The Stars are Aligned

Nibali podium 2014 Tour de France

The Tour de France attracts interest like no other race and an unrivalled degree of coverage. If “hope dies last” then hype might be born first. Certainly the Tour can be over-promoted but the excitement is justified right now.

The Big Four of Vincenzo Nibali, Chris Froome, Alberto Contador and Nairo Quintana have been talked up all year but now the talk turns to action. All four appear in good health and ready to challenge.

For the last few years the Tour de France has begun with a series of favourites nailed on to win. Too certain with hindsight but a year ago Chris Froome’s odds were priced at evens, the same story in 2013. Ditto 2012, only with Bradley Wiggins. Bookmakers don’t mean everything but the prices reflected a certain inevitability. Prior to each race the greater uncertainty concerned who would finish on the podium.

Now a big question is who won’t finish on the podium. Who among Nibali, Froome, Contador and Quintana is excluded? Doubt’s over Nibali’s form have been soothed with his win in the Italian championship. Someone could crash out and someone will be dropped in the mountains but for now that’s anyone’s guess. Run the scenarios in your mind and the only way to settle the four riders on the podium dilemma is to imagine Bernard Hinault giving one of them a shove.

Since the start of the season we’ve were promised a clash of the Big Four and denied it in Tirreno-Adriatico when Chris Froome fell ill and skipped the race; Nibali’s sluggish start to the season didn’t help either with no wins until last weekend and 22nd place in the early contest on Monte Terminillo. Now all four are on their way to Utrecht this week in good health and promising form. The contest we’ve been looking forward to is going to happen.

tejay van garderen

Better still it’s more than a four rider race. Tejay van Garderen has shown he can almost match Chris Froome on the climbs. Thibaut Pinot’s progress continues and L’Equipe place him alongside the Big Four, a commercial or nationalist touch but he is good and FDJ these days leave a lot less to chance. Meanwhile Romain Bardet is getting better too; new Spanish champion Alejandro Valverde’s cohabitation with Nairo Quintana is interesting; Joaquim Rodriguez gets what could be his last tilt at the Tour de France on a course that finally suits him. There’s a long list of others to explore in a proper preview.

Marcel Kittel London

The exception to this perfect anticipation comes in the sprints. Marcel Kittel was set to be the sprint king of 2015 only he’s not starting the Tour de France and apparently still fuming about Giant-Alpecin’s selection decision. Still, his season-long problems means his absence is perhaps easier to accept rather than a last minute injury depriving us of those sprint royales that only the Tour de France seems to deliver. Nacer Bouhanni’s crash in sight of the finish line of the French championships could have brought a greater shock, the latest is that he’s sore but there’s nothing broken so he’s trekking to Utrecht. All the other sprinters seem ready with Mark Cavendish able to drop the likes of Ian Stannard in the British championships.

The first week will be a lot more than a series of sprints. Gone is the ritual of repetitive sprint finishes as the team of Christian Prudhomme and Thierry Gouvenou have worked hard to ensure le spectacle happens every day, or at least to provide the necessary ingredients. We get a spicy opening week sprinkled with cobbles, uphill finishes and, weather permitting, exposed roads where crosswinds can shred the bunch. All this is promising but with an air of danger. The fear of a crash or losing time thanks to a split in the bunch creates a self-fulfilling prophecy where teams and riders try to fight their way to the front of the bunch and this contest provokes a crash, completing the vicious circle. We want the varied terrain to test the riders but not to break them.

Lacets Montvernier

Conclusion
There may have been other open editions of the Tour de France in recent years but they’ve often lacked depth. Take 2011 which was billed as a binary battle between Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck. This isn’t to undermine Cadel Evans’ ultimate victory, rather we did not have as much to anticipate before the race. This time we have The Gotha of cycling royalty going to Utrecht.

Sport is an exercise in hierarchy and the Tour de France will impose an order on the Big Four and everyone else. For now there’s no obvious pick to win and that’s something to celebrate. We have four champions together, a top bill that’s been exciting for months but finally happening for real. The stars are aligned.

 

104 thoughts on “The Stars are Aligned”

  1. That is a delicious ‘aperitif’ Inrng, and it has really whetted my appetite for the main course.
    So much so, I am just checking the weather forecast for next weekend in Holland – Sat 4 July is HOT, dry, strong x winds !
    Sun Stage 2, hot and dry again, with a lesser head / x wind for that coast-hugging blast.
    Northern Europe seems to be heading into a very warm spell, so will the weather gods conspire to provide the dry week that Chris Froome will surely be praying for ?
    Can’t wait. This race could be a cracker jack.

