The Tour de France is the greatest annual multi-day sporting
event on the planet. For the 20th time the Tour is beginning outside
of France. The Tour will spend three days in England before hopping over the channel
back into France. The first two stages will be held in the Yorkshire region
with the third stage ending in London.
The
Tour this year has forgone an opening prologue or time trial and has chosen to
run a traditional road stage on the opening day. Luckily, for the sprinters the
stage is fairly flat and a bunch sprint looks destined to happen. The stage
starts in Leeds and moves in a huge circle in a clockwise direction before
finishing in the small town of Harrogate (home to Mark Cavendish’s mother).
There are three climbs packed into the middle of the stage (1 cat. 4, 2 cat.
3). The sprinters appear a bit worried about these climbs, but with 60
kilometers still to race once the final one is peaked I believe they should all
get back, even though I do not think any of them will be dropped on the climbs.
The
big news about the start in Harrogate, are the narrow roads. Crashes are
inevitable in the first week of the Tour with all of the nerves in the peloton,
but you add in narrow roads and you are just asking for a disaster. Tom
Danielson (not riding the Tour this year) said on NBCsports pre-race show, “You
can have a straight road with no obstacles, and [the peloton] will find a way
to make it carnage alley.” Marcel Kittle was also recently quoted saying there
is no place for these kinds of roads in cycling. He went on to question the
organizers take on rider safety. The main thing is everyone expects there to be
a huge crash so being at the front of the peloton will be vital.
Assuming
all of the sprinters make it through the climbs we should see the Big 4 go
head-to-head to claim the coveted maillot jaune. Peter Sagan (CAN) is not a
true and true sprinter and needs a bit of tougher course to weed out some of
the faster men so I would look for him to win on stage 2. Andre “The Gorilla”
Greipel (LTB) is next in line. He
comes into the Tour with the most wins out of everyone, but I believe he won’t
have that final burst of speed to win. Marcel Kittle (GIA) took the maillot
jaune on day one last year. He’ll be looking to repeat that feat and take home
a second yellow jersey. None of the other sprinters have as much pressure as
Mark Cavendish (OPQS). His mom lives in Harrogate and during interviews he has
recalled playing ball on the finishing straight for the day’s stage. Plus
Cavendish will look to take back the crown of world’s fastest man. Furthermore,
look for outsiders like French sprinter Arnaud Demare (FDJ) or young-gun Boy
Van Poppel (TFR) to disrupt the Big 4.
My pick is Marcel Kittle. He has
looked dominate all season from three stage wins at the Tour of Dubai to
back-to-back wins at the Giro before having to leave due to a fever. We have
not seen the Cavendish or Kittle go head-to-head all season so it should be a
fantastic first stage.
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