Tour de France 2016

German pair Marcel Kittel and Andre Greipel, who won four stages in sprint finishes previous year, will also be among strong contenders for the green jersey as well as the prestigious final stage victory.

The athletes will all vie for the coveted yellow jersey in the first stage, which will finish at Utah Beach, one of the four D-Day landing beaches in Normandy that saw the seaborne invasion of the Allied forces in 1944. Others like former Sky team-mate Richie Porte, America’s top stage racer Tejay Van Garderen and France’s Romain Bardet may not have Contador’s or Nibali’s impressive back catalogue of Grand Tour victories, but will be equally quick to undermine Froome’s authority should they have an opportunity.

Second places in Paris-Nice and the Volta a Catalunya have shown he still has it in his legs to compete, and he was in contention at the Dauphine before Froome took control. Others could lose time (like Movistar’s Nairo Quintana and Astana’s Vincenzo Nibali did last year), and a GC favorite or two could end the day in an early hole.

“If he wins the tour, a lot more Colombians will follow.”

“Even though we have time-trials, they’re time-trials where a climber will do well”. The emphasis on climbing should suit Quintana, as will the concentration of tough mountain stages in the final week.

Team Giant-Alpecin heads to this year’s race once again with the goal of stage success in the sprint stages with a hard finale, the intermediate stages and the mountain stages.

Britain’s Chris Froome, front, rides with a teammate during a training two days before the start of the Tour de France cycling race, at the team hotel in Port-en-Bessin-Huppain, France, Thursday, June 30, 2016. Defending British champion Chris Froome hopes to become the eighth cyclist to win the general classification (GC) prize for a third time (excluding Lance Armstrong whose seven wins have been nullified after he admitted to doping).

However, the Guardian suggests his Tinkoff team may have half an eye on winning the green jersey with Peter Sagan. At 33, Contador’s age is also against him and he was fifth behind Froome in Criterium du Dauphine earlier in the season. Challenging him for the top spot will be recent Giro d’Italia victor from Astana Pro Team, Vincenzo Nibali.

“This is one of the high points of the year for us”, he said. “The Aussie, though, has a tendency to always have at least one bad day – or un jour sans as they say en France – and that could cost him dearly”.

And Froome’s old domestique could once again be forced to sacrifice his ambitions if he starts badly. Another rider Sky will not be letting gain too much ground in the mountains is France’s Thibaut Pinot, an impressively strong climber whose time trialling, previously a notable chink in his armour, has massively improved in the last six months. “Possibly not, but France will enjoy cheering him along the journey”. Almost 200 riders will cover over 2,200 miles in what is considered the world’s biggest annual sporting event.

These will be placed at undisclosed points on the race route in an attempt to act as a deterrent to any motor assisted riders.