  2. I hope all riders can stay on their bikes and get the the Pyrenees. Then, I suspect, we may find that the “big 4” are not so equal after all and that the likes of TJVG, Pinot and Bardet are more talked up by over-enthusiastic bloggers than riders who actually deliver the big results.

  3. Always difficult to predict beforehand whether it’ll be a competitive race for Yellow. Personally I don’t think Contador can hang with the other three after riding a full Giro, but it’ll be interesting to see. Just fingers crossed we don’t lose any of the big favourites before the mountains like last year.

  4. Just saw the Lotto Soudal team – despite no top10 GC contender *(unless Thomas De Ghent comes good out the blue) and their backing Griepel, the team actually looks very strong, especially for some stages?

    Gallopin, Wellens, Hansen, Bak, De Ghent, Debusschere – pretty impressive?

    Surprised Sky didn’t take one more rouleur – only selfishly to see Kennaugh and Thomas in the mountains and not dragged into the early work with Stannard & Rowe. Awesome to see Rowe there. Just thought Kiriyenka would top Roche, especially for TTT.

    Movistar seem a bit weaker than 2013? Maybe not…

    Also really want to see Mollema/Trek & Belkin show up – just seems as though Bauke’s form’s disappeared, likewise Kelderman.

    Nibali’s words on Vanotti reItaly champs seem incredibly harsh? Thought he was a nice guy.

    L’Equipe’s prediction on Pinot seems fair enough on this years form, have a sneaky feeling the top six will be;

    Quintana or Froome
    Pinot
    TJ Van Gaarderen
    Contador
    Nibali

    The top two could switch so easily it’s impossible to call.

    See how stupidly wrong I am in 4weeks.

    Neil

    *(in a non-cycling post, people should listen to new LA Priest album out today – and no I’m not him – it’s just great)

  5. Kiryienka gave an interview to a Russian/Belarussian site the day after he won his Nats TT title. Said he desperately wanted a break after hard racing since the start of the season. The team had told him to be ready to go to the Tour if called up, but he was hoping that he wouldn’t be and that he could have a break before the rest of the season.

      • I was finally able to find the Astana start list:

        Nibs (Podium, not the top step)

        Lars Boom. (Nibs needs to sit on his wheel for the cobbles and hope Boom can repeat last years win)
        Scarponi
        Fuglsgang
        Kangert
        Taarmae (all will be solid in the mountains)

        Roleurs:

        Westra
        Grivko
        Gruzdev

        Seems like a pretty solid team to me.

        • yeah, does look good, was it Westra last year who was with Nibs on cobbles? Boom and Westra this year spells bad news for other GC’s, but Nibs surely needs 3mins+ going into second/third week to beat Quintana & Froome. Cannot see him matching them on the climbs.

          The rest of the Astana team I guess is all dependent on form, Fuglsgang seems a notch below previous form, have no idea where Taarmae is, Scarponi looked fine at Dauphine and hopefully Kangert has recovered from Giro.

          Guess just a shame when you’ve a Landa in the team not to able to bring him along – seems a bit lucky for Aru to have got the super domestique and Nibali gets neither Landa nor Aru here.

          Astana would be terrifying with both of them in the team.

          • Westra was there on the cobbels (he was the last survivour from the early breakaway) – but it was Fuglsang (2nd on that stage) who created the final splits with NIbali on his wheel that killed off first Sky & BMC – and then more impressively Sagan, Cancellara and Vermarke and brigded to Boom – until NIbali couldn’t hang on to Boom and Fuglsang had to wait.

            This year they even have Boom – aka. 1st, 2nd and 3rd from last year. If it rains on the cobbles Nibali & Fuglsang will be up by 3 minuttes after the TTT.

            Fuglesang is an ex. MTB XC world Champion who execls on both punchy climbs, TT’s and wet paves. He si not as agressive as Nibali and he usually suffers in 2K altitudes.

        • Fulgsang would have enden up on the podium last year if he hadent crashedbecause of the madness of Van den Brok on a decent (who incidently caused Contador to crash out as well).

