Tom Boonen For the TdF White Jersey

[oely]

Valverde reminds me of a young Jan Ullrich. Able to climb and sprint on the flat equally as well. It'll be interesting to see how Illes will organise their TDF team..

Really? Ullrich has never had a kick like Valverde and Valverde wont ever be able to TT like Jan. Valverde does not and wont ever have the pure power of Ullrich either, but then who would? The climbing abilities are comparable though i think.

 

[oely]

I read somewhere that Credit Agricole are dropping their dual-captain role for the tour and focusing entirely on stage wins. This basically means they'll be sending a train to help Hushovd. With the absence of Petacchi, I can see that this could be very promising for him. A train of Bodrogi, Wiggins, Hunt, Kirsipuu, Lequatre could work very well.

As in no help for or no concentration on Moreau? (he never shows anything much) Coz i thought they dropped the dual captain role for last years tour. The 2003 thing with Ogrady and Hushovd just showed them it did not work at all and ****** both riders off.

Dont forget Julien Dean in that train, he gives a great lead out and in fact i think hes possibly a better pure sprinter than Hushovd. Given the chance could do as well if not better.

 

[Dead Star]

As in no help for or no concentration on Moreau? (he never shows anything much) Coz i thought they dropped the dual captain role for last years tour. The 2003 thing with Ogrady and Hushovd just showed them it did not work at all and ****** both riders off.

Dont forget Julien Dean in that train, he gives a great lead out and in fact i think hes possibly a better pure sprinter than Hushovd. Given the chance could do as well if not better.

lol I knew i'd forgotten someone. I have no idea where the source was. Just saw it written by someone on a forum.

 

[musette]

Valverde is no JU, that's for sure. Valverde needs to improve on ITT.

 

[Dead Star]

he will one day

 

[Dead Star]

Another potential candidate for white jersey: Sandy Casar? He had to be one of the most unluckiest riders last year. He was in that same breakaway as Voeckler when he got the jersey, he even finished ahead of him on the overall (2nd in white jersey behind Karpets), but not an eyelid was flickered.

 

[gntlmn]

Here's a little trivia for you guys. The rider who has the record for the most white jerseys in the Tour de France is Jan Ullrich (1996, 1997, and 1998). He also won the yellow in 1997, a feat shared by Laurent Fignon in 1983, another young winner of the white and yellow. The white jersey tradition originated in 1975 and was abandoned for quite some time in 1988 only to be picked up again years later.

I don't know how many white jerseys Eddy Merckx would have won if they were being granted in his day, but I know it's a lot.

 

[ed073]

Here's a little trivia for you guys. The rider who has the record for the most white jerseys in the Tour de France is Jan Ullrich (1996, 1997, and 1998). He also won the yellow in 1997, a feat shared by Laurent Fignon in 1983, another young winner of the white and yellow. The white jersey tradition originated in 1975 and was abandoned for quite some time in 1988 only to be picked up again years later.

When are they bringing back the Combination jersey? Steve Bauer looked good in that, with his Oakley Blades and leather Cinelli helmet.

 

[Dead Star]

Philippe Gilbert will get the jersey

 

[MJtje]

T. Dekker isn't doing the tour. That is just to much for him right know. The giro is allready very hard; he has allready lost 15 min due to bad positioning. He wanted to learn at giro, because in the beginning the peloton rides relaxed and at the end everyone's flying....he likes that better then the tour were everybody flys in from the start.

For the white jersey I go with Cunego.......is better then all the other guys you named. He could possibly podium......Karpets is way off for podium!

He wont win the White jersey, he wont get even close to it by the end of the race. He will be a massive danger for the Green though. Him, McEwen (if he gets healthy) and Hushovd will be the danger guys. Hondo too had he been still racing. Assuming all are fit and on form id back Mcewen to do it again. He seems to stay stronger than other sprinters after the mountains. The Zabel, Davis, O´Grady like sprinters will be "up there" but thats all. Im not convinced of Freire getting that close to it too. It would take some bad luck for some other sprinters for guys like them to win the green.

