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This Saturday, July 3rd, marks the auspicious beginning of the 97th Tour de France. This year's edition includes a prologue and 20 stages that total over 3,642 kms, 2 rest days, and 25 cat-2 or harder mountains. This year's edition is commemorative for two events in particular. First, in terms of the mountains, this is the 100th year of the Pyrenees. In 1910, the riders tackled the Col de Peyresourde, Aspin, Tourmalet, and Aubisque—in one stage! To mark this event, Stage 16 of this year's Tour will, although shorter than the original 326kms, will replicate that same historic 1910 stage. Furthermore, the Tour Caravan, which 39% of spectators identify as their primary reason for watching the Tour (letour.fr), will be celebrating its 80th anniversary. So with these two events to honor, Tour Director Christian Prudhomme, pulled out all the stops!
Route preview:
The Tour will start with an 8.9km stage around the Netherlands city of Rotterdam before moving into the flat stages of Belgium and into France. While most of Stages 1-6 favor the sprinters, Stage 3 throws in an interesting twist—this 213 kms stage will feature 7 cobblestone sections. While cobbles have been used in the Tour before, never quite like this! Normally the cobbles appear far from the end of a stage. This time, however, the last 28kms will include 4 sections of cobblestones that make up the reverse middle part of the infamous Paris-Roubaix race. This stage will certainly play towards the advantage of the “classics riders.” Although Stage 2 is a bit hilly (including the first categorized climbs of this year's race—3 cat-4s and 3 cat-3s), Stage 7 will be the climbers' first real foray into their specialty. The Tour really “tips upwards” on Stage 8 with two cat-1 climbs, including a summit finish at Morzine-Avoriaz. The next day's rest day will certainly be welcomed. Tuesday, July 13th, the riders will depart Morzine-Avoriaz and head to Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne. Along the way, they will encounter the Col de la Colombière, Col des Saisies, and the first HC of this year's race, the Col de la Madeleine. Stage 10, riders will experience medium mountains before a flat Stage 11. A hilly Stage 12 and a flat Stage 13 all would make great opportunities for sprinters or break away artists. The first 140kms or so of Stage 14 are rather pleasant, but the riders can't be deceived—it tips straight up to the sky with the HC Port de Pailhères. Welcome to the Pyrenees! Stage 15 continues upward with the Col de Portet-d'Aspet and Port de Balèes both on deck. Stage 16 is the ultimate climber's delight, featuring the Col de Peyresourde, Col d'Aspin, Col du Tourmalet, and the Col d'Aubisque, making up 15,000 feet of climbing! Thank goodness the riders have a rest day in Pau on the 21st! Oh, but the climbing isn't over—on Stage 17, the riders cross the Col de Marie-Blanque, Col du Soulor, and end with a summit finish up the western slope of the Col du Tourmalet. If the riders have made it through all that, a pancake-flat 198km stage to Bordeaux will come on the eve of the penultimate Stage 19 ITT. This is the last true chance for riders seeking to move up on GC to make their attack. Some riders on GC will have to ride defensively, hoping to not lost too much time to their rivals, because the ultimate goal is to end in yellow on the Champs—Élysées the next day!
Teams participating:
With so many talented cycling squads competing this year, Prudhomme and Tour organizers felt compelled to invite 22 teams—the most allowed—to participate. This year, those teams are as follows:
AG2R-La Mondiale, Astana, Caisse d'Epargne, Cofidis, Euskaltel-Euskadi, Francaise des Jeux, Footon-Servetto, Garmin-Transitions, Katusha, Lampre, Liquigas-Doimo, Omega Pharma-Lotto, Quick Step, Rabobank, Team HTC Columbia, Team Milram, Team Radioshack, Team Saxo Bank, Team Sky, BBox Bouygues Telecom, BMC Racing Team, and Cervelo Test Team.
Riders to watch:
With so many riders participating, let's break down who to keep your eyes on by jersey:
For the yellow jersey, certainly the guy everyone is watching is Astana's Alberto Contador. This two-time winner is looking to make it his third Tour victory, but he will have to contend with Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank), Lance Armstrong (RadioShack), Levi Leipheimer (RadioShack), Christian VandeVelde (Garmin-Transitions), Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky), Ivan Basso (Liquigas), and current world champion, Cadel Evans (BMC). These riders will all be marking one another, so some dark horse candidates may be able to slip away, including Damiano Cunego (Lampre), Carlos Sastre (Cervelo), Michael Rogers (HTC-Columbia), Denis Menchov (Rabobank), Frank Schleck (Saxo Bank), and Sammy Sanchez (Euskaltel).
In terms of the sprinters' green jersey, the top three candidates are probably Thor Hushovd (Cervelo), Tyler Farrar (Garmin), and Mark Cavendish (HTC-Columbia). Then again, don't discount Oscar Freire (Rabobank), Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre), Gerald Ciolek (Milram), Matti Breschel (Team Saxo Bank), Robbie Hunter (Garmin) and Julian Dean (Garmin).
The polka dot jersey for mountain climbers is far more challenging to predict this year. With so many opportunities to score points in this competition than in years' past, any of the GC guys could equally contend for this prize. Another one to keep an eye on is Robert Gesink (Rabobank).
For best young rider, the white jersey certainly has two main candidates: Andy Schleck (Saxo) and Roman Krueziger (Liquigas), but maybe a young rider will surprise us all and take this grand prize!
Lastly, for the team classification, most are anticipating a show down between Astana and Radioshack. With Lance and Alberto on opposing teams this year officially, perhaps the drama from last year that has been bantered about in the press will come out on the road! Team Saxo Bank, desperately seeking a sponsor (at the time of this writing) will be looking for results as well, though the recent announcement of the Schleks' possible move to a new Luxembourg team may result in a loss of team support and focus. Liquigas and Lampre also seem to have some quiet strength.
If the Tour de France has taught us anything, it's the idea that anything could—and usually does—happen. In a sport that has been marred by scandal in recent years, hopefully this year's race will be the cleanest on record and show that the drama of cycling truly stems from 2 legs, 2 wheels, and a lot of heart.
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