2012 Tour de France Preview

The summer has officially started with Wimbledon taking place, but as we wait 4 weeks until the start of the Olympics, we have the annual 3-week cycling event known as the Tour de France. The 3,500 km event starts tomorrow with a 6km time trial on the streets of Liege, Belgium and continues 3 weeks and finishes on the Champs Elysses in Paris on July 22nd. As always the route is different, but the competition is high. The route features 101km of time trials and only 3 summit finishes. After 3 days in Belgium, the route is shifted into Northern France with stage finishes in Rouen and Saint-Quentin. Then riders go into the French & Swiss Alps during the 2nd week. In the final week, the riders go into the Pyrennes and face grueling Stage 16 (includes 4 mountain climbs featuring the Col d'Aubisque and Col du Tourmalet) and the winner will be decided on the final time trial on the penultimate day of the tour. This year, the competition is wide open after 2-time tour winner Alberto Contador continues to serve his 2-year suspension for doping and 2010 champion Andy Schleck also withdrew due to a pelvis fracture. Former world champion Thor Hushovd will not be participating due to recovery from a virus. Sprinters like Tom Boonen also won't compete and will focus on the road-race Cycling event at the Olympics next month. Favorites to win the tour include Bradley Wiggins, who won stages at Paris-Nice and Tour de Romandie and his forte is time trial events, which is heavily used in this year's tour. Cadel Evans will return to defend his tour title from last year. Frank Schleck will anchor the Radio Shack-Nissan team and can also contend for the win. Giro d'Italia winner Ryder Hesjedel can also be a dark horse and also might have a chance to win as he did finish in the top 10 last year. On the green jersey competition, I see Mark Cavendish also winning the points competition and will win 5 stages, but not in Paris. I am going to take Cadel Evans to repeat, but Wiggins will definitely be consideration for the podium as well as Ivan Basso.