This image pretty much sums up the first week as far as we’re concerned:

Beginning with stage 8, the Tour moves into difficult terrain which should favor the overall GC contenders. Stage 8 finishes in Super-Bresse after a tiered 900 foot climb starting at around 6.5k to go. The finish climb could favor punchy climbers with explosive power, but we’ll be looking to David Millar, Vande Velde, Danielson, and Hesjedal to show their climbing form prior to the high mountains.

Stage 9 looks to be a very tough day of racing prior to the first rest day on Monday, July 11th. With 8 categorized climbs, including the third category finishing climb, stage 9 looks like a day for a big breakaway of stage win hopefuls polka dot jersey contenders.

On paper, Stages 10 and 11 look very similar to Stage 9, but both stages have fewer categorized climbs that could favor the sprinters as their chances for stage wins quickly dwindle.

Stages 12 and 13 finally take the Tour into the high mountains of the Pyrennes for what will be the first two major GC battles of the Tour. Stage 12 finishes on the HC climb to Luz Ardiden, but also crosses the mighty Tourmalet which was featured twice in the 2010 Tour de France. We’re hoping Ryder Hesjedal has good memories of the Tourmalet and will hold his position as a GC contender after stage 12.

Stage 13 features the massive hors category climb Col d’Aubisque, but is otherwise not a mountainous stage. After stage 12′s super tough terrain, stage 13 should be another day for a breakaway, likely including a rider looking to gain points in the competition for the polka dot climbers jersey.

After a very tough first week of racing, the second week of the Tour could produce some surprises and shake up the overall classification. If we had to pick a “must watch” stage, it would be stage 12 over the Tourmalet and finishing on Luz Ardiden. Enjoy the race and stay tuned here for daily race reports from Team Garmin-Cervelo!

More photos from the Tour de France:

For 2011, the Tour celebrates the 100 year anniversary of the first time the race was held in the Alps. The result is a route that doesn’t visit the high mountains for the first 10 stages. That’s not to say the first week will be easy!

Beginning in the Vendee region, stage 1 starts the first week with what might be a common theme: wind off the ocean, unpredictable weather, and tricky stage finishes. Stage 1 finishes up a 1-2k false flat that could leave the pure sprinters fighting for seconds. Look for Tyler Farrar or world champion Thor Hushovd to be battling for the win this Saturday.

In such a huge event, you hate to blow off other aspects of the race, but stage 2 is definitely for “all the marbles” in the first week of this year’s Tour. JV has made it very clear that we’re gunning for the victory in the team time trial. Riders like David Millar, David Zabriskie, Christian Vande Velde, Tom Danielson and Ramunas Navarduaskas all bring a huge amount of TTT experience with them to stage 2. With a team built around riders who are great time trialists, this will be a fun stage to watch!

Stages 3, 4, and 5 all share similar characteristics: none are truly flat, and all could present riders with strong cross winds off the ocean. Stage 5 includes a finish atop the “Mur de Bretagne” in the cycling, moule-frites, and crepes crazed Brittany region of France. There’s no way to call stages 3, 4, and 5 “sprinters” stages, but Tyler, Thor and possiby David Millar or Ryder Hesjedal might all have strong showings on these stages.

Stages 6 and 7 appear to be flatter, further away from ocean crosswinds, and will probably lead to large bunch sprints. Ace leadout man Julian Dean will definitely be helping Tyler Farrar look for a stage win on stages 6 and 7!

Team Garmin-Cervelo is poised with a great line up for this year’s Tour de France. The first week should be a great week for the team, we can’t wait to see it unfold!

View photos from previous editions of the Tour de France:

Dan Martin will be looking for a good result at this year’s Dauphine.

Stage 6 profile:

Our full line-up for the Criterium du Dauphine is: Julian Dean, Tyler Farrar, Andreas Klier, Daniel Lloyd, Dan Martin, Ramunas Navardauskas, David Zabriskie, and Johan Van Summeren

Stay tuned to our team site for a full race recap and race photos, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter for the latest race updates!

Also, don’t miss free shipping on your order from the official team shop when you purchase an item over $50!

View photos from previous editions of Criterium du Dauphine:

Follow David Millar’s diary entries here and on Cyclingnews.com throughout the Vuelta a España.

Ryder Hesjedal and I have become talented skeeter hunters. ‘Skeeter’ is Ryder’s name for mosquitoes and a term I have quickly come to adopt. Last night, Ryder was sufficiently pleased and impressed to be woken at 3:00 a.m. when I, in his words, ‘took affirmative action’ with regard the hunting and killing of the skeeter that had escaped his own pre-bedtime extermination session.

This little guy was a dutch-stealth-skeeter. There was no annoying buzzing around the ears, no showing-off flying around giving aerial displays, and no parking up in clearly visible spots to taunt us. All there was to show of his existence were itchy, painful bites. After two hours of this I’d had enough. The lights came on waking Ryder up as I took things into my own hands. Ryder bravely offered himself as bait and lay there in wait. Sure enough, the little skeeter eventually showed himself and I finished him off with a towel, leaving a trail of what was surely our own blood on the wall. It was the best thing that happened yesterday.

