I wish the Astana team had a sprinter to go along with their GC contenders. Yes, I know that with that many potential TdF winners, there’d really be no way to support a sprinter. I guess I will have to just hope that one of the guys pulls on a yellow jersey quickly and that Bruyneel decides to go ahead and defend the thing. Yeah, I know that won’t happen either but a guy can hope. Truthfully, my own personal favorite for the Tour is Cadel Evans. Cadel and I were teammates and often roommates on the Diamondback mountain bike team back before he switched to being a full time road bike racer. On paper, I suppose Cadel chances of climbing to the top of the box in Paris are not as strong as others, but Cadel is a good guy and I have my fingers crossed. Still, I would love to get one or more of those Astana guys in a leader’s jersey as soon as possible just so I don’t have to look at their team colors as much. Think about it – if just one of the Astana guys could get into a jersey the official Astana jerseys roaming around in the peloton would be reduced by 11%. If the Tour would call in a last minute resurrection of the Combine, and Catch Sprint jerseys, then in might be possible for the number of Astana jerseys to be reduced by a grand total of 6. If the team lost a rider or two to the time cut, and all of the other guys held onto their jerseys, I would hardly have to look at any Astana jerseys at all. Yes, you guessed it – I am not a fan of their jersey. When I first became interested in bicycle racing, the flow of information about the sport was pretty scarce. Not living close to a bookstore or newsstand that carried Miroir du Cyclisme or La Gazzetta dello Sport meant the images and information I got were usually at least a month old before I saw them. Now that we have the Interwebs and all of the Tour de France guides and stuff, we get the chance to see all of the teams in their uniforms – and there are some hideous uniforms in the Tour de France this year. Modern fabrics and dye sublimation have made it possible for cycling clothing designers to do some pretty cool stuff on shorts and jerseys. It has given them the freedom to go leaps and bounds beyond what could be done with wool and block letters and felt flocking. I think they might have gone too far though. Think about it, these are the toughest, fittest, and in many cases, the most angry and aggressive athletes in the world, but they are wearing some of the most anemic colors, and some designs that would make even Timothy Leary freak out. Designers, I mean no disrespect to you. In my work at Castelli, I was responsible for creating some absolutely disgusting team clothing but I think it is time to come back toward center a bit. Yeah, I know that the whole point is to create something that is highly visible in a group of 200 riders, but geez. I for one was hoping that the whole Astana program would be handed over to Bruyneel and retagged as Nike/Livestrong – just so the most photo and video-documented riders in this year’s race could have been wearing that tough looking, black Livestrong kit. Yes, I would like to see the most successful TdF rider ever wearing the same colors as perhaps the most aggressive one ever.