Tour de France: favourites to show their true colours · 2007-07-14 11:15
The favourites will have to show their true colours when the Tour de France enters the Alps on Saturday.
The first mountain stage is a 197.5-km trek from Bourg-en-Bresse to Le Grand Bornand, with one category-one climb on the menu, the Col de la Colombiere.
Saturday's ride should provide a more precise indication of the form of injured Astana riders Alexander Vinokourov and Andreas Kloeden.The pair crashed heavily in separate incidents on Thursday but managed to complete Friday's flat stage.
Kazakh Vinokourov has stitches in his knees and elbow and his German team mate, who is suffering from a fissure in his coccyx, could not stand on the pedals on Friday.
Asked if they still had a chance of winning the Tour, Astana manager Marc Biver said: "I don't think so. Let's be realistic. They're not in the best condition to ride."
Astana, a Swiss team backed by Kazakh companies, are likely to be attacked by their rivals, who could try to finish them off should Vinokourov and Kloeden show signs of weakness.
American Chris Horner, Cadel Evans's domestique in the Predictor Lotto team, said: "Cadel has to wait, he has to read the race properly and wait until you see the top rider in a bad moment, and that's when you attack him."
Caisse d'Epargne sports director Eusebio Unzue believes the leading contenders will have to show themselves as no big gaps have been built up yet.
"This Tour is different than the other years. Usually the time-trials make the decision, this year it will be the mountains," said Unzue, whose riders Alejandro Valverde and last year's runner-up Oscar Pereiro are among those bidding for victory.
According to Reuters, other favourites are Russian Denis Menchov of the Rabobank team, CSC's Carlos Sastre, Discovery Channel's Levi Leipheimer and Australian Evans.
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