Your ideal outcomes for the Grand Tours this year?

donrhummy
donrhummy Posts: 2,329
edited May 2009 in Pro race
Here's my ideal outcomes (this is not necessarily what I think will happen, just what I want to happen):

Giro
GC - Levi Leipheimer
Sprint - Daniele Bennati
Mountain - Gilberto Simoni

TDF
GC - Andy Schleck
Sprint - Mark Cavendish
Mountain - Lance Armstrong

Vuelta
GC - Carlos Sastre
Sprint - Tom Boonen
Mountain - Denis Menchov

What about you guys?
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Comments

  • thebongolian
    thebongolian Posts: 333
    Would love to see Bruzeghin given free rein for the Giro reckon he'd be in with a shout - he can climb OK and he's one of the few guys who could give LL a challenge in the ITT by me reckoning. Pity he'll be shepherding Cuengo who needs to give up on the being a GC contender thing.

    In the TDF I'd love baby Schleck to win yellow and Cav green. But maybe a Frenchie get the polka dots - Moreau maybe? - finally give them something to cheer

    And the Vuelta? Dunno really... never really believe it belongs up there with the other two
    I want to climb like Kenny Van Hummel
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    I just hope that it is all close, attacking, exciting riding. Then I will be very happy :)

    The Giro could be one of the best Grand Tours ever with the protagonists, the better doping controls and the utterly bonkers course!
  • redddraggon
    redddraggon Posts: 10,862
    NapoleonD wrote:
    The Giro could be one of the best Grand Tours ever with the protagonists, the better doping controls and the utterly bonkers course!

    ??? Where do you get the "better doping controls" from?
    I like bikes...

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  • blazing_saddles
    blazing_saddles Posts: 22,711
    Bennati's not riding the Giro, so you are unlucky already.
    "Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    redddraggon wrote:
    NapoleonD wrote:
    The Giro could be one of the best Grand Tours ever with the protagonists, the better doping controls and the utterly bonkers course!

    ??? Where do you get the "better doping controls" from?

    Am I just being naive about the passport and the blood doping tests for CERA etc?
  • redddraggon
    redddraggon Posts: 10,862
    NapoleonD wrote:
    redddraggon wrote:
    NapoleonD wrote:
    The Giro could be one of the best Grand Tours ever with the protagonists, the better doping controls and the utterly bonkers course!

    ??? Where do you get the "better doping controls" from?

    Am I just being naive about the passport and the blood doping tests for CERA etc?

    Do you just mean better than last year? I thought you were implying the Italians were better than every else at catching the dopers
    I like bikes...

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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    Heh heh, no, I just meant better now generally than compared to the past.
  • mididoctors
    mididoctors Posts: 18,874
    as long as they are not won by the guy who didn't get arrested I'll be content
    "If I was a 38 year old man, I definitely wouldn't be riding a bright yellow bike with Hello Kitty disc wheels, put it that way. What we're witnessing here is the world's most high profile mid-life crisis" Afx237vi Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:43 pm
  • stefrees
    stefrees Posts: 137
    you want a clean giro but are happy to put leipheimer in there :shock:
  • Frank the tank
    Frank the tank Posts: 6,553
    I just hope no one on the gear wins owt.

    Or come to that, no one previously guilty of such a crime.

    They're all cheats and do cycling no favours what-so-ever and all clean cyclist will lose out as well in the long run.

    The Giro looks like it's gonna be great this year.
    Tail end Charlie

    The above post may contain traces of sarcasm or/and bullsh*t.
  • Pokerface
    Pokerface Posts: 7,960
    Giro - Basso
    Tour - Contador
    Vuelta - Is Contador riding it again?


    Cavendish to win the Tour green jersey.
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    Pokerface wrote:
    Giro - Basso
    Tour - Contador
    Vuelta - Is Contador riding it again?


    Cavendish to win the Tour green jersey.

    That really would be brill! I'd be happy with a stage win...
  • teagar
    teagar Posts: 2,100
    Bram Tankink winning everything. 8)
    Note: the above post is an opinion and not fact. It might be a lie.
  • takethehighroad
    takethehighroad Posts: 6,812
    thebongolian wrote:
    Pity he'll be shepherding Cuengo who needs to give up on the being a GC contender thing.

