From the Rafters

Many of us, fans of The Tour Of France, started watching this event last week with mixed emotions. Sad to lose some of the big names in the sport due to doping investigations, but yet excited to see how it was going to unfold.

You simply could not predict who would be on the podium at the end of the 23 days. This week the Maillot Jaune changed owners every so often, and that was fun to watch. During the last decade, and given strong participants, usually the first stages were reserved for the sprinters and the Green Jersey competition. This year, a few of the sprinters had the chance to don the yellow jersey. Before last year, only two american cyclists had wore yellow; LeMond and Armstrong. Now there have been FIVE US cyclists in yellow (2 this year alone). Still, the questions remained as to who was going to show the promise of a victory.

While in years past, the individual time trial placed the strongest competitors in the top, today's individual time trial made the race more interesting. There are at least 15 riders in the mix right now who can compete for the middle podium in the Champs d' Elysses. Here are some observations as the first week is completed.

The T-Mobile team, after losing their star Jan Ullrich, and one of the pre-race favorites, to the doping scandal, has demonstrated that they are the strongest team. They are only competing with 7 riders, and 6 of them are placing within the first 15 riders on the General Classification competititon. The one not placing is a former standout, Giuseppi Guerini, who we should expect to see doing the hardwork in the mountains for whoever ends up being the team's leader.

That is still yet to be determined. Unimaginable that last year T-Mobile's team, who became infamous for their intra-squad squabbles, is seeing the most pure competition from within their own members. While Kessler and Gonchar have given courageous stage wins to the team, the Australian World Time Trial Champion, Michael Rogers, and former tour runner up Andreas Kloden, are putting together consistant performances along with teammate Patrick Sinkewitz.
While I expected Rogers to win the Time Trial today, two years ago, I thought Kloden would be a man to watch in the future. This year it will all depend on how he came out of his March shoulder surgery.

US star Floyd Landis seems to be the one cyclist that is in the best condition right here, right now. A 6 second delay in his prologue start, left him a runner up only 9 seconds behind. And having a problem with his bike today reportedly cost him 30 seconds; he came in second a minute behind. That is performance. Period. However, one of the factors against him would be his team;overall. First of all, there is no need to be having all these troubles with his bikes. And then, I do not think Phonak has the people needed to compete with a team like T-Mobile on the mountains. Lance Armstrong could do it on his own; Landis does not have that experience.

Another team that will find itself in trouble is CSC. Usually one of the strongest team in the tour, with the lost of Ivan Basso to the doping scandal, and today losing Bobby Julich to an accident, can only ask of Carlos Sastre to run good on his own.

Levi Lepheimer seems to be running on dead legs after winning the re-nouned Le Dauphine-Libere race just on June 11th. There are very delicate factors in preparing an athlete for the physical requirements of an event of the magnitude of the Tour de France. His people seemed to miss the timing of it by a lot.

Among some of the riders I am excited to watch are Vladimir Karpets, winner of the white Jersey for best young rider in the tour in 2004. Back then I thought he did an excellent overall tour. Cyclists like Dennis Menchov and Cadel Evans should be at their peak of their careers and this is the time to show for all of their sucesses.

Finally, there is the Discovery team. They were doing a quiet consistant job until today when none of their top cyclist were outstanding. While they remain in the mix, it will be interesting to see if George Hincapie has what it takes to be a contender. Until today he kept himself in great position. I still can not discount the promise of great performances by Paolo Salvadelli, winner of last year's Gyro d' Italia, and Yaroslav Popovich winner of the 2005 tour's white jersey. While Popo might not have the experience to be on the top three, a good ride by him could mean rewards for either Hincapie and/or Salvadelli.

While it was great watching Lance write different chapters on every stage of the tour during the last seven years, it is also very exciting to watch this tour develop differently in front of our eyes. And there are 2 weeks left.