          This year Fuglsang has lost weigth while keeping up his watt numbers (firt time ever). Unfortunatly he had the fleu in Swizerland – Reports from the training sessions on Mt. Teide prior to TDS/Daupine is that this year he is outclimbing Nibali. Add his TT which is only superseeded by Frome & Vangarderen among the GC conterders and equal to Contador.

          …and add the puncy climbs like Amstel (or Yourkshire) in the north where he usually excels AND the Pave’s – Last year he was second only to Boom and dragged Nibali away from Canchelara & Sagan in final 20K’s.

          I expect Fuglsang to finnish with the top ten, perhaps even top 5 – depending on the competitivness of Nibali.

          Fulgsang or Nibali will hold yellow after stage 9… (Prolouge, Mur de Huy, Pave’s, Mur de Bretange & the TTT will be deciding).

          Fuglsang WILL play second to Nibali but i expect Astana to create significant gaps on the Pave stage – whith last years 1,2 & 3 + Westra on the team that stage could create even more canage than last year – especially if the weather is wrong and rainy.

          BTW i’d love to se both Fuglsag and Nibali race Paris-Roubaix.

          • Maybe when Nibz is done with winning GTs and wants a new challenge….

            Weather forecast as present is for this hot and dry weather to last well into next week in that area. Little chance of a repeat of last year’s conditions…

  6. Hang-on !

    A Froome vs Contador vs Quintana vs Nibbles showdown ?

    – isn’t this just a repeat of what was promised last year (but inc Quintana), except Froome & Contador fell off their bikes and we ended-up with Nibbles winning by 7 minutes ?

    • The difference this time Quintana is here, Nibali’s stature has increased and the main point is that right now we can only salivate at the contest ahead, as opposed to looking back at what should have been.

      Imagine a meal with all the right ingredients that’s been cooked to perfection and about to be served right in front of you. Maybe it’ll end up tasting foul but for now everything is on track.

      • Yeah, but my point is that when we were here at exactly this point last year, we were “only salivating at the contest ahead”, just like we are today, except it didn’t work-out that way.

        The proof is indeed in the eating : McDonalds claim to have only the highest quality, finest freshest ingredients – but look at what it ends up like !

  7. Kittel fuming over non-selection. Really? I seem to remember his twittereactions being ones of disappointment, yet acceptance of a crappy spring leading to an unavoidable conclusion. Abandoning at the German nationals further seems to justify the managements decision.

    • Whether the initial reaction was accepting or just a brave face apparently things are a little more touchy behind the scenes. Nothing outrageous but it’s not been easy for him to accept.

      • Marcel Kittel wrote himself that he is still too busy to process the huge dissapointment to think about the rest of the season (surely including the NC!) and that this is the hardest time of his career. He himself feels he would have been ready for the Tour. And in a team without Dege he would probably have been nominated. Not many teams have two sprintoptions on that level, even if those two prefer different terrain. After his clear words on his homepage, there are german articles questioning if he will leave Giant-Alpecin after this season, prompting even his agent to say he will at least fulfill his current contract which is till 2016. I don’t see him leaving after personally investing so much in having again a german team in the WT and with ARD finally back covering the Tour, but maybe that personal investment is exactly the problem and the reason, why he is so dissapointed. He feels he not always got enough support in the past and that the nomination was simply a matter of trust. Even a talk between him and the team brought no consent and no conciliation, although they talked apparently for 4 hours.

        • Time is a great healer.
          No need to cut off his nose to spite his face, especially as it’s such a pretty one.
          If he moves, then there’s a strong possibility he’ll find out in short order that the grass is not always greener on the other side.
          He’s been very well supported by Giant down the years and he remains a one-trick pony. A very, very gifted one-trick pony but a one-trick pony all the same.

      • They’d want to be very sure of his lack of fitness before leaving Kittel out: without him, a lot of their team consists of leadout men with no-one to lead out (Dege might will win tougher stages, but not flat sprints). I’d have thought that Kittel was worth the risk.

        • Don’t you think that Dege can go for green w/o Kittel in the team?. Maybe Dege will not win any mass galopp but he should be able to finish where Sagan usually finishes and give him a proper fight for green. I assume that’s part of the reason why they left Kittel at home. He might have won a stage for them in the first week but after week one he would most probably be too tired and not make it to Paris in such a mountaineous tour.

