Mont St Michel, my belle - Tour de France 2016

[longeared]

Mont St Michel, my belle - Tour de France 2016

Astana: Fabio Aru, Vincenzo Nibali, Jakob Fuglsang, Tanel Kangert, Alexei Lutsenko, Luis Leon Sanchez, Diego Rosa, Andrei Grivko, Paolo Tiralongo.

Aru and Nibali famously don't get along, so it'll be interesting to see how much they co-operate if one turns out to be going much better than the other. Nibs has already won the Giro and is expected to sign for the new Bahraini team next season. Other than that there's a lot of strong riders for the mountains, though it remains to be seen whether they will actually be needed to support the leaders.

[longeared]

Mont St Michel, my belle - Tour de France 2016

Direct Energie: Adrien Petit, Sylvain Chavanel, Antoine Duchesne, Bryan Coquard, Fabrice Jeandesboz, Thomas Voeckler, Angelo Tulik, Romain Sicard, Yohann Gene.

This is the former Europcar team. Chavanel starts his 16th consecutive Tour, only one off the record. Plucky Tommy Voeckler is a mere novice at only his 14th consecutive start. He's past his best now but France will weep tears of joy if he manages to achieve anything. Coquard is a sprinter who is not quite as fast as Kittel etc but is still their best bet for a stage.

[Kevin S]

Mont St Michel, my belle - Tour de France 2016

Blimey, and Birdsong is doing his second grand tour of the season for Astana as well. It's a good team, as you say, but Sky's is stronger.

[longeared]

Mont St Michel, my belle - Tour de France 2016

Dimension Data: Natnael Berhane, Edvald Boasson Hagen, Mark Renshaw, Bernard Eisel, Mark Cavenish, Steve Cummings, Serge Pauwels, Daniel Teklehaimanot, Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg.

A team who could be brilliant or rubbish. Cavendish is likely to have half an eye on the Olympics where he has been selected for the track and somehow managed to be outsprinted by Adam Blythe in the British nationals yesterday. Renshaw and Eisel are his longstanding lead out men. Cummings will probably try another of his epic attacks, he's had some excellent wins this season. Pauwels is the notional GC rider, Teklehaimanot will probably aim to wear the polka dot jersey again as he did last year.

[longeared]

Mont St Michel, my belle - Tour de France 2016

Cofidis: Nacer Bouhanni, Borut Bozic, Jerome Cousin, Christophe Laporte, Cyril Lemoine, Arnold Jeanneson, Luis Angel Mate, Daniel Navarro, Geoffrey Soupe.

Bouhanni is an interesting character, a stocky former boxer who is an excellent sprinter. He's never won a Tour stage but could well change that this year. Navarro might sneak into the lower rungs of the top 10. Soupe has a superb beard. Someone like Lemoine will probably try to get into the break on the first day and take the polka dot jersey for a day or two.

[longeared]

Mont St Michel, my belle - Tour de France 2016

Movistar: Nairo Quintana, Alejandro Valverde, Imanol Erviti, Gorka Izagirre, Winner Ancona, Daniel Moreno, Ion Izagirre, Nelson Oliveira, Jesus Herrada.

Strong line up to support Quintana. Brit Alex Dowsett was longlisted but hadn't expected to be selected given the lack of a team time trial and mediocre performances in Switzerland.

[Kevin S]

Mont St Michel, my belle - Tour de France 2016

Sagan is odds-on to win green, followed by a list of sprinters with Kittel at the head.

This might be fair enough but I wonder if the all-round/classics guys, who are even longer odds, might try to beat Sagan at his own game. You can find Matthews, Valverde, Alaphilippe and Degenkolb all at reasonably long odds.

I've just put £1 on Boassen-Hagen. He's incredibly good value at 80/1. Able to climb basically as well as Sagan, he can also sprint well enough to get a decent placing, and this weekend held off Kristoff to win the Norwegian title.

Of course, he might be long odds because he doesn't want to go for it and Cav will be on sprinting duties, but I think EBH could put in a strong showing at this Tour.

[longeared]

Mont St Michel, my belle - Tour de France 2016

Trek-Segafredo: Bauke Mollema, Peter Stetina, Franck Schleck, Jasper Stuyven, Gregory Rast, Markel Irizar, Edward Theuns, Haimar Zubeldia, Fabian Cancellara.

Mollema is a rider who regularly finishes in the top 10 of Grand Tours without ever remotely looking like winning one. Zubeldia is even more skilled at this as he habitually finishes 8th without his name ever being mentioned. Schleck was a regular contender around the turn of the decade until he and his brother suddenly and mysteriously stopped being so. Not entirely sure what Cancellara is doing there unless he's riding for some pre-Rio form.

