2008 Deutschland tour

Lancaster took the Prologue - his first win since 2005. Good going by the Australian.

The queen stage is raced today. 2 cat 1's and a summit finish. So this is where we shake up the overall classification.

Gerdemann to take the stage win I feel. Lovkvist and Voigt are chances and I rate Zubeldia and Brajkovic as good outsiders.

1. Gerdemann
2. Voigt
3. Lovkvist

lovkvist or gerdemann will take it.

Oh yeah!

After stage 3, Gerdemann still retains his overall lead and Lovkvist is close on his tail a further 17 seconds behind in second.

It will go down to the time trial on Saturday. Lovkvist or Gerdemann. Either way, Columbia go 1 and 2 here.

Yes its a nail biting race. Hence all the activity on this board.

Would you believe I missed seeing the Tour by 3 hours? I'm staying in Speyer on a business trip and was stuck in training all day - got back to the hotel at 5pm only to find the tour had gone right past the hotel at around 2pm.

12,000km from home to miss a Tour 100m away by 3 hours. AAAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHH!

I did manage to collect a little direction board though...

Another win for Columbia.

Greipel takes his 12th season win.

Columbia are the only team here interested in the race I think. Afterall we skipped the Veulta to concentrate on this race.

Pity we can't get 1 2 and 3 in the GC. We will get 1 and 2 and maybe the sprinters jersey.

Columbia are dominating this race!

Columbia in the next few years will be the best most successful team out there with all this talent.

Beautiful!

Ciolek wins an uphill sprint. Columbia's third win in 5 days in the Tour.

Greipel or Ciolek could very well take Stage 6 and 7 and Gerdemann take the time trial in stage 8. Suddenly looking very good for Columbia.

Columbia are a very strong team Grates. And I don't necessarily disagree with you about their potential (though perhaps not as bullish as yourself). But how does their performance at this B event while the Vuelta is running give any indication on the potential success in the A league?

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Gerdeman was a quite asswipe claiming stage winner Veikkanen a liar yesterday. Doesn't he have a supportcrew in a car to read papers who is who in a GC? Maybe support crew was enjoying fish and chips in a local tavern when situation was on? What a dorks!

Well, they decided at the start of the year to skip the Vuelta due to financial reasons. Without a main sponsor and Bob giving all his money to the team, they thought it was best to skip the Vuelta.

Next years Tour de France and Giro will give you your indication of where Columbia are at. With Rogers, Lovkvist, Siutsou, Kirchen and Rogers all lined up fully fit for the Tour de France next year, there should be one or two top 10's and a potential podium there.

However, back on the Deutschland tour - Gerdemann broke his leg earlier in the year and has come back strong - that's the main point out of this. Gerdemann is looking a very strong man. In the mountains and in the time trials.