  8. Surprised that only Kangert makes it from Astana’s Giro team.
    Luke Rowe’s inclusion seems to be more down to British bias than picking the best rider: he didn’t look that good in yesterday’s nationals.
    I’d have had Eisel for the experience, and guaranteed strength, or Kiriyenka (knackered or not).
    Speaking of the nationals, saw the ‘Team Wiggins’ jersey being ridden in. Am I the only one who finds it distastefully self-aggrandising to have a team named after oneself? And what do his team mates make of being in a team named after one of the other blokes in it?
    Yes, he’s been a great rider, but so were many others and I don’t remember – but could be wrong – any of them riding in teams carrying their own name.
    It does suggest an out-of-control ego: surely, most people would find this a tad embarrassing.
    Let the abuse commence…

    • Fairly sure it was a Simon Cowell decision rather than Wiggins’s own and it’s doing it’s job of attracting new fans. What else should they call it – Team Mod? Contador seems happy to ride in a team named after the boss even if they don’t spell it correctly.

        • In response to Tovarishch
          Simon Fuller not Cowell 🙂

          In response to J Evans
          Don’t think you need to worry. The riders don’t seem too traumatised about their team name – in fact they seem to be thriving. Get out to a bike race and talk to them if you want to find out for yourself. And ask Rapha how many units they’re shifting by having Wiggins as a team name rather than anything else.

          • All of these are reasonable points, but if Fabian Cancellara was riding for a team called ‘Team Cancellara’, I think many here would be castigating him as a pillock.

          • Though maybe not if he was doing it after he’d retired from top level road cycling, as a way of bringing through young Swiss riders?

            Mind you, some riders even have bicycles named after them!

    • kinda have to agree with you on the Lowe comment; how surprised was I to see Cav rode both him and Kennaugh off his wheel to catch Stannard, who then sat up Supersterk indeed. Prior to the nationals Lowe was a shoe in for me after his strong shows this season. Top 10 at Roubaix where he was imperious.

      More of a surprise for me is Boswell and Deignan. Maybe their TT skills are not upto it? They both looked strong at Dauphine.

    • *******Speaking of the nationals, saw the ‘Team Wiggins’ jersey being ridden in. Am I the only one who finds it distastefully self-aggrandising to have a team named after oneself? And what do his team mates make of being in a team named after one of the other blokes in it?*******

      If you were the young rider would you prefer the support/sponsorship of the ex pro/old pro/famous pro named team or no team? Doubt they would have got funding without his name so what’s the problem? More support for young riders the better.

      & would be quite nice to have some more variation in team names, it’s such a shame that team’s have to scrap & struggle to survive and names come and go, would be great to have some that stuck around; a few named after old riders, some after mountains, etc etc

      It’s bit boring just having brands naming everything.

      It’ll never change but it also seems so unfair that they put on the show and get none of the profits or support. I hope the reforms go through and you get smaller teams, more teams, teams that can survive permanently and get some of the profits.

      Also reform the calendar so it actually makes some sense to new comers rather than only the ultra protective “true” fans who love it being difficult make head nor tail of. If you could find a way to actually build drama through the season rather than everything past the Tour seeming like a tag on that would amazing.

      N

      • I agree about the ‘tag on’ effect, to an extent, but have never found the season difficult to comprehend: I found it fascinating when I first started looking into it. But I’ve nothing against simplifying if it doesn’t mean ‘watering down’ or shortening established races (I’m one of those UPTFs you mention).
        Some of the reforms sound quite good – now that they’ve got rid of the ‘reduce the number of World Tour races’ idea – my concern is that the motivation behind the various parties who want reforms is primarily financial, not sporting.
        Still not sure why the size of teams needs to be reduced.
        But I’d better stop: going off-topic is frowned upon.

    • Perhaps then you will be interested in the fact that the Kazakh national championships featured a clean sweep by riders from “Team Vino 4 Ever.”

      ^this really happened; not making it up!

      I think the Team Wiggins kit looks really dull and ugly on television.

      • This very much makes my point – although I wouldn’t say ‘Team Wiggins’ is anywhere near that level of ego-mania. But then what else would one expect from Vino?

        • I could be wrong, but Vinokourov isn’t directly involved – in person, I mean – even if the name of the team is inspired by a jersey he wore in his comeback and the DS is one of his former trainers. Obviously enough, I imagine he shows up from time to time being the local deity, but it’s not like a project “he is in”.

