Stannard bids to protect his man Froome

For Chris Froome and his four compatriots at Team Sky, 2014 was a case of what might have been as he suffered miserable luck before bowing out with a fractured hand and broken wrist. The big Norwegian has an engine like no other rider and uses a massive gear when sprinting, continuing to accelerate all the way to the line.

Before moving to Cofidis as their new team leader, Bouhanni had won stages at both the Vuelta and Giro. “Our training program has been spoken about and we’ve paid the price for the riders who doped but we can’t pay the price for mistakes we haven’t made ourselves”. The Tour captures our attention because the diversity among its 21 gruelling stages pushes its participants to their very limits in ways that other cycling competitions do not.

” “Rotterdam has given us all the space to be present, visible and recognizable in the city to strengthen our legitimate demands”, union negotiators Albert Springer and Gerrit van de Kamp said in a statement”.

Chris Froome said he was feeling more relaxed ahead of the Tour de France this year than he was 12 months ago as defending champion.

“You don’t have to go back that far to years where there was no British rider at all”. Bardet is still lacking experience but his ability in one-day Classics should help him negotiate the dense first week of racing. I feel much more well-rounded and relaxed.

“It was in the end, of course, a surprise (that Kittel was dropped). I saw his progression and knew it would be really tight for the Tour, but still it was a surprise because it’s a big step to make a decision like this”.

My goal is to win the general classification.

“I get paid a lot of money to be a sprinter, and I have to win bike races”.

And Degenkolb, 26, already has certain stages in mind such as stage six from Abbeville to Le Havre with its three fourth category climbs and slight uphill finish.

And I can see him producing the goods in a decisive showdown on Alpe d’Huez in the penultimate stage. “We have a very experienced team”.

Hesjedal’s best overall finish in the Tour de France was fifth in 2010.

In fact, Dowsett is another who could be in contention on Saturday and all three could pull a surprise on the likes of Martin, Cancellara and Dumoulin. “In any case they’re my most unsafe rivals”, said Quintana on Friday, on the eve of the Grand Depart.

“Also I’m used to dealing with pressure and ambitions”.

“The way he’s built up, trained and the way he’s looking on the bike at the moment, he’s got some absolutely incredible form. You have to give maximum effort in those 13km”.

Cancellara is probably not the favourite, though, despite his incredible timetrial record, winning Olympic gold in 2008 and four world titles.

“As soon as the route was announced (last October) I looked at it straight away and eyed up a few stages that would suit me and where I could really contribute to Froomey and the boys”.

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“The first objective is to try and avoid crashes. I will do what I can”.