The start of the stage was held beneath rain: very wet, Northern European rain. The grey and miserable conditions were not what one expects from La Vuelta. However they did manage – in true Spanish style – to delay the start by 15 minutes which, of course, we weren’t told about until we’d already been standing under the rain for 5 minutes. I only found out because I was standing next to one of the officials, and then only after I asked why we were still standing there after the scheduled start time. I went back to the bus and left the majority of the peloton to stand there confused, getting cold and wet, while I had a coffee. It really was miserable and quite the anti-climax after the buzzing atmosphere of the day before.

The race itself was quite calm, in that we didn’t try to destroy each other for hours on end. Rather, we all knew the parcours was enough of a handful and would take care of us all on its own. This is exactly what happened. 10km in, while on crappy surfaced small roads that were turning left and right on way to a regular basis I found myself next to Tom Boonen.

“Tommeke Tommeke Tommeke, this sucks,” I said. “Daveed Meellar, don’t worry, this is the worst bit. In about 20km we turn onto big roads and it is like that till the finish,” he replied.

100km later I found myself once again next to Tom Boonen. “Tommeke Tommeke Tommeke, you’ve been given bad intelligence, this sucks.” I said. “Daveed Meellar, I know, this sucks.” The whole day was like the first 20km…

Anyway, as bad as it was for us, at least we weren’t the Andalucía – Cajasur team, who have probably been living in hell these last few days. I doubt many of them have ever set foot in Holland or Belgium, let alone raced here. Whitey was telling us that he reckons almost their whole team hit the deck at one point or another yesterday. Either that or it was the same guy nine times.

As for us, we did actually have a good day. Cycling is a team sport, and a team needs a leader, sometimes spiritual, sometimes existential. Our assault on the race was led by our desire and belief that we have the best sprinter in the race in Tyler Farrar (he’s an existential leader!) Ty had done a magnificent prologue finishing third, this meant that if he won he would be in the jersey. All nine of us did everything we could to make this happen, Ty was the first to admit at the finish, after getting fifth, that he didn’t have the legs. Proper chap.

Today we did the same, and Ty did have the legs, only Julian Dean didn’t. They’ve become a tight pair the two of them and rely heavily on each other. Julian was devastated.

Once we cross a finish line we barge ourselves through all the chaos towards our team buses. Once there, we sit down all sweaty, remove our helmets and spend a few minutes alone regrouping. It’s a brief moment of quiet before the next phase begins (shower, media, transfer etc). Rarely do we interrupt each other during this moment.

Today Julian came back and sat opposite Ty and apologized. Julian never comes to the back of the bus, where Ty, Ryder and I usually sit and have some fun. Ordinarily, Julian enjoys the silence of his own seat in the middle of the bus, so it was all the more poignant that he came back to speak to Ty in this regrouping period. Ty just looked at him and said, “Hey man, don’t worry, you did everything right yesterday and I didn’t have it, that’s just the way it is.”

I thought that was lovely; very sporting. I know that they were both gutted, they both knew the other felt the same way too, but we all knew Julian was the most disappointed. And we take care of him. That’s a team and Ty is becoming a leader: it’s great to see.

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From the Argyle store:

As many may already know, in a bizarre incident, Julian Dean was shot in the finger with an air rifle by an unknown person during the thirteenth stage of this year’s Tour de France. After initial evaluation and treatment, the injury slowly improved during the remainder of the Tour.

However, after returning home to Spain, his symptoms worsened and he developed an infection. An x-ray revealed that the pellet was still in his finger. Due to the intricate anatomy, a specialized hand and trauma surgeon removed the foreign body. Julian is now back at home and recovering with his pellet souvenir from the Tour de France.

“Today was great,” Farrar said to Versus. “It was really fast from 2km to 500 meters — it was all downhill and we were going like 72 km/h! Dave [Millar] and Julian [Dean] were incredible, they brought me up the side so fast.”

Farrar was asked if he was disappointed in the result. “Yeah it’s frustrating to come second but at the same time you can see there are only a few guys going that fast right now.”

Lead-out man Julian Dean said the tweaks to the lead-out are working and is optimistic in looking ahead. “Today we took a different approach — I decided to wait back a little longer. Dave took me to 500 meters to go, and took me in with a heap of speed. George [Hincapie] moved off and Renshaw came over, so it took some of my speed away. But I think if that didn’t happen I could have set Tyler up for the win. He has the power and I have the power — it’s just about getting around the Columbia train.”