    In the TDF I'd love baby Schleck to win yellow and Cav green. But maybe a Frenchie get the polka dots - Moreau maybe? - finally give them something to cheer

    I want quoting on this, I think Cunego has a chance this year, as everyone is writing him off. He can win this year's edition as the massive time trial is proper not like anything before.

    In the Tour, Cav will most likely take a number of stages but not have the consistensy or team for the Green, and Astana will fall over each other, but Conti will still win.

    The Vuelta? Everyone that's had a bad Tour...
  • teagar
    teagar Posts: 2,100
    TakeTheHighRoad wrote:
    thebongolian wrote:
    Pity he'll be shepherding Cuengo who needs to give up on the being a GC contender thing.

    In the TDF I'd love baby Schleck to win yellow and Cav green. But maybe a Frenchie get the polka dots - Moreau maybe? - finally give them something to cheer

    I want quoting on this, I think Cunego has a chance this year, as everyone is writing him off. He can win this year's edition as the massive time trial is proper not like anything before.

    In the Tour, Cav will most likely take a number of stages but not have the consistensy or team for the Green, and Astana will fall over each other, but Conti will still win.

    The Vuelta? Everyone that's had a bad Tour...

    Cunego won't win.

    His only Giro win was just a lucky breakaway...
    Note: the above post is an opinion and not fact. It might be a lie.
  • thebongolian
    thebongolian Posts: 333
    TakeTheHighRoad wrote:
    thebongolian wrote:
    Pity he'll be shepherding Cuengo who needs to give up on the being a GC contender thing.

    In the TDF I'd love baby Schleck to win yellow and Cav green. But maybe a Frenchie get the polka dots - Moreau maybe? - finally give them something to cheer

    I want quoting on this, I think Cunego has a chance this year, as everyone is writing him off. He can win this year's edition as the massive time trial is proper not like anything before.

    In the Tour, Cav will most likely take a number of stages but not have the consistensy or team for the Green, and Astana will fall over each other, but Conti will still win.

    The Vuelta? Everyone that's had a bad Tour...

    Well it's what I want to see - agree Cunego has a chance and would like him to see him win but I think Lampre should but their eggs in the donkey's basket - i.e. Bruseghin

    Sadly I think you're right on Cav too, but here's hoping you're wrong
    I want to climb like Kenny Van Hummel
  • moray_gub
    moray_gub Posts: 3,328
    teagar wrote:

    Cunego won't win.

    His only Giro win was just a lucky breakaway...

    If you mean the stage to Falzes there was nothing lucky about it at all perfect team tactics Popovych opted to stay with Simon when he should have chased Cunego. Cunego won 4 stages that year and wore the Maglia Rosa for 11 days id say his win was anything but lucky.
    Gasping - but somehow still alive !
  • andyp
    andyp Posts: 10,485
    Moray Gub wrote:
    If you mean the stage to Falzes there was nothing lucky about it at all perfect team tactics Popovych opted to stay with Simon when he should have chased Cunego. Cunego won 4 stages that year and wore the Maglia Rosa for 11 days id say his win was anything but lucky.
    Exactly right. One wonders if teagar actually saw any of that race?

    On the Falzes stage Saeco had two men up the road in a break who then waited for Cunego after he'd broken clear from Popovych. They then put a race winning amount of time into the other GC contenders which Cunego then defended superbly. It was text book racing, using superior numbers to gain an advantage.

    It could of be Simoni too, as he and Cunego took it in turns to attack Popovych, with Cunego being the one who finally established the gap.
  • teagar
    teagar Posts: 2,100
    Cunego definitely won't win! Seriously. He's never got close in the high mountains to his 2004 Giro since.

    2004 was 5 years ago and he hasn't done anything remotely as good in a GT since.
    Note: the above post is an opinion and not fact. It might be a lie.
  • The Prodigy
    The Prodigy Posts: 832
    Giro - Cunego - mainly because I don't want others to win
    Tour - Contador or Schleck, either one as long as it was a fight to the death
    Vuelta - Contador
  • moray_gub
    moray_gub Posts: 3,328
    teagar wrote:
    Cunego definitely won't win! Seriously. He's never got close in the high mountains to his 2004 Giro since.