For the White jersey id back Cunego or Valverde i guess. I cant think of other young riders at the moment. Im not sure Thomas Dekker is doing the tour this year but even if he was, he wont be consistantly climbing with Cunego and co. Personally i dunno if i would have him in there at all. He is still very young and does not need to be burnt out and blown away in his first season of top level racing.

 

[MJtje]

And as far as Tom Boonen in the header of the thread......that is funny Tom for white jersey.......maybe the UCI white jersey at the end of the year. I think he could do that. Think you meant more the green jersey....that is Toms goal!

 

[Dead Star]

T. Dekker isn't doing the tour. That is just to much for him right know. The giro is allready very hard; he has allready lost 15 min due to bad positioning. He wanted to learn at giro, because in the beginning the peloton rides relaxed and at the end everyone's flying....he likes that better then the tour were everybody flys in from the start.

For the white jersey I go with Cunego.......is better then all the other guys you named. He could possibly podium......Karpets is way off for podium!

and another thing about Thomas Dekker is that he's awful at descending

 

[gntlmn]

T. Dekker isn't doing the tour. That is just to much for him right know. The giro is allready very hard; he has allready lost 15 min due to bad positioning. He wanted to learn at giro, because in the beginning the peloton rides relaxed and at the end everyone's flying....he likes that better then the tour were everybody flys in from the start.

For the white jersey I go with Cunego.......is better then all the other guys you named. He could possibly podium......Karpets is way off for podium!

I'm not sure if Cunego is going to try to finish the Tour de France this year yet. Karpets finished last year and most likely will ride the whole thing this year. Cunego may still be waiting to prime up for next year, not wanting to progress too quickly. I don't know about that yet.

 

[donhix1]

On Mrbookmaker.com Boonen's odds are 3.5 to 1 to win the green. I don't think he can climb well enough to worry about GC.
Cunego or Valverde are better canidates.

 

[DiabloScott]

Here's the list of all the winners. During some years there wasn't an actual white jersey, but there was still the best young rider competition.

1975 Francesco Moser
1976 Enrique Martinez-Heredia
1977 Dietrich Thurau
1978 Henk Lubberding
1979 Jean-Rene Bernadeau
1980 Johan Vandervelde
1981 Peter Winnen
1982 Phil Anderson
1983 Laurent Fignon
1984 Greg Lemond
1985 Fanio Parra
1986 Andy Hampsten
1987 Raul Alcala
1988 Eric Breukink
1989 Fabrice Philippot
1990 Gilles Delion
1991 Alvaro Mejia
1992 Eddy Bouwmans
1993 Antonio Martin
1994 Marco Pantani
1995 Marco Pantani
1996 Jan Ullrich
1997 Jan Ullrich
1998 Jan Ullrich
1999 Benoit Salamon
2000 Francisco Mancebo
2001 Oscar Sevilla
2002 Ivan Basso
2003 Denis Menchov
2004 Vladimir Karpets


Now there's maybe a half dozen or so of those guys who never became GC podium finishers later in their careers, but for the most part the white jersey competition is pretty good at finding GT champions. You have to ride for the white jersey the way you would for the yellow (but you don't have to be quite as good), and if you ride for GC you can't be going for green jersey points. Boonen is just not the type to take white.

I'm in the Valverde camp on this one.

 

[ChangMan]

For the white jersey, Cunego is a darn good rider, but this is his first year doing the Giro and Tour double, I don't expect too much from him this year. I haven't seen much of Sandy Casar, so I would have to say Vladimir Karpets for white. Although I would like to see Michael Rogers or Sylvain Chavanel step it up in this catagory.
As for the green jersey, Boonen looks good this year, but so does Robbie McEwen. I say the green jersey race is going to be even tighter than it was last year.

 

[Dead Star]

nope, I'm still going for Philippe Gilbert

 

[gntlmn]

Here's the list of all the winners. During some years there wasn't an actual white jersey, but there was still the best young rider competition.

