Continuing our preview of the 2009 Tour de France, we’ll take a look at the field of riders and let you know whom you should watch.
You may recognize this guy. He’s actually kind of famous, and now he’s back in the Tour de France. Obviously the big story of this year’s Tour is the return of Lance Armstrong. There are tons of questions surrounding his return, not the least of which is “Does he still have anything left?”
Armstrong has competed in a few events since his return to cycling, but hasn’t won anything. This isn’t surprising as Armstrong’s modus operandi was always to build up to the Tour de France, and he never won many of the preparation races.
After three consecutive Tours without a former champion in the field (other than Oscar Pereiro, eventual winner of the Floyd Landis scandal-plagued 2006 Tour), this year there are 4 former champions competing (Armstrong, Carlos Sastre, Alberto Contador, and Pereiro), with two of them on the same team.
The dynamics of the Astana team will be very interesting to watch this year. It features two past winners in Armstrong and Contador, as well as a past podium finishers Levi Leipheimer and Andreas Kloden. Who is the leader of that team? Obviously Armstrong is the biggest name, but Contador is a young superstar and Leipheimer has always been on the cusp of greatness. Will Contador and Leipheimer be willing to put in work to help the old man get to the top of the mountain one last time? Will Armstrong be willing to take a supporting role? Astana claims Contador is the leader, and Armstrong is happy with it, but we’ll see how things look on the slopes of the Pyrenees. Astana may be an All-Star team and place 3 riders in the top 10, or it could self-destruct from internal conflict. With Johan Bruyneel at the helm, I’d bet on the former.
Other favorites include Giro winner Denis Menchov (a good climber) and perennial bridesmaid Cadel Evans (great time trial rider). The late mountain stage should bode well for the climbers, but I’ll give you my picks in the final installment of ECB’s Tour de France Preview
0 Responses:
Post a Comment