ITV4 pundit on Contador, Schleck and British riders
(Image credit: Jeff Jones/BikeRadar.com)
Former yellow jersey and multiple Tour de France stage winner Chris Boardman is television analyst for the ITV television network at this year’s race and he talked to Cyclingnews about the first three stages of this year’s Tour.
With three exciting days of racing in the bag the overall battle for yellow has already taken shape with Andy Schleck, Cadel Evans and Bradley Wiggins sitting in ideal positions, while defending champion Alberto Contador is struggling almost two minutes down.
While Boardman believes that Contador is still the man to beat he has been impressed with how Schleck has navigated his way through the opening stages. The Leopard Trek leader has avoided crashes while his team put in a strong ride on the stage 2 time trial to consolidate his lead.
In this video interview Boardman also points out that Contador has lost the buffer of time he had on Schleck from last year’s opening prologue in Rotterdam and highlighted that the Spaniard must now go on the offensive once the race hits the mountains.
Yesterday’s stage was won by Tyler Farrar but the talking point surrounded Mark Cavendish’s and Thor Hushovd’s disqualification from the intermediate sprint. Boardman called the commissars ‘incomprehensible’
Finally, Boardman also highlighted the strength in depth from the British contingent at this year’s race.
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Daniel Benson was the Editor in Chief at Cyclingnews.com between 2008 and 2022. Based in the UK, he joined the Cyclingnews team in 2008 as the site's first UK-based Managing Editor. In that time, he reported on over a dozen editions of the Tour de France, several World Championships, the Tour Down Under, Spring Classics, and the London 2012 Olympic Games. With the help of the excellent editorial team, he ran the coverage on Cyclingnews and has interviewed leading figures in the sport including UCI Presidents and Tour de France winners.