1975 Francesco Moser
1976 Enrique Martinez-Heredia
1977 Dietrich Thurau
1978 Henk Lubberding
1979 Jean-Rene Bernadeau
1980 Johan Vandervelde
1981 Peter Winnen
1982 Phil Anderson
1983 Laurent Fignon
1984 Greg Lemond
1985 Fanio Parra
1986 Andy Hampsten
1987 Raul Alcala
1988 Eric Breukink
1989 Fabrice Philippot
1990 Gilles Delion
1991 Alvaro Mejia
1992 Eddy Bouwmans
1993 Antonio Martin
1994 Marco Pantani
1995 Marco Pantani
1996 Jan Ullrich
1997 Jan Ullrich
1998 Jan Ullrich
1999 Benoit Salamon
2000 Francisco Mancebo
2001 Oscar Sevilla
2002 Ivan Basso
2003 Denis Menchov
2004 Vladimir Karpets


Now there's maybe a half dozen or so of those guys who never became GC podium finishers later in their careers, but for the most part the white jersey competition is pretty good at finding GT champions. You have to ride for the white jersey the way you would for the yellow (but you don't have to be quite as good), and if you ride for GC you can't be going for green jersey points. Boonen is just not the type to take white.

I'm in the Valverde camp on this one.

Here's a list of past Tour de France Yellow Jersey winners:

Year Winning Cyclist Nationality Winning Time Distance
(km) Team
2005 The 2005 Tour de France - 2nd to 24th July 3607 ?
2004 Lance Armstrong USA 83h 36m 02s 3391 US Postal - Berry Floor
2003 Lance Armstrong USA 83h 41m 12s 3427 US Postal - Berry Floor
2002 Lance Armstrong USA 82h 05m 12s 3278 US Postal Service
2001 Lance Armstrong USA 86h 17m 28s 3453 US Postal Service
2000 Lance Armstrong USA 92h 33m 08s 3662 US Postal Service
1999 Lance Armstrong USA 91h 32m 16s 3687 US Postal Service
1998 Marco Pantani Italy 92h 49m 46s 3850 Mercatone Uno - Bianchi
1997 Jan Ullrich Germany 100h 30m 35s 3950 Team Deutsche Telekom
1996 Bjarne Riis Denmark 95h 57m 16s 3753 Team Deutsche Telekom
1995 Miguel Indurain Spain 92h 44m 59s 3535
1994 Miguel Indurain Spain 103h 38m 38s 3972
1993 Miguel Indurain Spain 95h 57m 9s 3720
1992 Miguel Indurain Spain 100h 49m 30s 3983
1991 Miguel Indurain Spain 101h 1m 20s 3915
1990 Greg LeMond USA 90h 43m 20s 3449
1989 Greg LeMond USA 87h 38m 35s 3250
1988 Pedro Delgado Spain 84h 27m 53s 3300
1987 Stephen Roche Ireland 115h 27m 42s 4235
1986 Greg LeMond USA 110h 35m 19s 3833
1985 Bernard Hinault France 113h 24m 23s 4006
1984 Laurent Fignon France 112h 3m 40s 3900
1983 Laurent Fignon France 105h 7m 52s 3750
1982 Bernard Hinault France 92h 8m 46s 3573
1981 Bernard Hinault France 96h 19m 38s 3740
1980 Joop Zoetemelk Netherlands 109h 19m 14s 3996
1979 Bernard Hinault France 103h 6m 50s 4108
1978 Bernard Hinault France 108h 18m 0s 4103
1977 Bernard Thevenet France 115h 38m 30s 4096
1976 Lucien Van Impe Belgium 116h 22m 23s 4016
1975 Bernard Thevenet France 114h 35m 31s 3999


And now past whites going on to win yellows: Fignon, Lemond, Ullrich, Pantani. Of course, this list may not be complete yet. I think Basso and Karpets are strong for future Yellow contention. But counting only the Tour de France and not the other GT's, it's still not at all a foregone conclusion that a white will go to yellow. In fact, the odds are still long.

 

[Dead Star]

Philippe Gilbert! (figures that by being annoying and repeating the rider's name over and over again, then someone might notice...)

 

[gntlmn]

I don't think Cunego will stand a chance against Karpets for the White Jersey this year. He is fading badly in the Giro, and Karpets has moved up in the rankings, ahead of Cunego. And this is on a mountainous stage, where supposedly Cunego is supposed to have the advantage. Karpets is stronger in time trialing. I think Cunego may not be as good as he is hyped to be, while Karpets keeps making quiet progress in the background, away from the limelight.