Who will win the Tour de France (if it isn't Bradley!!)

does anyone know if juan jose cobo will be in the tour

Too many time trials and not enough mountain top finishes for Frank Schleck, but the TDS should make people think.

Lots of descending so Nibali and Gesink have a chance.

Cavendish will rue the Giro.

Wiggins and Evans may cancel each other out.

I'm for somebody from under the radar, Froome won't do it unless Wiggins is doing poorly and pulls out for London. The course could be set up for Voekleur, Rolland will be sacrificed for Tommy.

All the top riders in Sky and BMC will be sacrificed for Wiggins and Evans, but now Hushovd is out BMC have more flexibility.

Rui Costa will not win a 3 week race...yet. Cobo was a fluke last year.

I think liepheimer may be coming back to form and I think he is my pick, if he stays near the leaders during days 1-9 up to the ist TT.

NIEVE
DANIELSON
KRUIJSWIJK
VALVERDE
ROCHE

At least one of these to podium.

Sagan may have a chance if he time trials to his best, due to the lack of mountain top finishes.

If Wiggo does fail then sky will put everything on Cav first! But Wiggo won't fail and i don't see Evans in the top 3!

Any thoughts on the KotM? Does anyone still care about the poor old polka dots?

Look how small Cadel is.

TINYMAN

Finally! My umlauts! Come to daddy...

Good to see another member of the higher echelon of English Speakers.

SO, in case we miss someone out, I thought I'd go through my outsiders, some more serious than others:

Dë Gëndt
Bräjkövïc
Hörnër
Klödën
Wéèning
Wéénïng
Sänchëz
Vøécklér
Täärämäé
VËLITS
Güsév
Rüïjgh
Dë Vëërt
Säbätïnï (LOL)
Röché
Düpønt

More later.

Can't think of anÿ

I still fancy Nibali's chances in the Tour. Gesink and Van den Broeck are more or less on the same level and should be able to ride top 10, maybe top 5, but no chances of winning.

Taking away Evans and Wiggins i cant see past Gesink.

However there is always someone who surprises everyone and when it happens we all go "bugger me never thought about him".

France have quite a few young riders coming through; Arnold Jeannesson, Pierre Rolland etc, wouldnt be surprised if they featured near the top!

Debarrio,

Umlauts aren't commonly used in the english language, unlike in europe, so most spellings of their names will be as above.

Does it really matter? You know exacty who Jimmy is talking about. Not exactly as if it is ambiguous is it?

Funny article, but....a preview without even mentioning Nibali, Gesink, Tony Martin who all quite fancy their chances? A preview that doesn't go into the slightly embarrassing cock fight between Bruyneel and the Schleck brothers? Not to mention (well, that's a lie) the misspelling of no less than SEVEN riders (the correct names are Tejay van Garderen, Andreas Klöden, Fränk Schleck, Johnny Hoogerland, Jurgen Van den Broeck, Jelle Vanendert and André Greipel)...

Call me an old sourpuss, but I'd say: back to the drawing board.

Well we now know Jimmy's picks for the Fantasy Tour competition!

Chris Froome is in with a chance surely? Especially if he is going to be working with Bradley, like he did in the Vuelta. He can climb, he can TT. He is a fantastic rider!

I said it last year when the route was revealed, and I'll say it again - Sagan for the green jersey.

Wiggins for the win, Evans and Nibali to complete the podium.

Nobody backing Menchov or Gesink? - they could come in under the radar this year. Normally listed as favourites might work in their favour.

Surely Garmin, having won a Grand Tour, will be more prepared now to give Farrar a bit of backing in the sprints. They may take the likes of Martin, Miller, Haussler and Vansummeren to supplement Farrar in looking for sprint or other stage wins but I wouldn't be surprised to see Talansky given some support this time around.

Having won a GT the pressure is off to some extent and they don't have to do anything, they've probably got a good enough base of UCI points to build on so unlike Rabo and RSN who've had torrid seasons so far Garmin won't really have to go into the tour with an outright contender.

For me, it's going to be interesting to see how many of the TT specialists (Zabriskie, Larsson, Rasmussen, Cancellara etc) ride and how many of them stick it out to the end of the race and how many jump early in preparation for the Olympics.

I don't think it's a route just for the TTers. I think the Grand Colombier stage will be very interesting. I've heard that it's the steepest climb ever included in the Tour de France. Climbers will have a big opportunity to take time out of Evans, Wiggins & Martin. Wiggins probably lost last year's Veulta on the Angliru, although Le Grand Colombier is not quite as steep. We will see how he deals with it in the Dauphine.
Sky announced their Dauphine squad today, which means it should be fairly easy to work out the TdF team as last year it was the 8 from the Dauphine plus Swift. Sky's Dauphine squad is Wiggins, Froome, Pate, Porte, Knees, EBH, Siutsou & Rogers. I think for the Tour Cav will come in and probably Eisel for Rogers.
Also, I'm interested in who Garmin will take to the Tour. Will Hesjedal & Vandevelde go having done the Giro?

I doubt Tony Martin will be able to keep up in the hills as the climbers will have to really go for it in order to pick up enough time on the TTers.

Tom Danielson?

Dan Martin?

Cristophe Le Mevel?

even Tony Martin?