Apologies if I'm stepping on anyone's toes, but I was out riding and had the thought that I'd like to do a regularly updated feature about the race for the Green Jersey. Chris did a great preview here, and I see Ursula did another good post specifically dealing with how to beat Cav here. A lot of stuff from today's stage is already covered there. But there was more that happed today than just Cav, and I think it's fun to look at it, and I'd love your input. This all comes from watching the Vesus coverage and then looking at the video on Wielerflits site.

Your overall top 10:

1.	CAVENDISH Mark	71	TEAM COLUMBIA - HTC	35 pts
2.	FARRAR Tyler	53	GARMIN - SLIPSTREAM	30 pts
3.	FEILLU Romain	175	AGRITUBEL	26 pts
4.	HUSHOVD Thor	6	CERVELO TEST TEAM	24 pts
5.	ARASHIRO Yukiya	142	BBOX BOUYGUES TELECOM	22 pts
6.	CIOLEK Gerald	182	TEAM MILRAM	20 pts
7.	BONNET William	143	BBOX BOUYGUES TELECOM	19 pts
8.	ROCHE Nicolas	89	AG2R-LA MONDIALE	18 pts
9.	DE KORT Koen	193	SKIL-SHIMANO	17 pts
10.	MONDORY Lloyd	86	AG2R-LA MONDIALE	16 pts

 

Interested? Then follow me to the other side...

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Stage 2 Monaco - Brignoles 187 km

The highlights I'm watching started with 60 km to go as a category 4 climb. Jussi Veikkanev had been chasing the points over the three categorized climbs and after winning the climb over the L'Ange Pass he will get the Polka dot jersey at the end of the day. That jersey will soon be gone by the time a few decent mountain passes have been climbed. Soon after the breakaway of four was under siege from the peleton with Columbia pushing all their riders to the front. Anyway Veikkanen will be a happy man on the podium. The chances are that he will hold the jersey into Spain. At the 40 km mark the gap was 4 minutes; 4 km later the gap was two and a half minutes. It was clear that Mark Cavendish wanted a bunch sprint.

Soon after the bunch was back together the Columbia train started charging into the finish at Brignoles one by one the riders pulled off until at a kilometre to go when there was only three riders to go. The funniest moment of the tour so far transpired when a few riders missed one of the last corner. Going into the final straight the Renshaw, Cavendish and Farrar group started to come away from the peleton. With 200m to go Cavendish went past Renshaw. Farrar tried to stay in Cavendish but in sprinting perfection Farrar couldn't and Cavendish claimed the first mass-start stage in the Tour de France.

 

 

Now the question is when will Mark Cavendish stop.  

Poll

How many stages will Mark Cavendish win

• 1-2
• 2-3
• 4-5
• 6+

  8 votes | Results

Has anyone opted for the (pay) subscription to Versus' live streaming yet? 

I guess it will be a bigger issue tomorrow morning when many of us are at work...   Silly me, when I heard Versus would be live streaming, I didn't even thing about it being pay-per-view.  Viewing is available as either a full package or on a single stage basis. 

Thoughts?

So much to read, watch and do for the next 3 weeks!

Poll

Will you purchase vs online access?

• Already signed up!
• Still considering the whole package.
• Might do it for a few key stages if nothing crazy is going on at work...
• Pay for Vs? Seriously?

  10 votes | Results

 

They rode this exact same course as last year’s Stage 4, and then Fabiana Luperini gained a minute on Edita Pucinskaite, with Tatiana Guderzo taking 3rd a further 30s back, and 4th place Claudia Hausler coming in 20s later. So this will be one of the key stages of the race, a good day to throw a sickie on Chris’ scale, if there was likely to be any live coverage. Even better for Luperini, this is her home region so there will be lots of supporters along the side of the road.

