Time then to start looking forward to the 103rd Tour de France which starts Saturday week in Mont St Michel. The local farmers have already got their sheep prepared for the Grand Depart.
Here’s the route.
The first week contains several punchy uphill finishes at Cherbourg, Le Lorian and Limoges to generate small time gaps before the race hits the Pyrenees. The first two mountain stages end in the valleys before Andorra sees a summit finish. Across the south of France in the race’s dog days before Mont Ventoux on Bastille Day. The first time trial follows - a reasonably hilly 37k for anyone with fresh legs. Over to the Alps for summit finishes at Finhaut - Emosson and Le Bettex which sandwich another time trial - 17k more or less uphill. The final mountain stage is in Morzine on the penultimate day and finishes with a descent into town off the Joux Plane. That’s a good idea given that a lot of last year was raced on the descents.
Last year also saw the big pre race excitement for the potential of the “Big Four” going head to head. That didn’t really happen, as Chris Froome rode away on the first Pyrenean stage and won the race. All will be at the start again, but the shifting sands of the sport also bring others into play.
Froome will start favourite to win for a third time. It’s easy to see how he would go about winning - avoid falling off in the first week (easier said than done for him), attack to Andorra, cement a lead by attacking on Ventoux where he’s won before. Then grab some more time in the time trials and defend in the Alps, even if somewhere like Finhaut-Emosson looks tailor made for him. His form has been similar to last season with a win in the Dauphine after a quiet early season. Sky are stronger than ever, much as it pains me to say it. Win this and we’ll say this is “the Froome era”. Geraint Thomas rode the Tour of Switzerland and finished 17th, his form has been a bit iffy since Paris - Nice in March. He goes in as number 2 to Froome and with protected status, but it’s hard to see him cracking the top 10 even if Froome crashed out on the first day. Mikel Landa is also expected to ride in support, he was good enough to lead Sky at the Giro d’Italia before abandoning through illness.
Nairo Quintana has been runner up to Froome twice. He won the Route du Sud at the weekend, admittedly not against a stunning field. He’s developed the habit of losing time early on and then being stronger in the third week, but not by enough to regain time lost and win the race. He’ll lose time in the longer time trial too. Also backed by a formidable team at Movistar, including last year’s 3rd placed man Alejandro Valverde, who may well win in Cherbourg, but their team tactics are sometimes inexplicable.
Alberto Contador seems to have shelved his plan to retire at the end of the season even if his Tinkoff team is folding. He’s probably the most tactically savvy of the contenders and could attack anywhere, but was off the pace when the heat was on in the Dauphine. You have to go back to 2009 to find the last time he won the Tour, the only rider to have gone so long between wins is Gino Bartali from 1938 to 1948.
Vincenzo Nibali won the race in 2014 but is likely to be knackered after winning the recent Giro (which Valverde also rode). Fabio Aru will be co-leader at the Astana team, he won last year’s Vuelta a Espana, but was going like a bag of spanners in the Dauphine’s high mountains. Aru may well join that long and illustrious list of big name Italian riders who come to their debut Tour and fall flat on their face.
There’s co-leadership at BMC too, Tejay van Garderen and Richie Porte. van Garderen was on course for the podium last year before falling ill and abandoning in the Alps. He won a stage in Switzerland last week but fell away in GC. Porte has a history of being excellent at one week races and mediocre at three week ones, and is an inexplicably short price with the bookies.
The emergence of young French riders has got the home fans excited, although none of them quite look winning material just yet. Thibaut Pinot was bigged up massively in the French press before last year’s race before having a shocker which was redeemed by him winning at Alpe d’Huez. He’s actually kicked on since and got some excellent results, but didn’t look to have the legs at the Dauphine. That race included him winning a stage by outsprinting Romain Bardet, which came after Bardet had done all the attacking and most of the work. Bardet won a stage last year, he is an excellent descender and might fancy his chances on one of the early Pyrenean stages. He could make the podium with a fair wind. Both ride for French teams who have put resource and effort into making them real contenders. Warren Barguil had an eventful ride to 14th last year which included almost colliding with a cow and knocking Geraint Thomas into a ditch. He was in decent form in Switzerland and should continue his development by cracking the top 10.
There should be around seven stages for the sprinters. Marcel Kittel has started winning again after moving to Etixx and is undoubtedly the fastest man going, the question will be how much effort his team will put into providing a functioning sprint train. Andre Greipel will pick up stages here and there. Mark Cavendish looks a bit past his best now and may have an eye on the Olympic track stuff, not hard to see him climbing off a week from the end. Peter Sagan will probably win the green jersey again thanks to his relentless (wasteful?) aggressive riding and may finally win his first stage since 2013 - Limoges looks a Sagan day. Though “every stage is a Peter Sagan stage” as he once said.
TV viewers in Britain will have a different experience this year as ITV4 have finally ditched the Liggett / Sherwen commentary. It’s not been formally announced who we’re getting as a replacement but I assume it will be the Ned Boulting / David Millar pairing.
