Tour De France 2011

The Tour De France dates will start Saturday 2nd July 2011 marking the start of the 98th Tour. The ultimate endurance race will go on three weeks until Sunday 24^th July 2011. The legendary and most famous race in cycling will no doubt prove again this year to be an epic. This years Tour will be made up of 21 stages and will cover a distance of 3,471 kilometeres.

This years grand start will be between sea and sky and will take place at the Passage du Gois finishing as always on the Champs Elysees Paris. No bones points will be awarded to riders in the intermediate sprint stages of the race this season. This could cause problems for the teams with big sprinter most notable of all Mark Cavendish. Cavendish has been working hard last season and during the winter on his climbing abilities. Cavendish and the other sprinters will need them this with no points being awarded for mid stage sprints.

The 21 stages of the race will be made up of 10 flat stages, 6 mountain stages, 4 summit finished, 3 medium mountain stages, 1 individual time trial 41km in distance and 1 team time trial stage 23km, there are also 15 new stage towns for this years race seeing the riders cross briefly over into Pinerolo Italy.

The biggest new team of this year will be Leopard Trek cycling team the new home of brothers Andy and Frank Schlek and world time trial champion Fabian Cancellara. It is pretty much team Saxo Bank with different jerseys on and they are sure to do well at this year’s Tour De France.

Garmin cycling team lead by Tyler Farrar has joined forces for this year with Cervelo Test Team and resulted in the name Garmin Cervelo cycling team. World champion Thor Hushovd will be their leading man.

The 28 year old Spaniard is currently sitting on a provisional one year ban enforced by the Spanish Cycling Federation after failing a drugs test during last years Tour. The current holder of the Tour De France is appealing against the ban which if overturned will see him racing Le Tour for his new team Saxo Bank. If allowed to race Contador will no doubt be among the names at the top of the leaderboard and we could see him with his 4^th Tour De France championship.

The Luxembourg star will have just turned 26 by the time this years Tour comes around. Last year Schleck finished second to Contador losing out by only 39 seconds. He is a hot favourite for this years Tour and if fit could prove to much for Contador. Schleck could also pull of another feat this year, if Contador is banned he will be stripped of his 2010 Le Tour crown and it will be handed to Schleck meaning if he wins this year he will be a double Tour winner.

Not really any other riders coming to mind who could push for the win this year as they where all so far behind Contador and Schleck last year. Denis Menchov finished third last year two minutes one second behind leader Contador. Finishing 4^th last year was Samuel Sanchez 3 minutes and 40 seconds off the pace. If Contador does suffer a year ban from the sport Schleck and his fellow riders will never have a better opportunity to claim their Tour victory.

The manx missle will be hoping this can be his year to go forth and claim the Green jersey as I said earlier Cavendish really has been working on his climbing abilities as he cannot rely on his intermediate sprints and sprint finishes alone. Team tactics are going to have be cleverly deployed to get Cavendish up there and keep him there for the three week battle. The Tour De France this year could see the making of Mark Cavendish as the biggest and most bankable name in cycling.

It will once again be three weeks of pure team tactics, quality cycling, lung busting climbs and explosive sprint finishes serving up yet another great Tour De France.