Saturday, June 30, 2012  Tour de France: sprinters   Friday,
June 29, 2012  Tour de France: final (extended) picks  A few
weeks ago I posted Tour de France picks. This is my last chance
to update them before the big show rolls in Liege. Here's a good
start list if you need to know who the contenders are.  First
and second I see no reason to change: Wiggins and Evans are the
class of the crowd. Last year, Evans was at 34 one of the oldest
winners in history. If he were to win this year, he'd be
exceeded only by irmin Lambot, who won when he was 36 in 1922
(Wikipedia). I think Evans loses a bit this year, while Wiggins
finally figured out his preparation, spending solid blocks on
Tenerif with focused climbing and time trial work. Wiggins also
has superb teammates backing his up in Froome and Rodgers.  I
had De Gendt third but he's not racing, so Hesjedal gets the
promotion. He's not raced since winning the Giro, so he has a
good chance of having sufficiently recovered to put in a good
effort in France.  I had A