It started today!!! Should be a pretty good tour this year that will favor the climbers. Contador is probably the favorite. Though there are several other riders who may have a chance. Not sure how good a chance I would give Lance. Tough to know how good his form will be until he gets to the mountains.

My power went out for a half hour this morning, about a minute after Lance Armstrong went out on the course.So I missed his ride. There will be several chances to catch a replay though. I am a little mad that I do not have Vs. in HD on my cable system. Though I may be switching over to Dish later in the month.

Also, enter my TDF Lanterne Rouge contest!!!

http://www.cigarasylum.com/vb/showthread.php?t=17947
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Hope you enjoy the race, brother. From my point, I'm simply glad I won't be seeing Sheryl Crow hangin' around this year. :-)
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I expect a good showing from Washington state homeboy sprinter, Tyler Farrar!

:-)
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well, my favorite Menchov sucked big time today.
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My wife and I had to call Directv today to change our package so we could get versus again just for the Tour. Something meditative about Phil Liggetts voice in July.
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Except he seems to be missing the calls on more of the sprints lately. Ten again, most of the time I cant figure it out.
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The planets have aligned once again here in July with the TDF in action. I made it home just in time this morning to watch Lance's reappearance, then I had to get some sleep only to wake up in time for the replay! :-)
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Looking forward to this years tour. Not sure I'd call Lance the favorite, but I can't wait to see him in the mountains.
I do hope we will see a clean race this year. I'm starting to get a bit frustrated, especially after the cheater Andy Schleck helped me win some cigars last year.
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Lance was sharp as a razorblade today, and that might cause trouble within the Astana team. Contador missed the boat and Bruyneel gave Popovych and Zubeldia green light to help the Columbia team. He can defend his decision by saying it was to hurt Evans and Menchov, but I'de love to be a fly on the wall during Astana team dinner tonight.
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The next few days should be interstesing to watch Astana to see if Contador steps his game up. This video is awesome and can definately show why so many people like Lance. http://www.livestrong.com/lance-arms...-e722454f6151/
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I only caught the very end, how did the lead group with Lance break away?
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There was a turn and the cross winds kicked in off the ocean. Then Columbia created a small split and just went with it. The rest ofg the teams were just caught napping.

Lance has a good chance at wearing Yellow tomorrow.
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George H. made it sound like Garmin was tired of waiting for someone to come up and change this from a charity ride to a world class race so they just went. He was very explicit about not naming sprinter teams though. :-)
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Thanks. It came back on a midnight and I thought I'd be able to stay up for it. That didn't happen.
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Its been a crazy begining of todays stage.
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Fixed for you ...
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this is very interesting to see them hit the curves today...
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Well, nobody commented on yesterdays team time trial. Astana looked good, like the most professional team out there. Every time Lance won a tour, it was his team that got him 95% of the way. Astana looks like they could deliver the package.

I finally saw how Lance got into that break, and I would've liked to see Contador even with Lance going into the mountains, but now the fact that Lance is up probably means Contador is supporting him if there was any doubt before.

Can't wait to see Astana pick up the pace in the mountains.
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Great race today. I'll have to eat my words from the previous post. Astana let Contador go for it and silenced Evans all at the same time.
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Yea Contador had some awesome legs up that final climb today. We will see for sure in the next couple days if Lance truly is going to be a Domestique this year.
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