Nairo Quintana has tailored his training to counter one of Chris Froome’s main strengths as he plots a path to victory in the Tour de France. Dimension Data’s Mark Cavendish has won stages like this before, and Lotto-Soudal’s Andre Greipel won Stage 2 of last year’s Tour in similarly challenging conditions. He will face a strong challenge from Germanys Marcel Kittel, but for others, the later mountain stages are what interests them with former victor Alberto Contador, saying he had a clearer tactical plan than ever and Colombian Nairo Quintana who wiped out Froome on the Alpe dHuez climb previous year said: I’m getting closer to my #SueñoAmarillo (yellow dream)..
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“We all know that when Froome makes one of those strong attacks, it is really hard to follow him”.
Your money would be much better spent on the fast men – Marcel Kittel (€9.5m) is favourite to win stage one, while versatile world champion Peter Sagan (€9.5m) bids to swap his rainbow jersey for either the yellow or green jersey during the first week – and you can swap them out once the climbing starts.
A climbing specialist, Aru won the Spanish Vuelta past year and has also achieved two podium results at the Giro in his short but successful career.
“It suits me better than this year’s Tour did”, Froome said.
“I couldn’t follow him [last year] and I hope this year I will be able to be with him all the time.”
In both of Froome’s Tour victories to date, he has taken yellow by the end of the first week but then found himself coming under pressure in the last week – most obviously in the dramatic conclusion to last year’s Tour when Nairo Quintana attacked on L’Alpe d’Huez and briefly threatened to steal yellow.
It’s likely to be a nervous opening weekend in Normandy, with the prospect of echelons tomorrow on tomorrow’s Stage 1 from Mont St-Michel to Omaha Beach. “It’s going to take a very well-rounded rider to win”, the Team Sky rider said.
Porte’s place in the top-five contenders is borne out of the fact he has played such a pivotal role in each of Froome’s successes.
He lost 1min 27sec that day to Froome, who beat him by just 1min 12sec overall.
The 19-year-old Belgian protested her innocence, claiming she was using another rider’s bike, but it did not wash and placed organizers of the Tour de France and other sports officials on red alert.
“I’m friends with a lot of those guys”, he said.
“I think it fits really well that he has a co-leader. It’s about beating the whole Team Sky”, Alberto Contador (Tinkoff), also gunning for the third Tour title that would cement his status as the greatest grand tour rider of his generation, told L’Equipe.
“That for me is exciting, it’s a massive opportunity and that’s why I’m in BMC”.
Porte is the bookmakers’ fourth favourite for overall victory at the Tour but must share leadership of BMC with Tejay van Garderen, who finished fifth in both 2012 and 2014.
Having two leaders can often backfire on teams as it leads to internal divisions over tactics, but Porte – excited as he is to be free of domestique duties – insists he is relaxed about it.
The Colombian’s winning streak was unprecedented in the country’s rich cycling history, but not enough for Quintana, the lead rider for the Spanish Movistar team.
Although there are two individual time-trials totalling 54km, it is the mountainous terrain that appears most foreboding along the 3,500km route starting in Normandy and finishing in Paris, having crossed a number of peaks in the Pyrenees and Alps.
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“That’s going to show us how the leadership thing works out”.
