So then we come to the first real tests for stage racers, the clashing Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Addriatico. You can think of them as a 'mini tour and giro' and that was proven when the organisers of the French event decided to start with a bunch race and the Italians used a team time trial, preluding the main events to come later. Fortunately both seemed to go off without a hitch and Tony Martin put in an impressive climbing and time trialing in France display while Cadel Evans laid down a marker for what has been built up to be his big year by dominating in Italy. Bradley Wiggins' first real test also went well as he helped himself to third place on the GC due to his time trial performance. While last year he seemed to have lost a bit of his strength in that area it looked like there was no such occurance this year.
Now Paris-Nice saw Andreas Kloden take second place which was the start of a domino effect where the teams are lining up and Radioshack are pushing them down. Impressive performances from their 4 (yes 4) team leaders in the various races including a strong showing from Horner in Catalunya, a 1-2 GC finish in the Tour of the Basque Country and another 1-2 finish with 2 stage wins in the Tour of California. Add to that the dramatic wins on time trial day for Sebastien Rosseler in the De Panne tour and Levi Leipheimer in Switzerland and Radioshack really look like the form side going into this years Tour de France. The question is who can stop them?
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