is not an omission, it is not a mistake. They have no place in the annals of the Tour de France.”

“It’s a really hard climb and at the end of the Tour de France can give us big, big surprises.”

"[Route so tough I would] not even think of winning. There are some tough passes but also very hard parts between the mountain stages."

“Watching the images from this year brought back a lot of good memories for me. But as ever it’s going to be a hard Tour de France. What else would you expect? A lot of the riders and I were sitting here and we all thought that it was a spectacular route. On a personal level I’m glad that the time trials are a little bit shorter than this year and that the mountain top finishes will be decisive. They’ll be good battleground for me and will allow me to ride to my strengths. I’m very motivated and I’ll aim to win, why not? My new team is looking strong too. I have Thor Hushovd and I have guys around me who know what it’s like to win big races and stages of the Tour. You can count on us being ready.”