I’m really excited for the Tour de France to start this year – especially since there’s going to be great coverage without all the “OMG LANCE ARMSTRONG GOD-MAN OF TEH AWESOMES” hype.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of Lance and am in awe of his accomplishments. But you have to admit the coverage last year did get to be a bit much.

But this year, their new tagline is “The Men Who Would Be King” and they had a pretty good “pre-show” on Sunday going over the contenders. I’ll go out on a limb now and put up my predctions:

1. Ivan Basso (CSC)
2. Floyd Landis (Phonak)
3. Jan Ullrich (T-Mobile)

Keep in mind that I’m no expert – however, that will not keep me from spouting opinions left and right! Heh.

Basso is young and has proven to be a top contender and I think he’ll win it all. I put Landis at 2nd because he not only has his team fully behind him, but he’s got the mental, take-no-prisoners attitude that Hincapie hasn’t shown in the past. Ullrich always seems to do well regardless of the conditions – but I think a combination of age and his rival of the past 7 years now being absent may keep him from an overall victory. The dark horse is Levi Leipheimer – he could steal the show, especially with the new doping allegations being flung around at Basso and Ullrich.

Although we all know Armstrong had tons of allegations thrown at him about doping, and he’s come out clean every single time.

Anyway, from the pre-TDF report, they made mention that Basso’s time trialing ability, which in the past has been his weakness, is now pretty damn good.

All in all, it should be an exciting tour.

I know what I’m going to be doing Saturday morning – watching the prologue.