Dauphine Libere

since this race is now only 5 days away, do you think liberty will be racing?

moviekindoflife said:

since this race is now only 5 days away, do you think liberty will be racing?

Yes Liberty is still a team and the UCI still doesn't have documents from the Spanish police. In addition Liberty the company still hasn't officially pulled out of the ProTour sponsorship. Even when they do, the riders will be paid to the end of 2006 by Liberty and Wurth will take over the shirt design.

Not a strong rider, but S Casar is listed to start right after finishing the Giro. Of course he will also rider the TdF. Seems like an ambitious program.

Eldrack said:

The "mini tour de france" is nearly upon us, and with a really hard core route to boost. Three big mountain stages, two of which have mountain top finishes. One to Mont Ventoux, the other to La Toussuire in what is almost a carbon copy of one of this years TdF stages. A nice long time trial with a hill in it and a 4.1k prologue. 3 flatish stages that could see sprint finishes but are very suited to a breakaway win.

Plenty of strong riders who could contend for the win:
Iban Mayo
Floyd Landis, Santiago Botero
Levi Leipheimer
Yaroslav Popovych, Jose Azevedo, George Hincapie
Alexander Vinokourov, Andrey Kashechkin
Alejandro Valverde
Francisco Mancebo
Oscar Sevilla
Dennis Menchov
Dave Zabriskie
Sergio Ghisalberti

Whatever happens this is going to be a hard race to win, unless one contender is massively stronger than any of the others. But since a lot of these guys want to do well in the TdF one would assume that they haven't peaked for this race and so we could see a slight suprise winner. Still, Ventoux and the La Toussuire stages should tell us who is going to have the legs in the TdF when it comes to climbing.

Prologue is good, I hope that Bradley Wiggins can put in a good performance there and hopefully score some pro tour points.

There is no one on the list stronger than Basso. But other than Basso, the list is stronger than the line-up for th Giro. It will be interesting to see how Mancebo's high altitude tent has been working for him. I hope that they outlaw that thing. A bike racer shouldn't have to sleep in a tent in order to be competitive. If you have a list, is Contador on it?

Okay, time to get wild. I'll take Menchov to win it. But I expect the outcome will be tight.

Always a good race the dauphine libere. This is where the real countdown to the tour begins, i wonder if after 2 years of nothingness iban mayo will make his mark here?, he needs to do something this year or he'l never be back at the level he ws in 2003 in my opinion.

superdanuk said:

Always a good race the dauphine libere. This is where the real countdown to the tour begins, i wonder if after 2 years of nothingness iban mayo will make his mark here?, he needs to do something this year or he'l never be back at the level he ws in 2003 in my opinion.

I hope I can see the coverage of the Mont Ventoux stage, I love that climb. Really strong line-up this year, should be exciting. I'm anxious to see how Landis can stack up against the European pros this year.

PartisanRanger said:

I hope I can see the coverage of the Mont Ventoux stage, I love that climb. Really strong line-up this year, should be exciting. I'm anxious to see how Landis can stack up against the European pros this year.

Landis has stacked up pretty well so far this year against the european pros! i think he'l be taking it a bit easier in the dauphine with the tour so close.
landis top 5 in tour i reckon🙂

musette said:

Not a strong rider, but S Casar is listed to start right after finishing the Giro. Of course he will also rider the TdF. Seems like an ambitious program.

he did it last year. No big results, but so long as he beats Chavanel, he's happy.

superdanuk said:

Landis has stacked up pretty well so far this year against the european pros! i think he'l be taking it a bit easier in the dauphine with the tour so close.
landis top 5 in tour i reckon🙂

depends on how much fans like yourself are screaming his name. it worked wonders for Virenque.

Eldrack said:

Plenty of strong riders who could contend for the win:
Iban Mayo
Floyd Landis, Santiago Botero
Levi Leipheimer
Yaroslav Popovych, Jose Azevedo, George Hincapie
Alexander Vinokourov, Andrey Kashechkin
Alejandro Valverde
Francisco Mancebo
Oscar Sevilla
Dennis Menchov
Dave Zabriskie
Sergio Ghisalberti

My favorit is Valverde, who I also consider to be the favorit in in this years TdF with Ullrich and Basso.

Prano said:

My favorit is Valverde, who I also consider to be the favorit in in this years TdF with Ullrich and Basso.

This should be the year that we see if Valverde can realize his big potential. My problem is that I look at the line up for the Dauphine and I think, "that one should do well, and that one should do well and that other one should do well." Problem is, they cannot all do well. There can only be one winner and there are only three spots on the podium. This is a great opportunity for some of these guys to step forward and turn potential into reality. My thought is that of the top five in this race, three of them will be represented in the top five of the TDF. This years Dauphine looks like a compressed Grand Tour. I'm excited!

saluki said:

This should be the year that we see if Valverde can realize his big potential. My problem is that I look at the line up for the Dauphine and I think, "that one should do well, and that one should do well and that other one should do well." Problem is, they cannot all do well. There can only be one winner and there are only three spots on the podium. This is a great opportunity for some of these guys to step forward and turn potential into reality.

I also like trying to guess which cyclist not mentioned as a pre-race favorite is going to be the surprise of the TdF. Seems like every year there's at least one Vino, Voeckler, or Rasmussen who makes a big splash.

Prano said:

My favorit is Valverde, who I also consider to be the favorit in in this years TdF with Ullrich and Basso.

If Valverde rides it, he will win.
Hope he doesnt burn too many matches.
Will be interesting to see if Levi and Floyd try to or need to light it up.
or just train it during the race.
Ventoux is such a bear.
I hope Stijn Devolder goes for the win, he's good on the Belgian hills isnt he?

hombredesubaru said:

I hope Stijn Devolder goes for the win, he's good on the Belgian hills isnt he?

He hadn't shown much this year until his recent TT victory at the Tour of Belgium. Even had he been stronger this year, I think a victory for him would really fall in the category of "unexpected." Or maybe "hell freezing over." Or somewhere in between.

I'm hoping to see a Mayo resurgance. Mind you, the year he won it his TdF attempt died a painful death. Its got enough climbing in it for him to win so you never know. Mancebo could also be heading for the win. He doesn't have a strong team, and probably can't contend too well for the TdF so maybe he cuts his losses and goes all out for this race?

Eldrack said:

I'm hoping to see a Mayo resurgance. Mind you, the year he won it his TdF attempt died a painful death. Its got enough climbing in it for him to win so you never know. Mancebo could also be heading for the win. He doesn't have a strong team, and probably can't contend too well for the TdF so maybe he cuts his losses and goes all out for this race?

Ventoux=Piepoli
TT=Floyd, Levi, Hincapie

Eldrack said:

I'm hoping to see a Mayo resurgance. Mind you, the year he won it his TdF attempt died a painful death. Its got enough climbing in it for him to win so you never know. Mancebo could also be heading for the win. He doesn't have a strong team, and probably can't contend too well for the TdF so maybe he cuts his losses and goes all out for this race?

It would be great to see Mayo winning a big race again! I think Mancebo won't lay his cards on the table, but that's just a thought...

rejobako said:

I also like trying to guess which cyclist not mentioned as a pre-race favorite is going to be the surprise of the TdF. Seems like every year there's at least one Vino, Voeckler, or Rasmussen who makes a big splash.

Absolutely. And I enjoy seeing these people come out of the woodwork. But I'm not good a guessing who they are going to be.

bobke said:

Ventoux=Piepoli
TT=Floyd, Levi, Hincapie

Vino has done some good TT's as well.