          • Agreed. Kazakh cycling right now is 95% built on his legend and political pull. I’d say let him do whatever he wants. (I shall disclose that he is my favorite doper of all time too.)

        • Wiggins is not just another rider.
          It is SIR Bradley Wiggins. I’m not a fan of him but you must give him the credits he deserves.
          Look at his Palmares and try to find out how inmportant he has been for The UK cycling !!

          • Plenty of better riders than him throughout history and now. And they don’t have teams named after them.

            Afraid I’m not servile enough to have any respect whatsoever for knighthoods.
            (Even he thought about turning it down.)

        • It is hard to compare the level of celebrity of Vino and Wiggo in their respective countries. But I posit the following:
          Wiggo has won several Olympic golds for a country that wins dozens every other year. Vino won a gold for a country that wins a gold once in a while.
          Wiggo is a knight. Vino is a colonel. Both honorary martial titles.
          But only Vino is literally a Hero of his country. And Wiggo is not being asked if he wants to hold political office after cycling.
          Vino takes the cake in this battle guys, no question about it.

    • Tough to call it British bias when Sky didn’t pick one Brit for the Giro……

      Motorsport of both 4 and 2 wheels is full of teams named after their owners. There’s many reasons for this but the main one is continuity. Teams named after sponsors need to change everytime the main sponsor drops out but not in this case. The proof will be in how long the team lasts. Imagine if there was a team named after Merckx? Cycling loves its history and I’m sure riders now would feel proud to race under the Merckx name. I’m not comparing the two but I’m pretty sure ‘Wiggo’ will be remembered long after we’ve left this mortal coil.

  9. Re team wiggins, I’d imagine sponsors were more likely to cough up with it being branded wiggins, they were in the British criterium races and apart from lawless didnt put on a very good showing.

    • They were short-handed for almost every round. They have a smaller roster than several of the other UCI Conti teams anyway, but also have had 2 of the team out of action thanks to being crook; and several of the others have been on GB MTB / road duties (which the team was set up to support anyway), which has clashed with TS and certain NRS races.

      Lawless was superb in the TS, but more significantly Tennant delivered success in the Wiltshire GP, and a podium in another NRS race. With Doull’s success yday, his silver on Thu, plus wins by both him and Tennant in Europe, I reckon the sponsors are pretty happy.

      And yes, the sponsors have come on board because they want to be associated with Wiggins – and the Team name ensures that. They also cant be called Sky, for obvious reasons. And Team Mumbo or whatever has no reference at all for the sponsors.

  10. the bloke sells 6000 tickets in 30 secs, to watch him ride round in circles for an hour…. gotta milk that name for all it’s worth I imagine before the nations adoring gaze moves on…

  11. Who will be the first of the Fab 4 to fall precipitously back to earth like a SpaceX rocket?

    I think it will be Nibali, the stress will get to him ergo a mistake.

    Only my humble opinion

    • That’s the hard thing. “Crash Froome” could appear, Contador looked miserable on the pavé stage last year, Nairo Quintana could flicked into a ditch at any point too. For now we can look forward to it all before they’re slotted into an indisputable pecking order.

      • Idea for a poster preme!
        A pair of sox to the individual who can guess on what stage and which one of the top 4 riders ( Froome, Conti, Nibali, or Quintana) experiences the first “measurable” mishap. Examples would be mechanical, crash, bonk, or fate of god as a result causes said rider an insurmountable disadvantage!

        Winner does not need to predict the cause only the stage and rider?

        • And if the ‘measurable mishap’ happens to be a broken leg? Those socks will be treasured for all time by the ‘lucky’ winner, won’t they?

          What a ‘fun’ competition!! Lowballing is rarely a good idea.

      • Sometimes I feel sorry for the modern Tour. Just like the NFL Superbowl it’s almost impossible to deliver a race equal to the pre-event hype. As long as we see guys trying to win (like Nibali) rather than racing not to lose (well, I’ll leave that to others), I’ll be satisfied, no matter who ends up on the top step of the podium in Paris. Vive LeTour!

        • The guy who wins this Tour can legitimately say he took on all the top guys and beat them. Thus, we should have the most worthy Tour winner for a while.