[longeared]

Mont St Michel, my belle - Tour de France 2016

Cannondale: Matti Breschel (Den), Lawson Craddock (USA), Alex Howes (USA), Kristijan Koren (Slo), Sebastian Langeveld (Ned), Ramunas Navardauskas (Ltu), Pierre Rolland (Fra), Tom-Jelte Slagter (Ned), Dylan Van Baarle (Ned)

This used to be a fun team with plenty of quirky riders, most of whom have now retired or left so the team is rebuilding. Uran did the Giro and Talansky is being aimed at the Vuelta, so this is what they're left with. Rolland will attack in the wrong places as usual, otherwise winning a stage will constitute a successful race for them.

[longeared]

Mont St Michel, my belle - Tour de France 2016

Fortuneo: Eduardo Sepulveda, Vegard Breen, Anthony Delaplace, Pierre-Luc Perichon, Dan McLay, Chris-Anker Sorensen, Brice Feillu, Florian Vachon, Armindo Fonseca.

Smallest team in the race, this lot were previously Bretagne - Seche. Sepulveda is the standout rider but his trajectory has stalled after he got chucked out of last year's race for taking a ride in a car. McLay is a British sprinter but a top 10 stage finish would be a good result. Getting in breaks will largely be the aim for the team.

[Kevin S]

Mont St Michel, my belle - Tour de France 2016

I know it's really supposed to go on the general thread but here is a list of the 2016 national champions. We should see a fair number of them in their jerseys at the Tour. Hadn't realised Roche went back to the do the Irish nat champs. He won both disciplines.

[longeared]

Mont St Michel, my belle - Tour de France 2016

Good to see Vichot won the French championships as FDJ always design the best national jerseys.

Tinkoff: Roman Kreuziger, Peter Sagan, Alberto Contador, Rafal Majka, Robert Kiserlovski, Maciej Bodnar, Oscar Gatto, Matteo Tosatto, Michael Valgren.

Last team to announce, thanks to that arsehole Oleg wanting the field to himself. Strong line up to support Bertie, Majka has won stages and KoM before, Kreuziger was thought to be the future of stage racing at one time, Kiserlovski a reliable deputy. Sagan has largely avoided the curse of the world champion and should take green, be nice to see him actually win a stage somewhere. They've also got the oldest rider in the shape of 42 year old Tosatto, who first rode the race all the way back in 1997.

[delicatemoth]

Mont St Michel, my belle - Tour de France 2016

A lengthy preview of the route

[longeared]

Mont St Michel, my belle - Tour de France 2016

Andre Greipel releases a song

[Kevin S]

Mont St Michel, my belle - Tour de France 2016

Haha, he's making a thing of this now, isn't he? Superb.

[longeared]

Mont St Michel, my belle - Tour de France 2016

Giant - Alpecin have got a new kit, which will all be very confusing if / when Barguil takes the white jersey.



There's always one rider who falls off or gets sick in the lead up to the race, and this year that accolade goes to Dries Devenyns. He's out of the race, not yet known who IAM will replace him with.

[longeared]

Mont St Michel, my belle - Tour de France 2016

Nacer Bouhanni is now out of the race too. He had a fight with a hotel guest before the French nationals at the weekend, as a result he needed surgery on his wrist. That has absolutely fucked Cofidis up now as they've got a train with nothing on the end. Not obvious where they will go as far a replacement, but it'd be nice of them to stick Anthony Turgis in for the experience.

[Kevin S]

Mont St Michel, my belle - Tour de France 2016

Bugger. Would have been good to see him up against the other sprinters.

Giant-Alpecin are saying that the kit represents a restart to their season after the disaster of having half the team wiped out by an idiot driver early in the year.

[VTTBoscombe]

Mont St Michel, my belle - Tour de France 2016

Maybe I missed any flare ups - but where's Toro these days?

Thought we would swap Dossard numbers for the upcoming L'Etape.
I'll just have to look out for a Cervelo ....

[longeared]

Mont St Michel, my belle - Tour de France 2016

He flounced just after Christmas as a result of a particularly vituperative thread on Catholicism.

I guess he won't be wearing a Sky jersey at the Etape either, so there's another way to identify him...

[Kevin S]

Mont St Michel, my belle - Tour de France 2016

PM for you VTTB.

[longeared]

Mont St Michel, my belle - Tour de France 2016

New kit for Orica too, this as a result of a new co-sponsor.

[ursus arctos]

Mont St Michel, my belle - Tour de France 2016

Excuse the temporary hijack, but I was fascinated to see that VTT's son is visiting EPFL. It was extremely high on ursus minor's list until we visited over new year, only for him to be seriously put off by the atmosphere. As it turns out, he has reversed the initial sequence of his engineering/int'l affairs sequence, and is now starting the latter at Georgetown

There are, nonetheless, some lovely rides around Lausanne and the Vaud in general.

I like Orica's new kit, though one presumes next year's will be completely different, as they need a new top sponsor.

[Kevin S]

Mont St Michel, my belle - Tour de France 2016

It's, er, more-than-a-little-bit-Movistarish though, isn't it?

[ursus arctos]

Mont St Michel, my belle - Tour de France 2016

I'm guessing that it is a bit lighter than the photo in real life, though otherwise yes.

The degree to which kit designers don't take into account the value of standing out in the peleton always amazes me.