With less than a week to go before the Amgen Tour of California — it starts in Sacramento on Saturday — I'm curious who you all think will wear the golden jersey on the top step of the podium in Escondido when the race ends Feb. 22.
See the poll at the top of the right column and simply pick your favorite. I'll announce the results on Tuesday afternoon.
The 9-day race features the return to pro cycling on American soil by Lance Armstrong. Will he go for the golden jersey or continue to test his conditioning and work in support of 2-time defending champ and Astana teammate Levi Leipheimer?
The inaugural Tour of California champion Floyd Landis will be on hand to launch his return to cycling after a two-year suspension for doping during the 2006 Tour de France. It was reported that he put in a lot of training in the latter part of 2008.
Also in the peloton is Garmin-Slipstream team leader Christian Vande Velde, who is coming off a break-out year in 2008 with 5th place finish in the Tour de France and overall win at last year's Tour of Missouri. Among teammates supporting him will be David Zabriskie, Tom Danielson, and Svein Tuft.
Veteran US cyclist George Hincapie (winner of 2007 Tour of Missouri) will be riding in the strong Columbia team, which features David Zabriskie, Kim Kirchen, Michael Rogers, Michael Barry and probably the world's leading sprinter, Mark Cavendish. Columbia seems to look for stage wins with Cavendish, but appears to have the depth to support a general classification contender.
Italy's Ivan Basso is returning to the Tour of California at the head of the Liquigas team. A one-time rival of Armstrong, Basso won the 2006 Giro d'Italia before falling under a two-year doping-related suspension.
Also in the peloton is the best young rider at the 2008 Tour de France, Andy Schleck of Luxembourg. He's riding on Saxo Bank, formerly CSC, as is another peloton veteran, Jens Voight.
My favorite
I'm picking Leipheimer. The rider from Santa Rosa looks just as strong and wiry as he did at the end of the Vuelta a Espana, in which he finished second. Armstrong is still testing himself with his sights on the Giro d'Italia, so I think he'll ride to support Leipheimer. Also, Astana has a strong team with Chris Horner, Yaroslav Popovych and Janez Brajkovic, among others. Johan Bruyneel will be handling the tactics.
If you don't like my choices just mark “none of the above” and send a comment.
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