          • And the guys who won last year (and before that) can NOT say the same thing? If Froome, Contador and Quintana all fall down and go boom on the pave while Nibali goes on to win (again) I suspect we’ll hear the same old song….”woulda, coulda, shoulda…if only, etc.”

        • Not sure that’s a great likeness,

          The Superbowl has really spoilt us lately with intense drama – look at this year, the two best teams went toe to toe for 3 hours first Seattle had it the NE, then Seattle the finally and it was decided on the final drive. Following a freak catch made by a guy on the floor, a unknown practice squad player makes a pick in his own end zone after a hugely controversial/bone headed play call.

          The equivalent in cycling would be something like 3 weeks of the yellow jersey changing hands every couple of days, then the big names all together within a handful of seconds going into the last climb. Then maybe for good measure some team going for a sneaky TTT attack off the front in Paris to try and claw back the few seconds they need. And I’d settle for that.

          World cup or Ashes though and i’m with you.

  12. As much as the cycling season is about much more than the Tour (particularly this season), I must confess to excitement every time 3 weeks of on-the-telly bike racing rolls around.

    And I am with Inrng: this year promises so much. It will be interesting to see how it plays out – I can see Nibali/Contador going on the attack on the descents… or anywhere… relative to a more conventional “last climb” style from Froome and Quintana.

    I’d also love Pinot to be up there and really give the home crowd somebody to root for

  13. It it the wife’s birthday on Saturday, so we’re having a party. Not a bad day to have a party if you are an American! (also easy to remember if you are a spouse!) and not a bad day to have a party if you are a cycling fan.

    Will also be on a quiet lake vacation for a full week during the Tour. Will be darn nice to do some viewing in peace and quiet, normally I have to sneak viewing when I should be doing other work!

  14. > J Evans June 29, 2015 at 11:07 pm
    > Never heard of Van den Broeck being the cause of Contador’s crash – where did you get this information?

    – unfortunaly the website doesn’t accept that many repley levels

    Fulgsang, Mørkev, B Holm all told the story to dansish TV2, DR1 and Eurosport – well Contador was just behind Van den Brok just prior to the crash and went fast to overtake him while eating because everyone is scared to shit of Van den Brook on decends.

    I heard quite a few remarks about Van den Brook’s lack of awarenes on decends both prior to last years TDF and after. Apperantly his wheel is the wheel that everyone on World Tour wants to avoid – not because he is going fast, slow or takes chnaces but because he brakes, takes turns and avoids potholes without thinking of those behind – he is simply unaware. Even his teammate Lars Bak aknowladges this.

  15. In the many years of being enthralled with Le Tour ,this year is going to be one of most outstanding showdowns I think we can all expect to see. May the Universe keep them all safe and make it to the finish ,This is going to be quite an epic Tour, best in many years with our new breed of champions

  16. Mollema… any thoughts?… he was 2nd in Tirreno but then nowhere in Norway or the Dauphine.. who is Trek’s protected GC guy this time out, Mollema or the ever dependable (and invisible) Zubeldia? (Arredondo more of a stage hunter?)

  17. I just hope we get to see Nibali put time into all of the other three and then put them to the sword on the descents. This will make for the best spectacle. If they hit the climbs within a minute of each other I think it could end up being very dull…

    • altho… if Pinot/TVG/Bardet/Uran are also close it will be interesting for the ‘big 4’ if one or two of those attacks… and they all stare at each other waiting for someone else to do the chasing. Factor in the capable no.2’s…Fuglsang/Majka/Porte/Valverde… it could be quite complicated – there’s lots of ‘throw a rider up the road and see what the others do..’ potential…
      …. depending on who makes it past the 1st rest day obviously.

      • It’s possible yes, but I think recent times have shown riders are much more willing to preserve 5th than lose everything and go for first.

        I do agree that there are a much higher number of riders being considered in the mix for the podium though, if that’s what youre implying?!, so hopefully we will see some good racing.

        I’m just worried that it’ll end up with the 4 of them off up the road riding for 10-20 seconds, 2 km out. I wouldn’t usually think that of Bertie but with the Giro in his legs that might be all he can do.

        Oh and Nibs to win 🙂

  18. The main event. looking forward to this so much. my money is on Quintana causing an upset, contador fading week 2/3, Froome falling off, and Nibali getting on the podium.

    feel free to ridicule me when contador wins or whatever.

    Hoping Cav wins his fair share as well, he looks super focused!

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