Cadel Evans became the fifth Australian to claim the Tour de France leader’s yellow jersey after finishing eighth in the 10th stage in the Pyrenees. It’s a proud day (well early morning for us in Oz) to see this humble Australian take the Yellow Jersey.

Well in an interview a few days back, Cadel meantion that the stage to would be the time to look at the GC riders. So here it is! I still think it’s to early to call and the Gods on two wheels have a long way to go in this years tour.

Well the Tour De France is well under way, the first few days have been what we have all expected. I’m a huge fan of the there being no time bonuses in this year tour and of the completion of Stage 5 Cadel is currently well placed in the GC for his push for yellow. It’s too early to call the race at this stage as I’m sure a few young riders will be keen to show what they are made of in the first few mountain stages. In the end the men with experience should prevail. My pick for this year’s tour is Evans or Valverde, Menchov and Kirchen are other to watch. The Schleck brothers will play their parts I’m sure.

The following interview is with Cadel Evans before Stage 5 of the 2008 Tour De France.

The time is coming, it begins: Saturday July 5th to Sunday July 27th 2008, the 95th Tour de France will be made up of 21 stages and will cover a total distance of 3500 kilometres. Only one winner… who will claim this years title?

The final starting list for the CdD 2008 is now out. From the list of riders in this years race it’s going to be a hum dinger with all the big names and teams turning out to flex their legs over French Alps in preparation for the Tour De France.

The big names that will face off are Levi Leipheimer to lead out Astana, Alejandro Valverde from Caisse D’Epargne. Michael Rogers heading up Team High Roads eight man squad, this will be a testing time for Rogers as he is on his comeback from Epstein-Barr virus and has not been seen in action on this year Pro Tour after his fall in the 2007 TDF.

The teams to watch for me are… you guessed it: Silent-Lotto with Popovych and Lloyd backing up Evan, Astana have a point to prove to and I’m expecting they won’t hold back in showing the cycling world that they feel they should be in this years TDF. Robobank, Caisse D’Epargne, High Road and Saunier Duval – Scott will all play a big part with the riders named.

Now bring on the curtain raiser, I have prepared the couch as we are weeks away from the only Grand Tour that matters in terms of media coverage. If you are reading this off the RSS feed pop over to the site and take a look at the Tour De France yellow theme with a few of the past legends on the header.