9 days to go...

....ooh, getting exciting!

Many of the teams have announced their Tour teams already, so even though some of them are provisional, let's have a look and see if there are any Schlecklander pets in there:

AG2R (pronounced Ah-djee-dirrrs-air, as we all know) hmm, only name of note is John Gadret, and he's far from being a pet: he's the one who refused to hand his bike over to his team leader a couple of years ago, and I have borne a grudge ever since. I mean, everyone knows that domestiques have to hand over their bikes if their leaders need them!

Argos-Shimano -  no-one interesting.

Astana - pronounced ASS-t'na, of course, as mentioned by me - er, whoops, I didn't publish that post, about them trying on each other's jerseys. Maybe later in the week. So, the Ass-t'na team: well, the lovely Jakob of course, recovering from a bad training crash last week, when three of them went down while descending, and the other two were both so badly hurt that they are now OFF the Tour list, so you can imagine what a narrow squeak Jakob had. They have only nominated four riders so far, so let's hope they scrape up a couple more before the race starts.

Blanco - about to be re-named Belkin, as they now have a new sponsor. I heard that they were going to be revealing the new kit at the Tour, so presumably they will also change their name then. Bram Tankink! Yay! I have a golden Orfe named after him...

BMC - well, Cadel Evans of course, PhillyGilly,  and Tejay "Bumfluff" Van Garderen, always good for a laugh: and Thor Hushovd, who LLB and I nearly knocked off his bike at the Tour of Britain a couple of years ago. Whoops.

Cannondale - yes, predictably, Peter "more fun than a jammy dodger" Sagan. He's having another great year so far, and he certainly he is one of the rising-est stars of the sport at the moment. Let's hope he keeps his hands off the podium girls this time!

Cofidis: no pets, just some funny names, in particular Rein Tarramae, who always make me think of Tirimasue - and Luis Angel Mate Mardones, who seems normally to be known as Angel Mate, which to me is pronounced, Ain-jel, mate! in a chirpy London accent. Apparently they all call him Angle Mar-tay, which throws me every time.

Europcar - Tommy Voeckler made the team! He's another one who is always good for a laugh, he is so determined, and so funny when he starts "talking" to himself, and pulling faces.

Euskaltel - ah, my dear little carrots. My favourite Igor, Igor Anton, is there: they have a team made up of one French rider and eight Spaniards, hmmm, it's not the Vuelta, you know. Bizarrely, they have two riders both called  Isaguirre Insausti - Jon and Gorka - which should lead to some interesting commentator moments.

FdJ: Their nomination for Silly Name goes to their Geoffrey Soupe. I mean, Geoffrey, what a silly name! (That is a joke, of course I meant the "soup" part.) Like Astana, they haven't nominated a full team yet.

Garmin Sharp have a full team, lead by the much over-rated Tyler Farrar. Oh, that sounds a bit harsh, doesn't it? But for as long as I've been following cycling people have been talking him up, and I have rarely seen him actually win anything. OK I'm slightly biased, three years ago he was the face on TV of Garmin Transitions, the sunglasses (remember them?) and I got sick and tired of seeing his smug "here's my chin, the rest of me is following" face. I just can't warm to him.  They are also sending Ryder Hedjedal - a good choice, but we hope they are sending Mechanic Hesjerdal and Soigneur Hesjerdal in support, ha ha. Then there is Dan Martin, him of the teeth: Alex Rasmussen, him of the unfortunate surname: super-super-domestique JVS, of course (Johan Van Summeren) who has been told severly not to cut the arms off his jerseys any more. Oh, and Dave Zabriskie, who I used to like, but since his 6 month ban for doping, I've sort of gone off him.

The Dark Lords of Katusha are sending some assorted Dark Lords, no surprises there.

Lampre: they haven't quite decided yet.

Lotto are sending Greipel, who for some reason they keep calling "the gorilla" although he looks more like one of those toothless gurning old men. But I'm sure he's lovely, really - also Greg Henderson, who is one of my pets for no particular reason, but I named one of my friends' bears Henderson. 

(I was looking after a selection of her soft toys while she moved house, and do you know what, she had this sweet little bear, he had NO NAME, shock horror, and - even worse - he still had the tags on him! Honestly, does she have no feelings? Poor little bear: no name, and still with tags on, as though he could be sold on at any moment. Humph. I quickly sought and gained permission to remove the tags, and gave him a name. Henderson. So there.)

Here he is, using my Leopard Trek socks as a hat and as a sleeping bag.

Ah, at least I still have the official Leopard Trek socks, now that my *hic* Luxembourg ensign socks *choke* are... *sniffle*... no, no, I can't say it!

*overcome with emotion* sob! Oh,  my lovely Schleckland Luxembourg ensign socks! sob!

Moving swiftly on...

Movistar have sent a team of no-one in particular, the only one of interest is the unpronounceable Szmyd.

Orica Greenedge have sent a much more interesting team: it has Stuey in it, for a start, and Svein Tuft, honorary Schlecklander: also Darryl Impey, and I don't know how he is going to manage a three week race, when I still have his musette. *chorus of "here's my numm-bah, call me maybe!" while pointing to bottom*

Omega Pharma - Cav and a load of supporting sprinters, by the look of it.

RadioShambles are, of course, sending Andy along, with Jensie to keep him on the straight and narrow. Hooray!

Sky's main man is Froomey, along with Bernie Eisel - who seems to be having a wonderful time without Cav, who'd've thought it? - G, Stannard, Richie Porte, Edvald Boasson-Haagen-Daaz, and the two super domestique/robots, Kiryenka and Svitsov. No, that's not how they spell it, it's how they say it.

Sojasun are sending a team entirely made up of French riders, unsurprisingly.

Stinkoff are sending Contador, of course, along with Eeeee-bennati, former Leopard *boo! Splitter!* and apparently not one single Danish rider, which for some reason seems to have been raising eyebrows on the cycling forums - so LLB tells me, as I don't read them myself.

Finally, Vacansoleil, who are tempting fate by sending both Johnny Hoogerland AND Juan Antonio Flecha, the pair who were flung into the road/barbed wire by that cursed French TV car a couple of years ago. Grr, I'm still cross about that.

So there you have it, that's the peloton so far.. and only 9 more days to go!