With the Grand Depart set for this Saturday from Utrecht in Holland I thought Id start a thread for those interested in this iconic race.
Can Chris Froome return to England with the Yellow jersey whilst can Mark Cavendish reclaim the sprint crown from Marcel Kittel and with four possible stage wins, climb to 2nd in the records for number of Tour wins.
Anyone planning to make the trip over to Holland or France for it at all?
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To be honest when I wrote this I didnt check to see which of his rivals were in the Tour, shame in a way as we've never really seen a strong Cavendish v Kittel sprint, one of them has always been out of form or injured
Can Froome handle the cobbles? If he can't will sky go with Porte?
Quintana is an absolute monster, and the lack of TTs this year definitely works in his favour
Sprint wise it's going to be difficult for Cav to dominate - even with Kittel not there. A lot of the 'gimme' sprint stages at the beginning of this year's route are complicated by cobbles, late climbs or ramps up to the finish - if he doesn't win the straightforward sprints he won't win any of them. Degenkolb is in superb form and Bouhanni will have a point to prove. Heart says Cav will win three stages, head says only one
Cav will have chances this tour; he is desperate after last years crash, and his form is excellent. Agree that Degenkolb is the main sprinter to concern him, but Sagan will probably be winning stages early on too, and maybe some of those that have semi-sprint finishes.
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Also another rider to be considered for the overall or a podium atleast is Van Garderen, Froome had to try mighty hard to beat him at the Dauphine and only did so by 10 seconds, I reckon he could be the dark horse of this years race.
Will be interesting to see how other GC contenders get on if they make it through the first week, Contador did beat Quintana in the Route Du Sud last week, but it was clear to see Quintana was saving something and he did win the summit finish to. If Quintana is on Giro 2014 form he'll be the one to beat no question.
Sprinting wise I'm surprised no one has mentioned Alexander Kristoff yet, he absolutely mopped up the wins and won the Tour of Flanders in spring/earlier in the season. He'll be the main man to beat in the first week due to the nature of the stages as mentioned above. Cav has said himself he's not as fast as he was a few years ago, I reckon he'll get 1/2 stage wins tops, as there is not doubting that he does have the strongest leadout train if utilised correctly.
He's definitely one to watch on the tougher sprint stages though - especially the cobbled ones early on
Its all gone off on stage 2 already (echelon galore), well worth a watch.
As for the team this looks the strongest Sky team. 2013 if Porte cracked it was Froome on his own. This year they have 5-6 potential GC riders, and it won't be just down to Porte supporting at the crunch times on climbs.
In the same vein though, that crash has to be one of the worst I've seen for a good few years now (i.e. Might have been Cancellara himself but you see one rider in yellow, flip twice through the air after coming off his bike etc...), hopefully means that after the bad luck of the Brits last year (with Cavendish / Froome / Thomas all failing to finish), its good to see that all of them managed to avoid it