Le Tour 2009

It's been an exciting Tour so far, and diabolically difficult even before we hit the mountains. The time trial in Monaco was an amazing course, and the team time trial course produced the carnage that the riders were predicting.

Some initial thoughts:
- Finally the Tour is in high definition. Even if you don't like cycling, it's worth watching the three or four hours just for the countryside of France.

- If Lance Armstrong hadn't retired in 2005, he would have won the Tour in 2006 for sure, with most of the favorites out for doping. He may have beaten Alberto Contador in 2007, and he would have beaten Carlos Sastre in 2008 for sure. That would have been his 10th yellow jersey, and he would probably be retired for good.

- Lance looks like he's in at least as good a shape as he was in winning the Tour in previous occasions. He's a viable contender until we see who's got the goods in the mountains. My guess is that he won't be able to stay with Contador, but Contador has already made a dumb mistake or two. There's a reason the Tour is three weeks long.

- All of the questions about who the Astana team leader have got to be wearing on Lance and the other Astana team members. I can only imagine how it antagonizes Contador, but he doesn't speak English so we don't see him on the television coverage.

- Fabian Cancellara's descent in the stage 1 time trial was amazing, too bad we didn't get to see any of it on television. He was fourth going up the mountain and finished , he gained 26 seconds in about 10 kilometers on the best riders in the world.

- Previous winner Carlos Sastre was denied the right to wear yellow for the first stage. I bet this wouldn't have happened if the previous winner was a little more popular than Sastre.

- Mark Cavendish will win a huge number of stages, he looks absolutely unbeatable. If he can make it over the mountains with a team I think the record of eight stage wins is not unattainable. Leaving the Tour last year to lose in the Olympics was (in retrospect) a dumb decision.

I can't wait to see what happens in the mountains!

See my posts on previous Tours here.