Although I have been unsuccessful at predicting the outcome of the Tour de France in the past, I'll stick my neck out again. It is time to announce my tour picks:

G.C.
-------------------
1. Lance Armstrong
2. Oscar Sevilla
3. Joseba Beloki
4. Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano
5. Tyler Hamilton
6. Roberto Heras
7. Santiago Botero
8. Ivan Basso
9. Jose Javier Gomez
10. Dario Frigo

My dark horses are: Levi Leipheimer, Didier Rous, Kevin Livingston, 
Roberto Laiseka, Richard Virenque, and David Etxebarria

Points and Green Jersey - Robbie McEwan
Polka Dot Jersey - Iban Mayo

Here are some notable stage winners (stage 4+): Zabel, Jalabert 
(when is Bastille Day?), Armstrong, Mattan, the USPS team, Bruylandts,
Cooke, Baldato, Laiseka, Tafi, and Verbrugghe.

Here are some notable non-finishers: Olano, Moreau, O'Grady, Freire.

Riders disqualified: Steels.

-- Mook (everett@psi.edu), July 09, 2002

Answers

The Tour leader after 4 stages, Erik Zabel, has both the yellow and green jerseys yet has not on a single sprint. Reminds me of Spike keeping a steady pace at last year's Possum Trot and coming ahead of Fritz, Dave Coziahr and me as we ran, beating Spike to several of the first few controls; all 3 of use were ahead of Spike after the first loop. Then Spike easily passed me towards the end and finished ahead of all of us. Stage winners usually don't win the whole thing...

-- mean gene (gmw@ku.edu), July 09, 2002.

I know that Greg Lemond won one Tour without a stage victory. Could Spike be the next Greg Lemond? Consider these similarities: (1) Returns from a devastating injury (2) betrayed by a teammate one year, comes back to finish strong the next (3) Known to throw object of sport (be it bike or map) to the ground in disgust after a bad race (4) Wins big race (like Tour or US classic champs) in different decades (5) Youngest winner of big event (at the time Greg was youngest world champ I think, but I could be wrong) (6) A noted innovator of sports equipment (7) Spent time racing in Europe when it wasn't all that "fashionable" to do so. What else?

-- Mook (everett@psi.edu), July 10, 2002.

Hmm, Greg Lemond is interested in auto racing.

http://www.outsidemag.com/magazine/0397/9703felemond.html

-- Michael (mike_eglinski@kcmo.org), July 10, 2002.