2013 Tour de France – just a week to go!

Le Tour@Pauillac 2010

This time next week the 100th edition of Le Tour de France will be underway. For the first time ever the Tour starts in Corsica, where it spends the first three days before moving to Nice for the short 25 kilometre time trial.

There is a good chance that next Saturday evening will see Mark Cavendish in Yellow after winning the sprint for the first stage from Porto Vecchio north for 213 kms to Bastia. The stage is very flat and must be virtually certain to end in a bunch sprint. Mark will be determined to win the stage and wear the leader's Yellow Jersey for the first time in his career. If he succeeds he will have worn the leader's jersey in the three major Tours. Winning in Bastia would take his all time T de F stage wins to 24 – only 10 behind the legendary Eddy Merckx, the longtime holder of the most stage wins. Currently Mark needs just five more stage wins before he matches second placed Bernard Hainault.     

When Cav sets his sights on a win he normally makes it. However, the first stage of the Tour can be very nervous with the likelihood of crashes, so good positioning – certainly – and luck – possibly – may well play their part. At this year's Giro d'Italia Mark won five stages plus the Red Points Jersey, so he is just as fast as ever. But for the Tour the competition in the sprints is going to be intense. Among Mark challengers will be Tyler Farrar, Marcel Kittel, John Degenkolb, Peter Sagan, Nacer Bouhanni, Matthew Goss, Edvard Boassen Hagen and André Griepel. 

Can't wait for the off! Further Tour posts during this week.    

Follow the Tour on Steephill-TV also the Tour's official site.   

All time stage winners now complete from 1903 to 1975 plus most of the recent winners.