They say that the Tour de France can be won by mere seconds, but that's only what Cadel Evans' friends tell him to cheer him up. No, the cold, cruel truth of the matter is that second place is just #1 loser. With that in mind, here are my predictions for 2nd places at the 2009 Tour:
Yellow Jersey (General Classification): Though Evans (Silence-Lotto) seems to have a stranglehold on the step on the podium one down from the top, I'm gonna have to tip my hat to Schleck (Saxo Bank) this year for 2nd place. Which Schleck brother, you ask? Well, um, Andy Schleck, I think...I don't know...all Luxembourgers look alike to me.
Polka Dot Jersey (King of the Mountains): For the jersey that no one cares about, second place is less bitter if only because people don't keep asking how it felt to come so close to winning the climbers' award. On the other hand, you can probably get away with claiming you were second and then were later awarded the polka dot jersey when 1st place was busted for blood doping. Who's gonna really remember? My 2nd place climber pick is David Moncoutié or some other French dude.
Green Jersey (Sprinter): My pick for second is Tom Boonen. Even if he has discovered a renewed passion for finish lines before coke lines, Cavendish (Columbia) has taken the sprint crown for big bunch finishes.
Andy for yellow…good for him if he does. As the title of this post states, “seconds matter”, and this year it’s possible to come down to seconds - like less than 60. My choice for winner either American with the letter “L” in his first name; Go like L!!!
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“seconds matter”
From wikipedia: In linguistics, a homonym is one of a group of words that share the same spelling and the same pronunciation but have different meanings, usually as a result of the two words having different origins.
It kinda ruins the cleverness of my writing if I have to diagram it out, but thanks anyways for skimming a couple sentences out of my post so that you could link to your own online ad.
Yellow (GC): If any Schleck wins the GC, it’s because the organizers eliminated the time trial. If taken as serious contenders, they won’t gain enough in the mountains as marked men, and the ITT against more rounded riders will pull it all back.
The winner will be Contador. This is the same rider who slapped Michael Rasmussen around in the mountains two years ago, and just won the Spanish TT championship. Alberto used to be dangerous, now he’s the complete package.
Purple (FTW): This isn’t a real classification, but Jens Voigt should get a special jersey for being so full of win.
Polka-dot (KOM): I choose a Schleck. Unless my purple jersey is added, this is CSC^H^H^H Saxo Bank’s best shot at winning any classification this year.
Green (Sprint): Cavendish will win every sprint he contests, but Boonen will come away with the green jersey.
I don’t think Cavendish will win the green jersey, let alone come in second. He’s proven to turn in his race number as soon as the course turns uphill year after year. It’s a shame- I doubt he’ll ever win the points race in a Grand Tour.
Which means I’m choosing him for second-to-last place in the Tour. My rationale is there’s always one rider who crashes out in one of the windy sprinter’s stages on slick white lane marking paint. He’ll be last place. Then, as soon as we hit a rated climb, BOOM, Cavendish pulls alongside the team car and calls it quits… Second-to-last place.
Me, after watching today’s little fast fest, I think that Levi may get that 2nd place spot. He looks so brave and humble in that supportive role
Gosh. ‘-)