After the announcement of the Tour de France parcours last month, two stages in particular were singled out by the various talking-heads: the penultimate stage to the Ventoux, and the team time trial. While the Ventoux easily steals the imagination, some believe that the real damage will be done in the 38km stage four Montpellier TTT, with real times being taken and no artificial lessening of the losses. Already a minor war of words seems to be being stoked between the two American Pro Tour teams as to which of them is bestest at the TTT.

At the Tour's parcours presentation one team couldn't hide their glee at the prospect of the TTT - Garmin. Jonathan Vaughters suggested that the stage might even have been purpose-built for his squad:

"The Tour organizers must like us. They brought back the team time trial and are going through our hometown [Girona]. I think we'll have a lot of visiting friends and family the night before. It [the TTT] will be good for us. And there will be no stupid time restrictions as in the past. The fastest time wins. That's what gives us a big advantage."

In Vaughter's view, there was one clear favourite for the stage:

"We are the favourites to win [the TTT]. It’s perfect for our team to have a chance to win a stage and take the yellow jersey. It’s also a good chance for Christian [Vande Velde] to take time on the climbers."

He even went so far as to offer a prediction as to how much damage that stage could cause:

"If everything goes right there we could give Christian Vande Velde a minute and a half lead after the team time trial. That would make things interesting."

Speaking to VN later in the month, Vaughters was still bubbling over with glee, though downscaling a little his hoped for advantage at the end of the stage:

"With the team we have, even if we have a Dan Martin in the line up, to help Christian in the mountains, which we didn’t really do this year, with a team of [David] Millar, [Tyler] Farrar, [Dave] Zabriskie, Svein [Tuft] and Christian [Vande Velde], we could put a minute into the next team and really set the foundation for our GC possibilities on that."

Even individual Garmin riders have highlighted the TTT. Bradley Wiggins, speaking to CN about his 2009 schedule, looked forward to the Tour's TTT:

"I can't wait really; just talking to them [Garmin], it feels right. I've had my programme through and I'm really excited about it. The Tour has been announced and there's a team time trial, you know, we should have a real good shot at it."

Ryder Hesjedal similarly bigged up Garmin's TTT chances:

"The TTT is a welcome addition and very good for our team, as we showed in the Giro that we are capable of winning!"

Nor could Trent Lowe hide his excitement:

"Next year’s Tour course should be great for our team of very strong time trialists. Watch out for the two Daves in the opening stage! For me it will mean that my helmet will need to be well strapped on for the team’s edition of the time trial!"

For David Millar, the disgraced former ITT World Champion, it wasn't just about the team, but also about his own personal hopes, with his Tour boiling down to two stages:

"On a personal level [...] it's all about the Monaco time trial and then the team time trial later on."

Some though are already getting their backs up a bit at Garmin's presumption that the TTT is theirs, without even a pedal being turned in anger. Over in the Comic, Columbia's Mark Cavendish pours a soupçon of scorn on Garmin's dreams:

"Everyone seems to be thinking Garmin are going to win it because they've got a load of individual time trial riders, but they're not going to have it all their own way. The best team time trial squad is not made simply by putting nine individual time trialists together. Remember when Real Madrid signed six of the best players in the world and didn't win the league?"

Real Madrid? Is Cavendish comparing Garmin's decision to sign so many TT specialists with the Spanish soccer squad's galáctico strategy? Vaughters, for one, might dispute such a description. In a recent CN interview, he suggested that the reason Garmin excelled at something like the TTT was down to him worrying more about whether his new recruits had the right personality than star-power wattage:

"what people don't realise is that the reason we're so good at 'unity' events like the team time trial or days that the team really has to sacrifice itself to keep things together is because I've chosen personalities that are compatible and can see the bigger picture – intelligent riders. We don't really have any big heads. [...] We always operate as a unit – there's a lot you can do in terms of training camps and team bonding that helps that along. At the end of the day it's the people you pick in the beginning who really allow that to happen. Quite frankly, we didn't pick any mercenaries. We picked guys who wanted to be part of something bigger than just themselves alone."

Nonetheless, Cavendish is still looking forward to serving up some schadenfreude come the Tour's TTT:

"I think it's dangerous for Garmin to assume they are going to win it because they've got all these individual time trialists. It doesn't work like that. I can't wait until they get beaten by a team of sprinters."

