Stage 1 and 2 of the the 2011 Le Tour de France in the books. Pretty excting first two days. Day one some good crashes, one spectator caused, in the final 20K. The one crash involved defending champion Alberto Contador. Exciting finish, cannot remember who one off the top of my head. Day two was the team TT, and Garmin-Cervelo put a whooping down on the rest of the teams (really only beat team Sky by one second). The win put Thor Hushvoldin the Yellow Jersey.
Standing: http://tourdefrance.nbcsports.com/standings/
As for the overall contenders, Alberto Contador better eat some more tainted meat if he is going to make a comeback from being down 1m42s to the yellow jersey (for those of you who watch cycling you will get the tainted meat jab). Alot of contenders in the mix with both the Schlek brothers of Leopard-Trek and Bradley Wiggins of Team Sky only 4 seconds back, and Levi Leipheimer and Chris Horner of Radioshack only 10 seconds back. Plus, Cadel Evans of BMC is only one second back, and a serious contender in the early stages to win overall. Wiggins, Leipheimer, and Horner are all decent climbers, but nowhere near the type of climbers that the Schleks and also Evans are. Contador is always a threat, but he needs a few miracles to make up that amount of time this year.
I would really like to see big George Hincapie wear yellow just one day this tour, and the way his team is riding it is possible. He has done so much for the cycling community here in South Carolina and routinely shows up at club rides and charity events, just an all around good guy and great rider. I am routing for Cadel and Andy, either of them I would like to see win it all. Plus, would like to see Christian VandeVelde of Cervelo make it through the whole tour without incident after his recent history in the grand tours. He did finish fourth a year ago, has a strong team around him, and if he manages to stay upright he could contend also for a podium finish. I really hope Contador has a crappy tour, he is an arrogant prick that needs a good backyard beating.