First Tour Tab

With the Giro d'Italia champion crowned and the Dauphine Libere (the first indicator of pre-Tour form for many of the TDF contenders) right around the corner, it was inveitable that the Crankset would receive their first prediction for the 2006 Tour de France. It comes from Borat Sagdiyev who is Kazakhstani television's top media personality, and the creator of "Borat's Guide To Britain". To no one's surprise, he has tabbed his Kazakh countryman, Alexander Vinokourov.


Reporting from in front of the recently pulled sponsor's, Liberty Seguros-Wurth, team bus, Borat had this to say about his main man from Kazakhstan.

"Jagshemash. I like you! Do you like me? I am here with Kazakhstan champion, and soon to be champion of all the French people. Yes? Yes! Cause all Kazakh men is big like can of Pepsi."

Added the Channel 4 correspondent and sixth most famous man in Kazakhstan, "Kazakhstan is as civilized as any country in the world. Women can now travel on inside of bus. Homosexuals have no longer to wear blue hats. And age of consent has been raised to eight years old...I encourage everyone to come to Kazakhstan where we have incredible natural resources, hard working labour and some of the cleanest prostitutes in whole of Central Asia."

**Note: Borat is of course a fictional character; Kazakhstan is a real country.