This week the Tour of France is coming up with some interesting stages to watch. Until now the development of the tour is pointing that Mark Cavendish is the one that is showing the best performance, but  it is too early to consider him the overall favorite to win the entire competition. Lance on the other hand is reserving his energy for a comeback attack that maybe this week we will be able to watch.It is evident that not everyone is in the same position to perform the same level on all the stages. We have to see the results after the team’s time trial to be able to pick up a team that will perform the best during the rest of the competition. Until now, we had some mountain and some flat stages that were enough to noticed that the ones that we were being picked as the favorites to perform were not prepared for the sort of different types of terrain.

As a sample of the performance and times that the cyclists are showing now, we can see that Cancellara is the one that is showing the best time. Lance is back in the tenth place with 40 seconds of disadvantage, but I know he will do better in the next days.

1. #33 Fabian Cancellara, Team SAXO BANK, Time = 19′ 32″
2. #21 Alberto Contador, Team ASTANA, Time = 19′ 50″ + 00′ 18″
3. #58 Bradley Wiggins, Team SLIPSTREAM, Time = 19′ 51″ + 00′ 19″
4. #23 Andréas Klöden, Team ASTANA, Time = 19′ 54″ + 00′ 22″
5. #11 Cadel Evans, Team SILENCE – LOTTO, Time = 19′ 55″ + 00′ 23″
6. #24 Levi Leipheimer, Team ASTANA, Time = 20′ 02″ + 00′ 30″
7. #93 Roman Kreuziger, Team LIQUIGAS, Time = 20′ 04″ + 00′ 32″
8. #76 Tony Martin, Team COLUMBIA – HTC, Time = 20′ 05″ + 00′ 33″
9. #95 Vincenzo Nibali, Team LIQUIGAS, Time =  20′ 09″ + 00′ 37″
10. #22 Lance Armstrong, Team ASTANA, Time = 20′ 12″ + 00′ 40″

This week, as I mentioned before, is starting with some stages that are going to be interesting to watch. As a marketing strategy, Monday will be the rest day, but Tuesday they will be back showing lots of energy and power.

July 14: Stage 10: Limoges to Issoudun, 120.8 miles which is a transitional stage over unchallenging terrain on the French national holiday of Bastille Day that might be unremarkable except it will mark the first half of a notable experiment. Tour organizers have banned the use of car-to-rider race radios in this stage and Stage 13, leaving everyone to figure out time gaps and tactics as they did during the old days.

July 15: Stage 11: Vatan to Saint-Fargeau, 119.3 miles which is another transitional slog that should finish with a sprint.

July 16: Stage 12, Tonnerre to Vittel, 131.4 miles, which is officially listed as a “flat” stage but is relentlessly undulating.

July 17: Stage 13, Vittel to Colmar, 124.3 miles, which is the second of two stages that will be conducted in radio silence. A tricky middling-mountains ride where the overall contenders will mark each other closely but likely will be content to maintain the status quo in the standings. The peloton will be substantially whittled down by three categorized climbs, and a breakaway group should vie for victory on the downhill finish.

July 18: Stage 14, Colmar to Besancon, 123.6 miles, which is the last chance for the sprinters to shine until the Champs-Elysees.

July 19: Stage 15, Pontarlier to Verbier (Switzerland), 128.6 miles, which the race that moves us into its final week with a big question — will top riders go for it on any of these Alpine stages, or save themselves for Thursday’s time trial and Saturday’s Mont Ventoux climb? This is the only uphill finish in the Alps, but it’s not stratospherically difficult, and this stage doesn’t shape up as decisive.

More information coming up… Tour de France Odds



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