Not thoroughly excited, but....

This is one Tour de France that's starting without two things - the usual prologue time trial and the defending champion, so it won't be the guy in the picture (Fabian Cancellara of CSC) taking the first maillot jaune of the Tour.
I'm not thoroughly excited at the prospect of cycling's biggest race being without its biggest rider of the moment. And today's undulating Stage One over 197 kilometres, is somewhat long for an opening stage. I'd usually prefer these stage races to start short, giving the riders and fans a chance to warm up and spot the likely contenders as the peloton builds in speed and torque till the mountains decide who they want as the emperors of our sport this year.
I'd suspect the ASO believe one of their own could win following what I allege as a conspiracy to remove the likes of Alberto Contador, Andreas Kloden, Sergey Yakovlev and their Astana team from this year's Tour. And the ASO's best bet would be Francaise des Jeux's Sandy Casar (pic below).


Casar is France's best climber at this moment, after the retirement of seven-time king of the mountains Richard Virenque, but the rider who won Stage 18 last year isn't in the league that hosts the likes of Oscar Perreiro, Alejandro Valverde (both Caisse d'Epargne), Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto), Ricardo Ricco (Saunier Duval-Scott) and my pick for the rider I will follow closely this Tour - Lampre's Damiano Cunego (next pic). Ideally, I'd think the mountains will suit a battle between 2004 Giro winner Cunego, one of the most stylish riders on a bike, and the new Italian hope Ricardo Ricco@Cobra. Put Aussie Evans, who finished second behind Contador last year, in there and you've got a soup to die for already. Now, the Landis 2006 win well and truly buried, I'd think the beneficiary Perreiro would want to take the win outright to prove a point that he didn't have to rely on the courts to hand him the win two years ago. So, that's another nice picture to paint, but Caisse d'Epargne have slotted the number one on the team before the start as Valverde, with David Arroyo second in line, if you believe in the DS's order of team numbers.
Then you can't at all discount the probability of Rabobank coming into the picture should Denis Menchov find his touch. The Russian is a likely surprise package if the team decides so, to instead of going on their usual sporadic attack, focus on one goal.
You could also see something from the two little Colombians on Barloworld, if Mauricio Soler gets a proper act together with compatriot Felix Cardenas, you could see this team toying around the possibility of an overall win instead of polka dots.
Euskaltel in the past 10 years have always raised hopes only to falter in the Tour itself, but I believe, not in Haimar Zubeldia but Samuel Sanchez to come to the fore. He's got more character and should be the leader of the team in due course. But don't discount the possibility of the Basques together and push forward as a solid team should things start to go their way. They will never feature in the flats, not so much in the time trials, so they only have to focus on the mountains.
Today's stage? I think bunch sprint. McEwen-Hushovd-Freire-Ballan to fight it out.
Gosh.. I wrote so long... And I thought I wouldn't be interested....