I know it's not good form to start off a thread by saying "I'm not trolling", but I'm really not trolling.

I'm looking forward to the Tour, seriously. The prologue is always cool, and should be more interesting this year since top riders could possibly get some decent time gaps over some of the pure climbers. The team time trial is also cool. It's amazing watching how smooth some teams pacelines are (as well as how crappy some teams look)

However, the rest of the first week, I could honestly care less. The only reason to pay attention is to see if there's a crash involving anyone important. One could script every day of the first week. A couple breakaways give it a try, and get caught. Finally, a breakaway with no names anyone cares about, and teams anyone cares about gets away and builds a 8-10 minute lead. The sprinters teams get interested and start the chase. The breakaway is caught with 5km left, there's a group sprint, and some guy that will drop out of the race the moment the road turns up wins. Repeat.

Anyone else out there ambivalent towards the first week? At least the Giro this year put some challenge finishes on a couple of stages to reward riders like Betinni and DiLuca.

Would the results of the tour be all that different if they shortened the race by 8 days or so and only had one or 2 flat stages and the rest in the mountains or time trials?

Here's my perspective. It's a big deal to win the tour, the biggest deal in cycling. It's also a pretty big deal to win the green jersey, or even wear it, or the yellow jersey for a few days. A big sprinter winning two stages in the first week will generate huge publicity for their sponsors and earn a big piece of that year's paycheck.

Since the tour is the big race, and any kind of victory is magnified under its microscope, every stage win, intermediate sprint and cat 3 KOM point is hard faught. That to me makes any day of the tour interesting. This is not March or April in some small race where guys might be holding back, or not care so much about a minor win. Every guy is giving it his all, and this is one of the few (if only) races in the whole year where that happens.

Silas

Here's my perspective. It's a big deal to win the tour, the biggest deal in cycling. It's also a pretty big deal to win the green jersey, or even wear it, or the yellow jersey for a few days. A big sprinter winning two stages in the first week will generate huge publicity for their sponsors and earn a big piece of that year's paycheck.

Since the tour is the big race, and any kind of victory is magnified under its microscope, every stage win, intermediate sprint and cat 3 KOM point is hard faught. That to me makes any day of the tour interesting. This is not March or April in some small race where guys might be holding back, or not care so much about a minor win. Every guy is giving it his all, and this is one of the few (if only) races in the whole year where that happens.

Silas

exactly. riders from every country come out of the woodwork and compete like no other time. It seems like the only time of the year where we can get a heavy doses of riders of all types and predelictions competing against one another.

... is that the "prologue" this year is a little more substantial for the opportunist who is hungry enough to take advantage. i'd personally like to see someone throw down for the the MJ on day one.

The first week this year looks interesting - ITT on stage 1, TTT on stage 4, a trip into Germany for the T-Mobile boys. Looks like LeBlanc is trying put some GC issues into the first week.

Did anybody really know of Voekler before last year? His performance last year really shows what riding in the TDF means to both the riders and fans..

I agree Voekler was amazing last year, but had he lost the yellow jersey on the first mtn stage as everyone expected would anyone remember him?

I actually think Voekler was the best story of last years tour, the way he kept getting dropped and then fighting his way back to the leaders was incredible.