Giro Mountains Loom, Contador Sounds Off

According to cyclingnews.com, 2007 Tour de France champion Alberto Contador feels Gilberto Simoni has the best chance at overall victory in this year’s Giro. A Johan Bruyneel managed champion tipping a rival as the favorite. Sound familiar? Fans will remember that Lance Armstrong used the same tactics year after year in the Tour de France, citing Jan Ullrich and others as ‘bigger favorites’ than he, even though he managed to destroy the field year after year.

Contador’s voluntary giving of his opinion should scare the devil out of the rest of the GC favorites, as it was no doubt an attempt to deflect the pressure off himself and the rest of his Astana mates. However, anyone who has been following the race knows just how strong the entire Astana team is riding. Contador’s teammates Levi Leipheimer and Andreas Kloden are both close to the top of the overall, and each is more than capable of climbing in the high mountains.

Like he has done in the past, Bruyneel has likly told his Astana squad to lay low until it counts—and then, as one of my favorite cycling fans would say (he knows who he is), “lower the boom.” Expect Astana to begin controlling the Giro today, and possibly take the pink jersey as well in the process. Whether it will be Kloden, Leipheimer or Contador is anyone’s guess, by EuroPeloton’s money is on the Spaniard to show well, and possibly win on one of theis year's hardest Giro stages.