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Stage 1 Monaco - Monaco 15.5km ITT

 

Monaco was the home of the Grand Depart. Johann Bruyneel the director sportif of Astana was setting his riders out at weird times with Leipheimer and Armstrong out early. Lance set the first Time to beat at 20:12 with a brilliant pace set before the first time check at the top of the Cote de Beausoliel. That time was soon eclipsed by Tony Martin setting a time of 20:05 over the course. It took to Levi Leipheimer to beat the time set by Martin. The time didn't fall by much only by three seconds. It took till another Astana rider to tumble the time set by Levi the it was the German Andreas Kloden. Cadel Evans the hope of Australia came in falling short of the mark set by Kloden. It was the Brit Bradley Wiggins who took the time to 19:51. Still out on course was Fabian Cancellara and Alberto Contador who were both firing. At the Climb Contador had a 6 second advantage over the Olympic Champion. However the Swiss descended like a rock and by the finish seven and a half kilometres later he had improved on Wiggins' time by twenty second to 19:32. Contador finished shortly after a massive 16 seconds later. The tour is so far currently living up to its expectations. Tomorrow a flat stage is facing the bunch and the sprinters will be sure to want to stretch their legs. Standings

1	033	Fabian CANCELLARA		SAX	00:19:32	00:00:00
2	021	Alberto CONTADOR		AST	00:19:50	00:00:18
3	058	Bradley WIGGINS		GRM	00:19:51	00:00:19
4	023	Andréas KLÖDEN		AST	00:19:54	00:00:22
5	011	Cadel EVANS		SIL	00:19:55	00:00:23

 

Yesterday started out at the glamorous end of the Italian auto-industry, beside the Ferrari test track at Mugello. Today’s time trial begins in Pontedera, home of a much more humble company, Pioggia, makers of the Vespa, and its utilitarian big brother (and a secret favourite of mine) the Ape. From there they head north to Bientina, then east to the finish at S. Maria a Monte, a small volcanic outcrop that the Florentines (who else) annexed and surrounded with walls to protect their western flank. Nowadays the annual cultural highlight is August’s "Sagra della Patata Fritta," the festival of the fried potato. I kid you not. The course is for the most part flat or not noticeably uphill untill the last seven hundred metres which have an average gradient of 4.5% and look very tight and twisty.

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Looking at today’s route from San Piero a Sieve to Pratolino di Vaglia, you think that maybe someone switched on the Garmin then got lost. Or maybe whoever was driving the car got carried away with the history of the area, because if you look at the photo on the right, the circuit of yesterday’s TT is clearly visible as the only two roads going through Scarperia. But then look to the right, by the red A. Anyone who knows Moto GP or is a fan of Ferrari might recognise the outline of the Mugello circuit. I wonder if the organisers secretly hoped to ride there instead? And before safety considerations stopped them, they even used to race on local roads.

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The Favourites

 

Cadel Evans though a strong rider does not have the depth in his team. His team has gone through three stages in the past three years the first stage was the team working for Robbie Mcewen and Evans. 2. Evans Mcewen in the team and in 2009 Evans. However the team is still unripened and Evans won't succeed.

 

Lance Armstrong or 'The Boss' Is trying to win an 8th Tour de France title.

Do I think he can win? At 37 years old and in the best team in the world he can I will admit the truth he can. Except for the fact that this man is on the same team

 

 

Alberto Contador is the worlds best grand tour rider in the space of fourteen months he won the Giro, Tour and Vuelta. Assuming he is the undisputed leader of Astana he will not be stopped. In 2007 his weakness was his time trialling but he has now turned into one of the worlds best time-triallists.

Carlos Sastre Last years winner does not have the team he had last year and that will prevent his victory as well as being one of the older riders in the peleton.

Andy Schleck If not for a hunger knock Andy Schleck could have won last years tour the strongest rider in the alps The hunger knock affected his chances

My Tips

5. Lance Armstrong

4. Carlos Sastre

3. Cadel Evans

2.Andy Schleck

1.Alberto Contador

Poll

Who Do you think will win the Tour de France

• Lance Armstrong
• Alberto Contador
• Cadel Evans
• Andy Schleck
• Carlos Sastre
• Other

  67 votes | Results

I just went to set up my DVR for the Tour and what should greet me? Until approximately 2am EST tomorrow, Vs has something Lance related every hour on the hour. For the next 8 hours it might as well be called the Lancus channel.

My question - does this surprise you, gentle viewer?

 

Tonight, at 19:00 local time, the 2009 Giro Donne finally began with a 2.5km prologue time trial in Scarperia, near Florence, and the last rider is expected to finish at 22:00, which suggests 1 minute intervals at first then 2 minutes for "I big." In contrast to last years’s jaunt up and down the station car park, this year the organisers are riding right through the best bits of a very pretty and historic village. Scarperia was built by the Florentines in the early 14th Century to protect their northern flank, and its dominant feature is the Palazzo dei Vicari, sited of course in the Piazza Vicari, which holds both the start and finish lines.

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