Tour of CA rosters
Saturday marks the beginning of the inaugural Amgen Tour of California, and our first taste of top domestic professional racing in America for 2006.
Team roster information has been released on Velonews, but surprisingly this info has yet to be posted on the Tour's main website.
US riders to watch out for are of course Levi Leipheimer, Floyd Landis, Tom Danielson, Chris Horner, Bobby Julich and Saul Raisin. Australian riders have a great presence with Stuart O'Grady (now with CSC), Cadel Evans, Michael Rogers and Nathan O'Neill to name a few.
As far as overall team strength you have to consider CSC and Discovery Channel as the ones with the most depth in this race. Phonak, Gerolsteiner and Davitamon-Lotto are well stacked too, but teams like Toyota-United Pro, Healthnet and Navigators are filled with riders who can take over any one day of the race.
The darkhorse in this event has to be Gilberto Simoni of Saunier Duval. However, I suspect he wanted a good training race in the sun and chose the hills of California. Not a bad choice of landscape, but it would be exciting to see him contend if his fitness is up for it.
Check out the numbers each rider will be wearing. Presumably the rider wearing the #1 of their team of 8 is the GC hopeful. This means Paolo Savoldelli is the GC rider for Discovery instead of Danielson, who is likely peaking for Tour de Georgia. Savoldelli will have to fight off a lot of hungry Americans, most notably Julich, Landis and Leipheimer.
Last note, there is no rider #1 in this event as Bobby Julich has the first bib with #2. We can only assume this is because there is no defending champion to offer up #1, so who do you predict will get this honor in 2007?
Post your predictions in the comments section of this post.
Team roster information has been released on Velonews, but surprisingly this info has yet to be posted on the Tour's main website.
US riders to watch out for are of course Levi Leipheimer, Floyd Landis, Tom Danielson, Chris Horner, Bobby Julich and Saul Raisin. Australian riders have a great presence with Stuart O'Grady (now with CSC), Cadel Evans, Michael Rogers and Nathan O'Neill to name a few.
As far as overall team strength you have to consider CSC and Discovery Channel as the ones with the most depth in this race. Phonak, Gerolsteiner and Davitamon-Lotto are well stacked too, but teams like Toyota-United Pro, Healthnet and Navigators are filled with riders who can take over any one day of the race.
The darkhorse in this event has to be Gilberto Simoni of Saunier Duval. However, I suspect he wanted a good training race in the sun and chose the hills of California. Not a bad choice of landscape, but it would be exciting to see him contend if his fitness is up for it.
Check out the numbers each rider will be wearing. Presumably the rider wearing the #1 of their team of 8 is the GC hopeful. This means Paolo Savoldelli is the GC rider for Discovery instead of Danielson, who is likely peaking for Tour de Georgia. Savoldelli will have to fight off a lot of hungry Americans, most notably Julich, Landis and Leipheimer.
Last note, there is no rider #1 in this event as Bobby Julich has the first bib with #2. We can only assume this is because there is no defending champion to offer up #1, so who do you predict will get this honor in 2007?
Post your predictions in the comments section of this post.
posted by NashvilleCyclist.com at 2/16/2006 09:26:00 AM
3 Comments:
So if Savodelli is the number one rider for Disc. that means he has peaked. Sense Dainelson is not the number one rider for Disc. that means he is peaking for the TDG? Oh that is how that works. I guess Savodelli is not going to peak for the Giro. Leaving me with only one other suggestion. HINCAPI, he is an exceptional climber. He He.
- GC no particular order -
Nathan O'Neil
Michael Rogers
Saul Raisin
Some German guy from T-Mobile
- Stages -
Gord Fraser
Dave Zabriskie
Greg Henderson
Not necessarily peaking in the truest sense, but at a more determined form than any other rider on the team at the moment. This early in the season everyone's form is a bit of a mystery.
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