No realistic homegrown contenders and no guarantee Le Tour will even make it to Paris

NO Chris Froome, no Geraint Thomas, no Mark Cavendish... no Brits in contention for the Yellow Jersey or sprint honours.

No guarantee either the peloton will even make it to Paris if the resurgence of this blasted virus is not checked.

For the first time since 2006, British hopes of meaningful success on the

Tour de France are nearer non-existent than negligible.

Back in 2007, two million fans lined the streets of London for the Grand Depart and a second stage down to Canterbury. And, as a nation, we fell in love with cycling’s blue riband test of endurance. Since then, Froome ( four times), Thomas and Bradley Wiggins (above) have raised the Union Flag on the ChampsElysees, while Cavendish has chalked up 30 stage wins. But the Brits have receded into the margins this year. Despite a miraculous recovery, Froome – who broke multiple bones at the Criterium du Dauphine last year – was not quite up to speed for Le Tour. Thomas, whose form since lockdown has been sluggish, will instead go to the Giro d’Italia in five weeks.

Above all, on the Promenade des Anglais at today’s Grand Depart in Nice, there will be a sense of trepidation as crowds return to a major sporting event.

If two members of any team test positive for Covid-19, the whole squad will be compulsorily withdrawn from the race.

Race director Christian Prudhomme admitted: “We’ll be under greater scrutiny than ever before, but this Tour will be a symbol of rebirth and economic recovery.”

On the roads, the battle for the fabled maillot jaune is expected to be led by Jumbo Visma big guns Primoz Roglic and Tom Dumoulin, and the Grenadiers’ defending champion Egan Bernal.

Ineos principal Sir Dave Brailsford, plotting his eighth Tour de France win in nine years, accepts there are no guarantees the peloton will complete the 2,156-mile trail to Paris on September 20.

He said: “Everybody wants the event to happen. But equally, to take a mature and fair commonsense approach, if there becomes a point where it’s too much of a risk to riders, to teams and to society in general, people need to take that on

board as well.”