Tour de France 2011

[UK Redsox]

excuse my ignorance but how english lads are in it this year?

There's a few and they've all got gorgeous shaved legs and pert bottoms. You'll love it spk

[curiousorange]

excuse my ignorance but how english lads are in it this year?

There's a few and they've all got gorgeous shaved legs and pert bottoms. You'll love it spk

And even better, none of them want to get married in a church.

[N'Rexy]

Hope you had money on Big Phil today. Told you so.  Leopard Trek tomorrow. Cancellara will pull them round.

[Dave Cooper please]

Good call Rexy.

Cracking first day, nice to see the drug cheat Contador lose 1'20" as well.

Garmin will win tomorrow but I reckon Sky could push them close.

[N'Rexy]

Great shout for Garmin Dave. Frank Schleck swallowed a bee and it stung him after 4k so their time wasn't bad. Cav time tomorrow.

[TopDeck113]

Fantastic TTT. Except, of course, if your name is Contador. 

[N'Rexy]

Agreed. Contador now has a lot of people riding against him rather then limiting their losses against everyone else. Its going to be a good tour I think.

[TheTimVilla]

Is it going anywhere near Grasse this year? I had the mother & father of all hangovers when it came past our house last year so I was in a zombified state in the swimming pool with all the helicopters & commotion going on. If it does come past again, I'll try not to get quite so shitfaced this year.

[N'Rexy]

Not that near:

http://www.letour.fr/2011/TDF/COURSE/us/le_parcours.html

[N'Rexy]

Crashes, fights, british success, and great racing. This has been a great start. Looking forward to a Cav win again tomorrow.

[The Left Side]

It has made it more interesting this year, it has even made Sportscentre over here.

[cdbearsfan]

I don't really understand it but it seems that the Brits are doing very well.

Are they likely to be near the top at the end or have the races so far just been been in conditions/terrain that they like?

Seeing as we always win loads of cycling medals in the Olympics, we should win this every now and again shouldn't we?

[Dave Cooper please]

I don't really understand it but it seems that the Brits are doing very well.

Are they likely to be near the top at the end or have the races so far just been been in conditions/terrain that they like?

Seeing as we always win loads of cycling medals in the Olympics, we should win this every now and again shouldn't we?

Road racing is vastly different to track cycling, there really is no comparison except that in both disciplines you ride a bike! Traditionally us Brits haven't bothered too much with road racing, a Brit used to be a real rarity in the TDF.
Bear in mind though that a lot of the talk of British success is about Team Sky, who are a British team but have a lot of foreign riders. Sky finished first and second on yesterday's stage but the winner was Norwegian (Edvald Boassen Hagen) and an Australian was second (Matt Goss- no, not the one who was in Bros).

Only Bradley Wiggins has any real chance of a high finish, and a lot depends on how he goes up the really big mountains and also how his team mates perform their own roles in helping him. He could drag Geraint Thomas up the climbs with him, Geraint has a great chance of getting the white jersey for best rider under 25 if he carry hold on in the mountains.
Cavendish will of course win another stage or two, he should be up there today, but he's an out and out sprinter who just survives in the hilly stages so he can go for the flat ones, he'll finish close to last in the overall classification but might win the green (points) jersey.

[Dave Cooper please]

Oh, and I forgot ex-drug cheat David Millar! He's going well and might grab a stage but is probably not quite a good enough climber to finish top twenty, he'll be blown away on one of the mountain stages eventually.

[bob]

Do you know of a good website that explains the tour nice and simple for a total noob?