Tour deLangkawi

Guest

They would have taken notice of him a few years ago me thinks  

Guest

I feel the top sprinters already had Hunter on their list (and were quite happy that he got pretty little support from Lampre last year).
It probably made guys like Bettini and Bartoli sit up and take notice when they saw on stage 9 how well Hunter did among the climbing experts.

Eldron

I think RH is better suited to the Classics than Stage Racing. Superb form this early in the year would tend to indicate his intentions to shine at the classics rather than the TdF.

Cycling Weekly (a UK publication) ran some articles suggesting that early tours (Tour Down Under, Tour of Qatar and Tour de Langkawi) extended the traditional 'european' year by such a margin that cyclists will have to choose between the classics and the TdF. Many of the TdF riders used these early tours as training rides and were concerned about going too well this early.

Your thoughts?  ???

Vo2

Altho RH is a One Day Classic specialist, he must have endless dreams of wearing that Malliot Vert in the TDF.

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Eldron

I'm sure he does - a prologue/TT win in Langkawi might help him do a 'boardman' at the TdF and be in yellow for a day or two....

Personally I want to see him win the Paris Roubaix - the ultimate hard mans race.

I'm actually a bit disappointed with the way the TdF has gone in recent years. No long suicide breaks (ala Chiapucci style) just the team leading you until it's safe for you to kick into high gear 2 or 3km from the top of the hill. I guess it's the professional thing to do but it takes the shine off a bit....hats off to JaJa for his polka dot attitude!

Guest

Eldron, I absolutely agree with your view of the TdF today!

RH winning P-R? Hm, I don't know. Isn't P-R too much a marathon-style elimination race for a rider like him? But I feel he could do very well at L-B-L.

Vo2

I agree. The TdF becomes pretty much anti-orgasmic in the final week. I think the only real reason we kept on watching  was to see the outcome of the Zabel/O'Grady battle.
I'm hoping that Ullrich will be in awesome form this year.

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Eldron

Didn't RH go on a 150km suicide break in last years P-R? Or was that the year before (I know it was his first P-R).

L-B-L would be good too. In all honesty I don't care which classic he win as long as he wins!

Yeah the O'Grady/Zabel battle was a good one - I think Zabel owes Kloden a bucket load of green jerseys - he worked his poepol off for Zabel in the last few days.

I'm secretly confident Ullrich will do the business this year - don't tell anyone cos I'll have the Lancies telling me off again (they did last and the year before and the year before...)

Guest

If "last year's P-R" refers to the 2000 race, yes, Hunter was in that 10-12 riders group that attacked very early.

TdF: My guess is that as long as Armstrong can concentrate solely on Ullrich as his only serious competitor, he will win again. It may look different if he has to deal with attacks from a number of riders, but who could that be? Let's see if Simoni can live up to the expectations.
Last year I thought that Botero could give Lance some hard time. He has become a very good time-trialist, but unfortunately he lost some of his climbing skills in the process.

Eldron

Wasn't sure whether is was 2000 or 2001 - either way I think he's got what is takes to finish top 10 at Roubaix.

I hope this year's TdF is a 4,5 or hopefully 6 way battle. Likely contenders? Simoni, Botero, Sevilla, Ullrich, Armstrong? I'm really tired of the 2 dog show.

Ullrich/Pantani, Ullrich/Armstrong, Armstrong/Pantani - hopefully we'll see some new blood this year. I'm an Ullrich fan but have high hopes for Sevilla...