Will be interesting:
Yellow Jersey — If everybody but Nibali can keep from crashing it will make for interesting days in the mountains. Astana looked great as a team at the Giro, but Aru doesn’t have the abilities that Nibali has. Froome looked good at the Dauphine, and Contador coming back into form after the Giro. Quintana is the wildcard — he “raced”, i.e. showed up, at the Spring Classics, and Movistar sent a token team to the Giro, but no one knows what real form he has, and again Valverde looks astounding on the heels of the Spanish RR championships.
Green Jersey — Pretty much Sagan’s to lose. Pure sprinter days will be Cavendish against the field – Gripel / Kristoff / Degenkolb / Coquard — No Modolo, no Kittel, and an injured Bouhani. I do wonder if Degenkolb or Kristoff will be able to get away and pick up some intermediary sprints, since there’s a high likelihood that Tinkoff-Saxo will not be able to help Sagan in the later stages.
Mountains Jersey — I expect that to go to someone like Pinot, or Teklehaminot, unless it goes to the second place GC. Today’s polka-dot jersey is more about who can get into the break on a medium mountain stage the most and sweep up the Cat2/3 climbing points on multiple stages.
Interesting stages:
1 – Look for a Yellow Jersey on the back of Tony Martin – pan flat 13.8k, but Dumolin could surprise, and don’t count out Fabu.
3 – Mur de Huy. Mur de HUY!
4 – 11.5km of cobbles late in a 223km stage. This is why Quintana was racing on them early in the season.
8 – Mur de Bretagne!
9 – TTT – OGE has the edge, but Movistar also has a big chance to put Valverde or Quintana in Yellow for the rest day.
10 – Look for Contador / Nibali / Froome to attack with 7k to go on the climb into La Pierre-Saint-Martin. 167km stage will make for some really great racing.
11 – Col d’Aspin, Tourmalet, and an uphill finish. Prime breakaway stage — the last 10k up the Cote de Cauterets should be really interesting.
12 – Another monster mountain stage. Either they’re all together at the bottom of the Plateau de Beille, or someone like Nibali attacks on Port de Lers and holds on to the top of Plateau de Beille.
16 – Col de Manse is always a dangerous event coming into Gap.
17 – Romain Bardet won this exact stage during the Dauphine – Should be interesting to see how the GCs handle it the second time around.
18 – Probably one of the prettiest stages – the ride along from Gap to the Col de la Morte is extremely beautiful, then add on the Col du Glandon as the race really enters the Alpes, and the amazing Lacets de Montvernier.
19 – With the removal of the Galibier from stage 20, this is now the Queen stage – The Col du Glandon up to the Croix de fer, then the Mollard and then a finish up La Toussuire is going to be a rough day of racing.
20 – 110km, because the Telegraphie & Galibier were removed, expect excitement on Alpe d’Huez.
21 – This year – along the Ave. de New York accross to the Eiffel Tower, then back around to the Louvre… and around the Arc de Triomphe. Well deserved sprinters stage for whomever is left, because there is nothing for the sprinters since stage 15.
J’aime la grande boucle!
Finish Line in Gap:
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Staring down towards Dutch Corner:
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Having a Beer at Dutch Corner:
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Expect to see a lot of this:
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