The Roar
The Roar

Advertisement

2015 Tour de France: Stage 1 preview

Rohan Dennis could take the ITT rainbow jersey at the Worlds today. (Image: Team Sky)
Roar Guru
3rd July, 2015
1

The 102nd Tour de France starts with a 14km individual time trial (no it isn’t prologue) around the streets of the Dutch city of Utrecht.

This will be an important stage for the general classification, as it is the only individual time trial – there is a hilly team time trial in Stage 9 – which has been crucial in past tours; just ask Cadel Evans.

Being such a short time trial, time gaps between the main favourites for both the stage and the GC competitors should be fairly tight, with only Nairo Quintana out of the ‘big four’ likely to lose a decent bit of time.

With the course being extremely tight and twisty, and road furniture playing a part, it will take a rider with both power and good bike handling skills to win the stage.

Another factor affecting the riders is that parts of Europe are going through a ‘heatwave’ currently, or if you are Australian, just a normal summer’s day. The forecast for the stage is for extremely hot conditions, over 35 degrees, with the chance of thunderstorms as the afternoon progresses.

If rain does occur, look at riders who have superior bike-handling skills to really come to the fore. Peter Sagan comes to mind, considering that the stages in the first week very much suit him, and may also allow him to slip into yellow at some stage.

Let’s just hope everyone stays upright and if it does rain, the precipitation is consistent for all the riders.

Advertisement

The favourites
Fabian Cancellera will be looking to start the Tour, as he has so often done throughout his long and illustrious career, in the yellow jersey. Stretching back to his debut victory in Liège in 2004, he has won five of the six opening time trials he has ridden at the Tour.

The technical course suits him, but ‘Spartacus’ hasn’t had much success in time trials of late, only having graced the top of the podium twice in the past two seasons. As recently as the Tour de Suisse, he was beaten by Dutch time trialling star Tom Dumoulin.

In an interview with Cycling News, Cancellera said, “Tony Martin, Rohan Dennis and Tom Dumoulin are the names who should be up there too. Dumoulin has the most pressure of all, riding at home, and he showed big form at the Tour de Suisse.”

Dumoulin has reason to be confident, a win in both the long time trial and the prologue at the Tour de Suisse, while also beating Martin in the final stage time trial at the Tour of the Basque Country.

Martin only has one World Tour time trial win under his belt this year, over hilly parcours at the Tour of Romandie.

Former world hour record holder Rohan Dennis has had a solid season in the time trials, but performances suggest he still is not at the level of the three men mentioned above.

Other riders worthy of mention include another former hour record holder, Alex Dowsett, recently crowned Italian champion Adriano Malori from Movistar, Geraint Thomas, Michal Kwiatkowski and Matthias Brandle.

Advertisement
close