Carbon4Carbon: The Tour Opens...

The Tour is officially underway now. We had the first stage (too long to be a prologue, it was a full on stage) today, and it was not disappointing. Here is the top ten, with the time back and the group the guy rode (R = SRAM Red, D = Shimano DuraAce, C = Campy Record 11)

1 Cancellara 19:32 R
2 Contador +00:18 R
3 Wiggins +00:19 D
4 Kloden +00:22 R
5 Evans +00:23 C
6 Leipheimer +00:30 R
7 Kreuziger +00:32 C
8 Martin +00:33 D
9 Nibali +00:37 C
10 Armstrong +00:40 R

Here are my thoughts:
*The first amazing thing I see is that Astana has Contador, Kloden, Leipheimer, and Armstrong in the top ten. Amazing. There is no doubt that they are the strongest team, and by the time of the Team Time Trial, you will see all four of those guys in the top five. I'm stunned by the strength of that team. You have to be.
*Kruziger and Nibali put in good rides, but don't expect them to challenge the top of the GC, and in fact a top ten by either guy is asking alot.
*Wiggins is a great rider, comes from the track, and a stage win here would have been stellar. But you gonna top Cancellara? The best TT rider of his generation? No way.
*Contador is so for real. He was second, and that was as good as a win for him. He was basically racing to tell his team: Get behind me. I'm the guy. And they will, because he is.
*Wanted to see Zabriskie (13th +00:47) or VandeVelde (17th +00:57) in the top ten, but not happening. VandeVelde might be riding into form. Basically, Garmin needs to be second to Astana on the TTT. They can do it. On form, based on today's result the TTT goes Astana, Saxo Bank, Garmin. No, not Liquigas... they're 3 and 4 guys were no where.
*Biggest surprise: Wiggins. He could win one of these one day... maybe this year at the end of the race, who knows? The word is he can climb and he could be in the top ten at the end.
*Tony Martin... stud.
*Biggest disappointment: Armstrong. Yea, I know he's just happy to be there. I heard that. BUT... you know he wanted to have a time that made Contador doubt himself, make him eye Lance with suspicion across the dinner table. But Lance's time just said I will be the best domo in the history of this race. And nothing more.
*Pretty much every other team would love to have Kloden, Leipheimer or Armstrong leading the team, not playing superdomo. For real. You think that Ag2R, Lampre, Milram, or Katusha (just to name a few off the top of my bald dome) wouldn't sell their collective soul for a Kloden? I know they would.
*Menchov is done. He was 53rd, and a Led Zeppelin song back of Fabian.
*Oscar Pereiro. Remember him? The winner of the '06 tour? He was 58th and a bus ticket behind. I have said it once and I will say it everyday till the day I take a dirtnap... Oscar is the most undeserving Tour "winner" in the history of this race. The '06 Tour should be scratched from the record books, just totally forgotten about. And he knows it. Oscar knows that he is not deserving... which is why no one but him thinks of him as a contender or a victor... goodness, that Tour was the worst.
*And here is another known fact: Last year's winner (a guy I actually really like) Carlos Sastre was 21st at +01:06... and does anyone doubt that he is almost as lucky as Pereiro? If Astana was in last year's race, he doesn't win. Circumstances. Yes, I know. But he at least is deserving in the sense that his body of work shows he was always there, always in the top five, always near the top. But you know Contador would have rolled him up.
*SRAM put 5 guys in the top ten, and won the stage. Make no doubts, there is a war in components going on right now, and has been all year long. In the old days (just a couple of years ago...) it was probably 60/40 Campagnolo v. Shimano. Now, two years into the SRAM introduction, they have turned the road component group upside down. Campy put three guys in the top ten, Shimano two. SRAM has half the top ten and the stage wins. They are busting out the bubbly in Chicago, the worldwide HQ for SRAM... but they have a couple of cases of it, becuase they foresee many stage wins and a complete dominance of the GC. Count on it.
*Monte Carlo is such a classy place to open a race... so much better than the so-called theme park of Futuroscope. What a dump.

Tomorrow is a sprinters stage. And if Cavendish does not win, it will be a total disappointment.

That's it for now.... good lord I love this race. What a good start to what should be a fine Tour.

OK... one last thing. Would you rather have a million dollars...