Crosswinds, the Ardennes and now it’s time for some cobbles in the North of France. The Tour de France continues its tour of the spring classics.
Fabian Cancellara is out with a broken back, others left the race too and all before today’s stage, the most feared of them all.
The first hills of the Tour de France with the infamous Mur de Huy and its 20% slopes as the finish. Unlike the spring classic this is climbed only once so there are subtle differences between today’s stage and April’s Flèche Wallonne race.
A flat run across before the finish on the coastal defences that stop the Netherlands from being submerged by the North Sea. The clue is in the oxymoronic name: Zeeland, sea land.
The rubber hits the road as the 102nd Tour de France opens with a 14km time trial around Utrecht.
Is this going to be fairy tale Tour? A win for Tom Dumoulin in front of a home crowd is the perfect start however this looks like a predictable win for Tony Martin.
Do you really want to know who’s going to win? Hopefully we’ll be kept waiting until the final mountain stage and the climb to Alpe d’Huez.
This year’s race is open with four names at the top of the bill and there’s a supporting cast to bring surprises. Here’s the preview of the main names hoping to win the yellow jersey.
Team Sky’s annual accounts have just been published. Here’s a look at their budget, spending, wage bill and the behind-the-scenes change in team ownership.
It’s the 40th anniversary of the polka dot jersey so expect a greater focus on this jersey. It’s an unsettled competition, the green jersey points competition has been tweaked to reward the fastest sprinter but the polka dot mountains jersey still doesn’t go to the best climber.
They’ve changed the rules but can they change the ruler? Peter Sagan won the points competition by such a large margin last year that he’s an obvious pick to win again.
Here’s a look at the contenders and pretenders for the points competition and a wider look at the sprinters and their teams too.
The Tour de France attracts interest like no other race and an unrivalled degree of coverage. If “hope dies last” then hype might be born first. Certainly the Tour can be over-promoted but the excitement is justified right now.
The Big Four of Vincenzo Nibali, Chris Froome, Alberto Contador and Nairo Quintana have been talked up all year but now the talk turns to action. All four appear in good health and ready to challenge.
Chris Froome won the Dauphiné, Alberto Contador and Nairo Quintana marked each other up the Port de Balès which leaves Vincenzo Nibali as the big name with questions over his form. He was thereabouts in the Dauphiné but his epic ride to Villard de Lans confirmed his audacity and not his form. When it came to combating gravity he lost a lot more time on the Alpine climbs than he did last year. Today’s Italian championships make a good test with the uphill finish to the Superga outside Turin, 5km at 9% and more famous to cyclists as the tough finish of the late season Milano-Torino race and to others of a grizzly air accident.