Cadel and Lance. Taking a look
That's the million dollar question that has only been mastered by a few. The key races in the lead up are the Tour de Suisse and the race that is currently going right now called the Dauphine Libere. The Dauphine as it is known has played host to some great battles. The best one I think of recent years was 2004 when Lance Armstrong was said to have been off his game when Iban Mayo smashed him on one the toughest climbs in the world Mount Ventoux. At the time it was big news because we were all waiting for Lance to crack. Well the rest is history and it was shown Mayo peaked too early and got himself in all sorts of trouble on stage 3 of the Tour de France when he lost 4 minutes effectively ending the tour for him. A skinny Spaniard on the cobbles in no match for the collective power of the peloton!
This year sees Cadel doing well in the Time Trial and looking to be strong in the mountains of the Dauphine. But not too strong. The theory is to arrive at the Tour trying to peak in the second week. The first week is generally spent avoiding bad weather and crashes. The cool thing about when Lance got beaten in the Dauphine was that HE knew he was strong. Hi did not panic and just got on with his preparation despite the increased media scrutiny. Mayo was doing a whole lot of chest thumping but it came to nothing on a cobbled road in France when the US Postal boys unloaded on him. So can we read too much into this race? No not really. The Tour is a month off and as history shows, June stars are July's burnouts! and the thing all cyclists chase called form is on a knifes edge.
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