The Battle For the Maillot Jaune Tour de France 2017
This year’s tour de France marks the 104th edition, the Tour will start in Düsseldorf German on Saturday, July 1st to Sunday, July 23th, 2017, this year tour will go through Belgium and Luxembourg. The 2017 Tour de France will be made up of 21 totalling 3,516 kilometres over 9 flat stages, 5 hilly stages, 5 mountain stages, 2 individual time trials stages and to rest days Richie Porte confirmed his status as one of the favourites for the 2017 tour de France title with a win at the Tour of Romandie, The tour of de France Defending champion Chris Froome failed to make an impact on GC at TOR, in fact, he has so far not registered a single race win this year. In the previous years, we have seen Froome fail to hold his form for the tour de France and onwards into the Vuelta a Espana, the Team Sky rider has this time round taken a different approach in his preparation this year as he targets the Tour -Vuelta Double that has eluded him for some time now. 2017 top five Tour De France contenders 1. Chris Froome Chris Froome is the defending champion and goes into this year race as the man to beat, his form compared to the same this time last year is way behind and so are the number of race days in his legs, we can only wait and to see if this gamble in approach to the preparation for the Tour will pay off for Chris and team sky. 2. Nairo Quintana Nairo Quintana the heir apparent to Chris Froome has seen his GC rating improve dramatically in the last two years, he has been invincible in the mountains, raking up wins almost at will. The Colombian’s form is such that he feels confident to go for the elusive Giro-Tour double, So far this year he has shown good form wining the Queen stage of 2017 Tirreno-Adriatico and the overall 3. Alejandro Valverde Alejandro Valverde, is getting better with age, he has had an excellent start to 2017 season. Despite his age the 37-year-old Spaniard has, in addition to the Liege-Bastogne-Liege won the Ruta del Sol, Volta Ciclista a Catalunya Pais Vasco and then La Fleche Wallonne making this his best ever season, if his current form holds unit July, then we could see him in the mix for the GC at the Tour de France. 4. Alberto Contender (Trek Segafredo) Coming July, Alberto contender will be back in his familiar role as the leader of his team at the Tour de France, clearly at 34 years of age, his better days are behind him, but only a fool would dismiss the 2007 and 2009 Tour winner, this year he has had four 2nd overall out of the five race he entered, the Vuelta al Pais Vasco 2nd overall on General Classification ,Volta Ciclista a Catalunya 2nd overall on General Classification, Paris-Nice 2nd overall on General Classification, Abu Dhabi Tour 5th overall on General Classification , Vuelta a Andalucia Ruta Ciclista Del Sol 2nd overall on General Classification. 5. Richie Porte (BMC Racing) With a convincing win of the tour down under and the Tour de Romandie, the stage is set for a showdown with his friend and former teammate Chris Froome of team sky. Richie Porte is doing fewer races as he prepares for the Tour de France so as to arrive at the tour as fresh as possible. With Tejay Van Garderen targeting the Giro, BMC has placed its hope for overall GC at the tour on Richie Porte, it is expected that strong team will be at his disposal to support him at the Tour this coming July.
