tour unpredictability?

[Onno]

Is the wide-open nature of this tour primarily because:

1) most of the real contenders are not there;
2) this might be a relatively drug-free tour after all;
3) Armstrong is gone;
4) team managers are doing a bad job;
5) no one in the race really thinks of himself as a winner;
6) all of the above, more or less equally?

[Bill Bove]

I'd go with all of the above, but it may not be as drug free as it looks.