This year's Tour de France will take over 3 weeks to finish and the gruelling schedule allows for only two rest days. In total the riders will have to cover nearly 3,500 km before they finish in Paris on 24 July. Last year the average speed of Alberto Contador, the winner of the 2010 Tour, was 39.5 km/hr.
All Irish eyes will be on Ireland's Nicolas Roche who rides, just as he did last year, as team leader for the French based AG2R La Mondiale team. 2010 saw Roche finish in 15th place having bagged a few top ten finishes along the way. If he hadn't been betrayed by his teammate John Gadret on Stage 15 last year he could have finished even higher. Here's hope Roche will perform just as well, if not better, this year.
When it comes to the yellow jersey and the overall winner for 2011, the ones to watch are of course Alberto Contador (Team Saxo Bank Sungard) and Andy Schleck (Team Leopard-Trek). The next rider in the betting is 25/1 so basically it's a two horse race. Schleck has a remarkably strong team behind him with three former wearers of the yellow jersey (Jens Voigt, Stuart O’Grady, Fabian Cancellara) and his brother Andy (former stage winner) to count on. However most people seem to fancy Contador to win again, though everyone hope there will be not repeat of Chain-gate this time around.
Surely Mark Cavendish (Team HTC – Highroad) will manage to win the sprinter's jersey this year. He's been the best sprinter in the world for two or three years but somehow fate has conspired for him to fall short of the mark. Plus Mark "Headbutt" Renshaw returns to his team as his main lead out man.
Predictions
Yellow Jersey (general classification): Alberto Contador
Green Jersey (points classification): Mark Cavendish
Polka-dot Jersey (king of the mountains): Alberto Contador
Team Classification: Team Leopard-TrekAlso watch out for...
Jurgen Van Den Broeck: Flying the flag for the Belgians and in with a shout for a top 5 finish in the general classification, he's a steely competitor.
Alessandro Petacchi and Thor Hushovd: Mark Cavendish's main rivals for the points jersey who can walk the walk and talk the talk. There'll be plenty of press conference hissy fits between these three if previous Tours are anything to go by.
Samuel Sanchez: The best descender of mountains in the peloton whose risk taking make the watching as exciting as it is terrifying.
Team Sky: If you're following the UK press or watching the Tour on British Eurosport you wont have to make too much of an effort to look out for them. Formed in 2009 with their fervent promise to "create the first British winner of the Tour de France, within five years", the UK team have their sights set on glory and will be heaping all manner of pressure on Bradley Wiggins to win the yellow jersey.
Lance Armstrong: Even though he's retired from the sport (again) he's sure to make some announcement or other. Armstrong and cycling is to Tiger Woods and golf: they dominate the sport whether they compete or not.
Links
The Tour de France (offical site)
Spare a Thought for Nicolas Roche
Tour de France: Alberto Contador vs Andy Schleck, to wait or not to wait?
Mark Renshaw headbutts Cyclist during 2010 Tour De France (Youtube)
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