It's stage 2-the Team Time Trial. This discipline may appear to be just a normal time trial but a bit easier as you have 8 other wheels to sit on, but don't be fooled! It requires so much concentration mistakes are easily made. Riders have to concentrate on their own bodies, the rest of their team, the road, the route and perhaps even misplaced spectators...
Team Sky will certainly be up there with 2 of the team pursuit world record holders, and the added incentive that a good performance could put Geraint Thomas in yellow which would be a huge step for the team as they continue earning respect amongst the pro peloton.
HTC-Highroad, the winners of the very similar course in the Giro d'Italia, will be amongst the favourites, as will Rabobank who won the TTT in the Tirreno-Adriatico.
Garmin-Cervelo also have David Millar and Dave Zobriske in their ranks, both formidable time trialists and Millar has said that this stage is one of his main goals for the tour.
Personally I still believe that Radioshack should be near, if not at, the top. Levi Leipheimer won the Tour du Suisse in the final time trial a few weeks ago. Chris Horner proved his solo ability in the Tour of California. Andreas Kloden has had countless good performances this year already. Janez Brajkovic is also the new national time trial champion. The team has a lot of things in their favour:
This basically being US Postal Team from a good few years back and they were prolific on these stages.
When most of these riders were at Astana they won the TTT in the 2009 Tour de France.
Radioshack seems to be a bit of a brotherhood and understanding is very important today.
Saxo Bank however do not have the quality needed and I think once again Contador is going to lose out. They've already rolled off the ramp (being lowest on the team classification) and they look ragged, messy and nervous. Can Contador really drag these along for 23km?
We'll see for ourselves very soon...
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