Team Garmin-Slipstream, stage 11 results
1. Mark Cavendish 4h17.55
2. Tyler Farrar
38. Bradley Wiggins
55. Christian Vande Velde
64. Danny Pate
102. Martijn Maaskant
103. Julian Dean
156. Ryder Hesjedal +0.34
161. David Zabriskie +0.38
165. David Millar +1.00

Team Garmin-Slipstream, GC results
1. Rinaldo Nocentini 43h28.59
5. Bradley Wiggins +0.46
8. Christian Vande Velde +1.24
65. David Millar +28.18
68. David Zabriskie +30.28
69. Ryder Hesjedal +32.02
102. Martijn Maaskant +52.33
127. Julian Dean 1h10.38
163. Tyler Farrar 1h26.32
166. Danny Pate 1h30.55

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From the Argyle store:

“Now that I’ve had some time to think about it, I’m happy with third,” Pate said. “JD and I got in the break and after that, we couldn’t have done better tactically. It shows how well we’re working as a team, which is good for us here and for the rest of the season!”

Pate’s podium adds another near-win to the growing list for Team Garmin-Slipstream at the Giro.

Team Garmin-Slipstream, stage 17 results
1. Michele Scarponi 4h07.41
3. Danny Pate
23. Julian Dean +1.17
65. Tom Danielson +3.57
160. Bradley Wiggins +4.45
163. David Zabriskie +5.42

Team Garmin-Slipstream, GC results
1. Denis Menchov 76h40.02
64. Bradley Wiggins +1.55.59
88. Tom Danielson +2.27.20
139. Julian Dean +3.33.43
146. Danny Pate +3.40.45
160. David Zabriskie +3.48.16

Christian Vande Velde, the first American to wear the Maglia Rosa since 1988, says: “leading the team across the line in the TTT and wearing the pink jersey are great memories. Little was I to know at the time that it was going to be the hardest grand tours of my career! It laid the foundations for my fourth place at the Tour and for that reason I’m here again.”

Christian will be joined by one of the youngest riders – if not THE youngest rider – in the race: 21-year-old Cameron Meyer of Australia. The reigning points race world champion from Australia faces not only his first Grand Tour, but his first race in Europe this season: “I do not know what is going to happen over the coming weeks in this amazing bike race. I hope to learn as much as possible in this tour and gain experience while doing my best to help my teammates.”

The team’s veteran of Grand Tours, David Millar – recovering from a collarbone break –  is eyeing the TTT: “I’m particularly looking forward to the team time trial. We’re very relaxed although extremely focused, a good combination! Beyond the TTT, I want to be able to get through the race without any problems, with the Dauphine and Tour remaining my primary objectives. As my fitness increases here I can work for the other guys in their quests for stage wins.”

Coming off a pre-Giro training camp, Christian is optimistic about the opening stage: “We’re ready for Saturday, secure in the work we’ve done and ability we have. Our training in Girona was better than ever before and I’m excited to see how that will translate on the road. I’ll be taking it day-by-day. My head is firmly in July, but that doesn’t mean I won’t be ready to seize the day given the opportunity here!”

The man in the car, director sportif Matt White, outlines the team’s goals: “Of course one of our goals is tomorrow’s TTT but we’ll be looking at sprint stages, too, and all the guys have the opportunity to roll the dice for individual glory. We are not here to ride for GC but with some of the core TDF squad here, we have a good opportunity to see how the team works around Christian.”

Bradley Wiggins – Five-time Olympic medalist and six-time world champion on the track, his two team pursuit world championships will be a key factor in a TTT success.

Danny Pate – The Pate’s skills on a time trial bike are well known, and his results at this year’s Critérium International (second-place on stage 2, third-place overall) show he is on form at the right time for an individual win as well.

David Zabriskie – The current US national time trial champion for the past two seasons, DZ’s red, white and blue argyle Pearl Izumi skinsuit will be easy to spot in echelon during the TTT.

Julian Dean – A two-time national champion on the track as well as the road for New Zealand, Dean will be a strong engine for the team and a solid lead-out for sprinter Tyler Farrar.

Tom Danielson – His numerous hill climb records, from Mt. Evans to Mt. Washington, mean that TD will be a threat for a mountain stage win.

Tyler Farrar – Farrar has been on the business-end of field sprints all season, beating the best-of-the-best in Tirreno-Adriatico and coming close on many other occasions. He will continue to be a favorite on any stage with a sprint finish.

Pre-Giro training camp

The issues that go with the pre-Giro training camp…

Christian Vande Velde, the first American rider to wear the Maglia Rosa since 1988, will be joined by Bradley Wiggins, Cameron Meyer, Danny Pate, David Millar, David Zabriskie, Julian Dean, Tom Danielson and Tyler Farrar.

“We are bringing an incredible group of riders to the Giro d’Italia, and we have some big goals we want to achieve,” said Matt White, Director. “The team has been training hard for this race and we’d of course love to get the Maglia Rosa again, but we will be happy with a few strong performances.”

When asked about the difficulty of choosing the list, White added: “Narrowing down a Grand Tour list is always difficult, especially when guys like Ryder Hesjedal have been having a tremendous season. But we need to keep our goal of helping Christian at the Tour de France in mind, and preserving someone like Ryder now could be a huge benefit to us later.”

The team will look to defend last year’s Team Time Trial victory on Saturday.