A team of sprinters? Like, maybe, I dunno, Columbia? Cavendish explains to the Comic how this logic might actually work:

"I really think that with the number of sprinters in our team, we will do well, because the hardest bit about a team time trial is not when you are at the front, it's the sprint effort you have to do to get back on the end of the line. Your personal effort goes up and down but the team effort should be constant."

Rolf Aldag, Columbia's DS, was initially a bit more cool on the TTT than his star sprinter and not making any promises:

"The TTT will be hard, but I love to see it in the Tour."

And all Alan Peiper would offer was that

"the team time trial is going to put a lot of pressure on the favourites early on. A guy like Cadel Evans, for example, will need to get two minutes on someone like Alberto Contador."

Cavendish - who some have suggested might be carrying a tad too much arrogance - does pull back from promising certain victory for the Columbians:

"Seriously, we may not win it, but no one can assume they will either. There's CSC, Astana, us, a lot of good teams who can beat them."

When he was asked about the TTT, CSC's DS Kim Andersen didn't allow either of the American squads to figure in this thoughts. For him, there was just one team to beat:

"I'm looking forward to a good fight with Astana in that TTT!"

Those reality checks though don't stop Cavendish kicking sand in Garmin's face:

"Everyone will prepare for the team time trial at the Tour and it'll be extremely competitive. I am not saying we will definitely beat Garmin or that we'll definitely win it, but you can't just look at Garmin's team and see Dave [Millar], Brad [Wiggins] and the others are in it so they're going to win it. It doesn't work like that. I think we're a faster team."

So ya boo to you Garmin, you suck. According to the Manxman.

No team, of course, rules themselves out of contention for such a stage. Quick Step's DS Wifred Peeters offered this:

"I think the TTT will be good for us."

And Marc Sergeant felt that some of his new signings would make Silence-Lotto a contender:

"With that long time trial [in Monaco] the favourites will have to show themselves early. That goes also for the team time trial. We made good moves taking on Thomas Dekker and Sebastian Lang."

And then there's Alejandro Valverde, who would really, really, really like Santa to bring him a grand tour victory in 2009:

"I'm concerned about the 40km time trial near the end of the Tour because such long distances are not good for me. There is also a team time trial, and Caisse d'Epargne usually does well in these."

Of course, there's always Astana. Levi Leipheimer doesn't doubt their chances in a discipline Johan Bruyneel's riders have typically excelled in:

"Having the team time trial back is cool to see again, especially now that I am on a team that has a good chance of winning and putting time into everyone else."

But, as with Cavendish, Leipheimer tries to mask his inner arrogance with an outer shell of humility:

"I don’t want to come off like we’re talking a big game, but we have a strong team. And there’s the experience of this organisation of having won the team time trial in the Tour before, that goes a long way. I’m not going to say we’re going to win because that’s bad karma. I’m excited about it."

In any consideration of various teams 2009 TTT hopes, there's been a few TTTs in 2008 which ought be taken into consideration. The Tour of Qatar in January offered a 6km course, and Quick Step completed it two seconds quicker than Garmin. At the Settimana Ciclistica Internazionale Coppi e Bartali in March, Liquigas came out best over an 11.8km course. In April, at the Tour de Georgia Garmin trumped Astana by four seconds over a 16km course, with Columbia a further four seconds back and CSC seven seconds behind them. The following month, over the Giro d'Italia's 23.6km course, Garmin were again best of the bunch, six seconds faster than CSC, seven seconds up on Columbia and twenty-nine seconds faster than seventh-placed Astana. In August's Vuelta a España TTT, it was Liquigas who took the most risks to finish fastest over 7.7km. And in September, at the Tour de Pologne, a 4km TTT saw CSC taking seven seconds out of sixth placed Columbia, and twelve seconds out of twelfth-placed Astana. Make of those stats what you will.

The benefits of a good TTT outfit are clearly not just be confined to the Tour. With the Giro opening with a flat and fast 21km TTT along the Lido in Venice, it could be a major decider there of who will wear the maglia rosa for the race's early days, if not at the end of the race. While all the talk so far has been about the Tour's TTT, all promises made now will have to be backed up by action at the Giro and the TTTs that will come before that. Words spoken today could come back to haunt some teams next year.