SB Nation User Blog: Jens

Le Tour Stage 2... LIVE! Third Thread

Jens — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 11:33:04 -0000

Final 10 km's

Le Tour Stage 2... LIVE! Second Thread

Jens — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 11:31:46 -0000

Break is off. Chance of failure: 99.93%.

Le Tour Monaco ITT... EIGHTH Live Thread!

Jens — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 17:01:29 -0000

Everybody out on the course. This thing is about to be decided. In yellow tomorrow will be....................

Le Tour Monaco ITT... SEVENTH Live Thread!

Jens — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 16:42:26 -0000

Klodi leading. Cancellara: make it go away!

Le Tour Monaco ITT... SIXTH Live Thread!

Jens — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 16:13:48 -0000

God help me, I'm starting to look forward to seeing Cancellara zooming through the tunnel like an F1 racer.

Tour de France Stage 1 -- Monaco ITT... LIVE! Fourth thread

Jens — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 14:52:45 -0000

Fourth thread already. Are you kidding me?

Tour de France Stage 1 -- Monaco ITT... LIVE! Third thread

Jens — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 09:33:46 -0000

Rumor in Monaco has it there several riders besides Lance entered in this Tour. Sounds crazy but let's find out...........

The Mother of all VDS smacktalk: TourEdition

Jens — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:54:50 -0000

OK all of you with a yearlong VDS-team. This is it. You may have fooled yourself into thinking that the Ster Electrotoer actually made a difference but you were wrong. This is the Tour, Baby. This is where the big boys and girls come out to play.
This is what separates The Players from............... well Ursula I suppose.

Sure the Giro and the Vuelta may count for just as many points but we are talking MAJOR bragging rights here. The once in a lifetime opportunity to point to your fellow PdCers and snicker smugly at their inferior teambuilding-skills. And for those of you who didn't pick Contador there is always the possibility to mock those un-original enough to do so. Let's face it, if you want to win there is always next year.

So now that the Tour is almost upon us,let's hear it. How do your teams look and why will they dominate these next three weeks?

Tour Presentation LIVE! Second thread

Jens — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:17:58 -0000

Big teams coming up. French guy still annoying.

Why not me? Kim Kirchen

Jens — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 09:04:40 -0000

Surely Columbia -HTC cannot have a more important goal this Tour than to elevate this proven GC-rider to the top spot of the podium? What else would they spend three weeks in France doing that would make other teams Green with envy?

Still Kirchen should not be overlooked, and here's why.

Kirchen is one of those sneaky riders who didn't explode onto the stage like some of the more highprofile stars. His is the story of slow progression. From promising youngster working hard for others and scoring some notable results on Fassa Bortolo via an off year on a T-Mob in disarray to finally blooming on Stapletons High Road. Blessed and cursed with all-round ability he hasn't dominated one single type of races but rather produced admirably all over the calender (to the joy of VDSers everywhere).

Why he will win?

The last two years have seen him develop into a real tour threat . Solid performances all-round, spiced with a marked improvement in the TTs. Had it not been for busted dopers he would have been the big story in the long TTs these last two Tours. That combined with a strong team in the TTT should keep him in contention. An accident in the Tour of Cali might have been a blessing in disguise as far as the Tour goes. Not having spent a lot of energy might enable him to make a sastrian third week assault this year. The relatively unaggressive mountaintop-finishes should benefit the second-tier climbers like Kirchen. Previously he has had too see juuuust a little too much time slip away from him on the decisive climbs, not so this year.

Why he will not win?

(Insert Alberto Contador disclaimer here)

Cav:Much like Cervélo, Columbia is a two-target team. To make things worse for Kirchen, Cav is going for a green jersey which means he won't just be sucking resources away in the first week but all the way to Paris. Martin and Monfort will in all likely-hood not be fully dedicated to Kirchen but used to set things up for Cav. God knows what Rogers will be doing? Are they considering him co-GC-captain with Kim or is he a supportrider?

Mentality: It has been indicated that KK is a brooding, selfdoubting rider and prone to overthinking. Would he cope with being in a position to win in the last days?

The Ventoux: Kirchen can probably handle everything else this Tour throws at him but the Bald Giant might be one hill too far for him. Past climbing performances indicate this.

The Grand Duke Predicts: This is your year Kim but you sure do smell like a fifth-place candidate to me.