TDF: everything you need to know
The 2020 Tour has finally arrived amid unprecedented global drama, and our preview of this year’s event isn’t without its share of shocks and surprises too
“This is a Tour for the climbers but there are traps aplently “
If this Tour de France were a rider, they’d be struggling to the line through a snowstorm at the top of the Galibier, determinedly ploughing a lonely furrow against all the odds – some would say against all sense – to make it to the line. It has taken all the world has to throw at it and stamped on the pedals, face etched with a grimace and eyes staring defiantly up the road, saying: “Is that all you’ve got?”
Sure, it’s later than expected but if there was any event that was going to survive the coronavirus pandemic it was the Tour. A large part of that is its central place in the finances of the sport for organiser ASO and the teams but it’s also because if there’s any race we cycling fans want to see, it’s this one.
While you could be forgiven for thinking the truncated 2020 season might yield a sub-par event, the one slated for the next month is tantalisingly unpredictable and packed with opportunities for plot twists right until the end. That unpredictability started with the selections last week when former champion Geraint Thomas and Chris Froome were both left off the Ineos Grenadiers squad. Then their major rivals Jumbo-visma had to withdraw Stephen Kruijswik from their muchtrumpeted trio of leaders following injuries sustained at the Critérium du Dauphiné. Far from lowering the anticipation, it has upped it because it throws the door open for other teams to take on these two powerhouses on a more equal footing. Suddenly, a rejuvenated Nairo Quintana with a comparatively underpowered Arkea-samsic squad and an attacking Julian Alaphilippe, seems like a greater threat to the yellow jersey than before.
Then there’s the course itself: miraculously unchanged – helped in no small part by being completely within France – it ostensibly asks the riders to show who is the best climber, with its solitary time trial being uphill. But there are traps aplenty in the medium mountains and a number of stages that could, we hope, be affected by crosswinds.
It is not particularly well suited to the sprinters and that means the rare opportunities to win through raw speed will be hard fought over. Although the favourites in the drag race will be seven-times green jersey winner Peter Sagan, Caleb Ewan and Sam Bennett, there is enough chaos in the hierarchy to mean there will be others that fancy a tilt at stage glory or the maillot vert, which promises to revitalise what had become a predictable competition.
As we’ve all learned in 2020, anything can happen, and that’s never more true than at the Tour.
It’s very unusual for the Tour to have a stage that includes circuits, even less so one where fans can see the peloton as many as three times, which makes this opening day especially intriguing.
■ Terrain
The outward half of each lap has plenty of twists and turns while the inward half is largely on straight, wide highways running slightly downhill. The third lap is longer, continuing beyond Aspremont to Levens, the stage’s high point, before turning southwards again for the finale on Nice’s seafront, where a bunch sprint is the most likely scenario.
■ Gameplan
Like the past two years, the opening stage presents the peloton’s sprinters with the chance of a double prize – the stage win and the yellow jersey. It’s a task complicated for the fastmen and their teams, however, by the desire of the contenders’ teams to keep their star names up near the front just in case the peloton splits in the frantic approach to the finish.
■ Players
Arguably the pick of the current sprinters, Dylan Groenewegen has been left at home as his Jumbo-visma team chase the GC. This will present his rivals such as Caleb Ewan, Sam Bennett and Elia Viviani with an opportunity to establish themselves at the head of the fastmen fraternity.
■ Tour Fact
The only previous occasion the Tour started in Nice was in 1981, when Bernard Hinault won a 5.8-kilometre prologue time trial on the way to his third overall victory.
■ Impact on the race