Here’s the route.
The first week contains several punchy uphill finishes at Cherbourg, Le Lorian and Limoges to generate small time gaps before the race hits the Pyrenees. The first two mountain stages end in the valleys before Andorra sees a summit finish. Across the south of France in the race’s dog days before Mont Ventoux on Bastille Day. The first time trial follows - a reasonably hilly 37k for anyone with fresh legs. Over to the Alps for summit finishes at Finhaut - Emosson and Le Bettex which sandwich another time trial - 17k more or less uphill. The final mountain stage is in Morzine on the penultimate day and finishes with a descent into town off the Joux Plane. That’s a good idea given that a lot of last year was raced on the descents.
Last year also saw the big pre race excitement for the potential of the “Big Four” going head to head. That didn’t really happen, as Chris Froome rode away on the first Pyrenean stage and won the race. All will be at the start again, but the shifting sands of the sport also bring others into play.
Froome will start favourite to win for a third time. It’s easy to see how he would go about winning - avoid falling off in the first week (easier said than done for him), attack to Andorra, cement a lead by attacking on Ventoux where he’s won before. Then grab some more time in the time trials and defend in the Alps, even if somewhere like Finhaut-Emosson looks tailor made for him. His form has been similar to last season with a win in the Dauphine after a quiet early season. Sky are stronger than ever, much as it pains me to say it. Win this and we’ll say this is “the Froome era”. Geraint Thomas rode the Tour of Switzerland and finished 17th, his form has been a bit iffy since Paris - Nice in March. He goes in as number 2 to Froome and with protected status, but it’s hard to see him cracking the top 10 even if Froome crashed out on the first day. Mikel Landa is also expected to ride in support, he was good enough to lead Sky at the Giro d’Italia before abandoning through illness.
Nairo Quintana has been runner up to Froome twice. He won the Route du Sud at the weekend, admittedly not against a stunning field. He’s developed the habit of losing time early on and then being stronger in the third week, but not by enough to regain time lost and win the race. He’ll lose time in the longer time trial too. Also backed by a formidable team at Movistar, including last year’s 3rd placed man Alejandro Valverde, who may well win in Cherbourg, but their team tactics are sometimes inexplicable.
Alberto Contador seems to have shelved his plan to retire at the end of the season even if his Tinkoff team is folding. He’s probably the most tactically savvy of the contenders and could attack anywhere, but was off the pace when the heat was on in the Dauphine. You have to go back to 2009 to find the last time he won the Tour, the only rider to have gone so long between wins is Gino Bartali from 1938 to 1948.
Vincenzo Nibali won the race in 2014 but is likely to be knackered after winning the recent Giro (which Valverde also rode). Fabio Aru will be co-leader at the Astana team, he won last year’s Vuelta a Espana, but was going like a bag of spanners in the Dauphine’s high mountains. Aru may well join that long and illustrious list of big name Italian riders who come to their debut Tour and fall flat on their face.
There’s co-leadership at BMC too, Tejay van Garderen and Richie Porte. van Garderen was on course for the podium last year before falling ill and abandoning in the Alps. He won a stage in Switzerland last week but fell away in GC. Porte has a history of being excellent at one week races and mediocre at three week ones, and is an inexplicably short price with the bookies.
The emergence of young French riders has got the home fans excited, although none of them quite look winning material just yet. Thibaut Pinot was bigged up massively in the French press before last year’s race before having a shocker which was redeemed by him winning at Alpe d’Huez. He’s actually kicked on since and got some excellent results, but didn’t look to have the legs at the Dauphine. That race included him winning a stage by outsprinting Romain Bardet, which came after Bardet had done all the attacking and most of the work. Bardet won a stage last year, he is an excellent descender and might fancy his chances on one of the early Pyrenean stages. He could make the podium with a fair wind. Both ride for French teams who have put resource and effort into making them real contenders. Warren Barguil had an eventful ride to 14th last year which included almost colliding with a cow and knocking Geraint Thomas into a ditch. He was in decent form in Switzerland and should continue his development by cracking the top 10.
There should be around seven stages for the sprinters. Marcel Kittel has started winning again after moving to Etixx and is undoubtedly the fastest man going, the question will be how much effort his team will put into providing a functioning sprint train. Andre Greipel will pick up stages here and there. Mark Cavendish looks a bit past his best now and may have an eye on the Olympic track stuff, not hard to see him climbing off a week from the end. Peter Sagan will probably win the green jersey again thanks to his relentless (wasteful?) aggressive riding and may finally win his first stage since 2013 - Limoges looks a Sagan day. Though “every stage is a Peter Sagan stage” as he once said.
TV viewers in Britain will have a different experience this year as ITV4 have finally ditched the Liggett / Sherwen commentary. It’s not been formally announced who we’re getting as a replacement but I assume it will be the Ned Boulting / David Millar pairing.
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