    2004 was 5 years ago and he hasn't done anything remotely as good in a GT since.
    I
    I dont think he will win the Giro either as i feel he is good hilly classic and week long stage man but to say his 2004 was as a result of a lucky breakway is plain wrong.
    Gasping - but somehow still alive !
  • moray_gub
    moray_gub Posts: 3,328
    andyp wrote:
    Exactly right. One wonders if teagar actually saw any of that race?

    On the Falzes stage Saeco had two men up the road in a break who then waited for Cunego after he'd broken clear from Popovych. They then put a race winning amount of time into the other GC contenders which Cunego then defended superbly. It was text book racing, using superior numbers to gain an advantage.

    It could of be Simoni too, as he and Cunego took it in turns to attack Popovych, with Cunego being the one who finally established the gap.


    Yep that pretty much sums up how it unfolded with a little help from the green jerseyed Fabian Wegmenn on the flat iirc
    Gasping - but somehow still alive !
  • frenchfighter
    frenchfighter Posts: 30,642
    Ideally Contador for the three GCs but that wont be possible so...

    jasonsramTENERIFE08tripleshoes.jpg

    Giro
    GC - Thomas Lovkvist
    Sprint - Thor Hushovd
    Mountain - Danilo Di Luca

    1233238388Thomas-Lovkvist.jpg

    TDF
    GC - Andy Schleck
    Sprint - Mark Cavendish
    Mountain - Thomas Voeckler

    610x.jpg

    Vuelta
    GC - Alberto Contador
    Sprint - Tom Boonen
    Mountain - Samuel Sanchez

    a8e67b4f9fbeffc3487c5a00250fab17.jpg
    Contador is the Greatest
  • takethehighroad
    takethehighroad Posts: 6,812
    frenchfighter, I really mean no offence but I've never seen such a spectacularly bad prediction. I'm sorry, but Lovkvist will never win a Grand Tour, Hushovd is waiting for the Tour, and Voeckler is too bad ion the high mountains where the Tour KOM is won.
  • teagar
    teagar Posts: 2,100
    TakeTheHighRoad wrote:
    frenchfighter, I really mean no offence but I've never seen such a spectacularly bad prediction. I'm sorry, but Lovkvist will never win a Grand Tour, Hushovd is waiting for the Tour, and Voeckler is too bad ion the high mountains where the Tour KOM is won.

    Your ideal outcome....

    Like I said, I'd have Bram Tankink win them all...
    Note: the above post is an opinion and not fact. It might be a lie.
  • skavanagh.bikeradar
    skavanagh.bikeradar Posts: 1,097
    I hope for proper racing, riders to have good days and bad days, pain on their faces in the mountain stages, the good guys to win and the bad guys to come a cropper, sun, rain, wind, a breakdown in Astana team radio during the Tour, Contador to go mental and destroy his own team by attacking dementedly every day for a week, Paul Sherwen to learn a bit more English and stop repeating himself every third sentences and wetting himself about Lance Armstrong's lightweight chamois, wiry mountain goats to have their day in the mountains, Cav to win Green, the Vulelta to be interesting, ITV to cover the Giro............
  • frenchfighter
    frenchfighter Posts: 30,642
    skavanagh.bikeradar wrote:
    ...Contador to go mental and destroy his own team by attacking dementedly every day for a week...

    Now that is what I am talking about :D
    Contador is the Greatest
  • frenchfighter
    frenchfighter Posts: 30,642
    I should have said Alessandro Petacchi for the Giro. He is on great form this year.

    Photo: Graham Watson

    5.jpg

    Although he cannot count on having this formiddable lead-out: http://www.velonews.com/images/int/6090.7733.f.jpg
    Contador is the Greatest
  • missingmillar
    missingmillar Posts: 38
    Giro

    GC - Menchov or Leipheimer
    Sprint - Petacchi
    Mountains - Rodiguez

    Tour

    GC - Schleck
    Sprint - Cav
    Mountains - Sanchez
  • ms_tree
    ms_tree Posts: 1,405
    I'll be happy if TheTwit doesn't win anything!
    'Google can bring back a hundred thousand answers. A librarian can bring you back the right one.'
    Neil Gaiman

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