This is undoubtedly one of my favourite moments of the sporting calendar, non other than the start of the 2011 Tour de France. The race officially begins with, quite unusually, a normal road stage in the Vendee, as shown by the video of the route above. This really promises to be a great tour, and there are many contenders who could potentially win.
For the overall classification, the main duel has got to be between Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck. Contador blew everybody away in the Giro, but it has to be said firstly that Schleck wasn't participating and that secondly, the person who finished second, Michele Scarponi is not an exceptional rider. It really wasn't a surprise that Contador won by such a margin.
Schleck on the other hand really focused on the Classics (Liege-Bastogne-Liege, Fleche Wallone etc...) but to no avail: he didn't win any and he came up against a phenomenal Phillipe Gilbert who won everything. So who's going to win? Let me surprise some people and say Andy Schleck. Contador is tired, he's already done a Giro where he's put a lot of effort in, whereas Schleck has really been training hard for the Tour. Schleck will be fresher, and the gap between them has been closing every year. I think this could finally be the year when we see the end of the Contador dominance on the Tour.
The other classifications are also quite open. The green jersey this year is easier for pure sprinters to win, so Mark Cavendish is obviously the favourite, however Thor Hushovd can still win it, especially if he goes and wins intermediate sprints. It will be interesting to see, and we also cannot forget other sprinters, such as Petacchi or Farrar. But I really think that seeing as this jersey has become more a sprinters jersey than last year, the Manx missile should win if he wins many stages.
I like the best climbers jersey because it is always so open. You can get unknown people winning it, because it's just a question of crossing the top of the climbs first. Last year for example, we had a decent, but reasonably unknown French rider win it (Anthony Charteau), which was really nice to see.
Finally, the best young riders jersey I think could maybe be won by somebody like Roman Kreuziger, but again, it is quite open and Schleck is now over 25 and so is ineligible to win it.
Personally, I will be supporting Mark Cavendish all the way though, and I hope that he wins many stages. Also, it's worth mentioning that there is not a shortage of mountain stages this year, with finishes at the Galibier and the Alpe d'Huez, which will be very exciting.
0 comments:
Post a Comment