Cadel Evans became the first ever Australian to win the Tour de France back in 2011 and the Aussies have not had another winner, nor chance to win the world’s biggest cycling race. Not until now. BMC Racing team member and Australian Richie Porte will enter the 2017 edition of the tour as the second favourite to win and the most likely of anyone to dethrone the three time and reigning general classification winner Chris Froome.
After a change of team at the end of the 2015 season, Porte ceased to be a second fiddle to Froome at Team Sky and headed is own team at BMC Racing. A strong fifth place finish in the GC last year backed up by wins in both the Tour Down Under, the Tour de Romandie and a second place at the main lead up to the Tour de France, the Criterium du Dauphine.
Porte’s form in the early part of 2017 has been undeniable and he is a worthy contender to take out the Yellow Jersey, however, if he wants to become the second Australian to win the Tour he’ll have to get past the best riders in the world in Chris Froome, Nairo Quintana and Alberto Contador.
Before the Tour kicks off every year, there are really only a few riders who the bookies think can win, and the quartet of Froome, Porte, Quintana and Contador seem to be those riders this year.
Contador, the outsider, has yet to prove himself since doping charges stripped him of the 2010 Tour de France and handed it to Luxembourg rider Andy Schleck, but the Spaniard is still a two-time winner of the Tour and always a threat in the Pyrenees and the French Alps.
Nairo Quintana’s teammates are adamant that he is in the best form of his life, and the little Columbian seemed to have acclimatised to the French mountains with a third-place finish at last year’s tour. He’s able to take out massive chunks of time over the majority of the field in the mountains, but there’s still the issue of his time trialling. He’s nowhere near the time trialist that the other 3 main contenders and as he can’t dominate them in the mountains like he can the rest of the riders. The one positive for Quintana is that this years’ time-trials are short, so he might be able to limit the damage.
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Then there’s Froome. Arguably the most dominant rider since Lance Armstrong was still around, Froome will attempt to claim his third Yellow Jersey in a row and his fourth in total when the Tour kicks off in Dusseldorf Saturday night. It’s been an odd lead up to the race for Froome, as it marks the first time he will enter the Tour without having raced a single warm up race.
Froome admitted that the course doesn’t suit him, the time trials have been where the British rider has been able to dominate and set himself apart from the other contenders. With the shorter TT’s he’ll need a much stronger performance in the mountains, which could be difficult with his lack of warm up races. It might be the patriotic pick but we think Porte has the form and the ability to take the next step this year.
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Proabably the surest thing of the Tour is that Slovakian powerhouse Peter Sagan will claim his 6th Green Jersey. The sprinter is the only rider of his kind that is able to stay with the peloton through the hill stages which gives him a massive advantage in the finishes of stages. He should bank himself another few stage wins and have the Green Jersey wrapped up pretty early again.
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