with apologies to the June cycling thread, i figured this of course deserves it own thread

Le Tour starts tomorrow and it's pretty much the most the British public have given a monkeys about it in, well, since I can remember.

it's also a heck of an interesting routeas well. Corsica for the first time ever, a team TT in Nice, a double-climb of Alpe d'Huez in the same stage...

according to the bookies, there's only two people in with a realistic chance of winning it, with Chris Froome the favourite and King of Steak Alberto Contador second. so if you fancy anyone like Quintana, Cadel Evans, Valverde, Rodriguez or Andy Schleck, you're looking at outside 20-1. probably rightly. (definitely rightly in Schleck's case).

green jersey, for me it's all about Sagan. obviously he's not the sprinter Cavendish or Greipel are, but he's not far off and he will win a bunch of the hilly and medium mountain stages, i'm sure. tbh i'd rather look at what odds you'd get for him signing another pair of boobs this year.

other than that, really looking forward to seeing if Thibaut Pinot can kick on from last year, especially if it means we get to see Marc Madiot going apeshit in the FDJ team car again. also like the look of Rein Taaramae of Cofidis for top 10 maybe. and then there's the what-will-Tommy-V-do-this-year angle

right. predictions and tour chat in here please thanks