2014 Tour de France route could scupper Froome’s hopes

Chris Froome and the rest of the general classification contenders saw their worst fears realised on Wednesday as the route for the 2014 Tour de France was announced in Paris.

Race director Christian Prudhomme unveiled the route in front of a packed Palais des Congrès, as the big names of the sport got a first glimpse of the roads they would be up against next July.

Top on the list of challenges was the inclusion of cobbles on stage five, as the race weaves its way around north-eastern France seeking out the rutted roads more usually found in the brutal Paris-Roubaix race every April.

It should be a matter of survival for the lightweight climbers such as Froome and last year’s runner up Nairo Quintana, although the stage could also be decisive, with the inclusion of cobbles on a stage of the 2010 race producing time gaps which would allow Andy Schleck to gain overall victory.

Froome was quick to put a positive spin on the inclusion of cobbles, repeatedly describing them as a ‘challenge’, but pointing out that his main rivals were also likely to struggle.

Indeed Alberto Contador was also pensive about the cobbles, saying that ‘falls might affect you or people who are in front of you and you can lose the Tour.’

On the possibility of crashes on the cobbles taking out some of the main contenders and possibly spoiling the rest of the three weeks, Prudhomme said ‘uncertainty is part of the race. It would not make sense to avoid the cobbles when we go through northern France.’

Five summit finishes and a long final time trial are placed alongside the cobbles, and should give the overall contenders more of a chance to shine in the fight for the yellow jersey over the course of the 3,656km race.

The first three stages of the Tour will be contested on British soil, as the race makes its way to the UK for only the third time in 101 editions.

Leeds will host the Grand Départ on July 5 with two lumpy stages in the Yorkshire Dales and Peak District which should prove difficult to predict, before a third stage starting in Cambridge and finishing on the Mall where Mark Cavendish will surely be one of the favourites.

It is then across the channel for stages four and five, as the Tour pays its respects to those who fell in the First World War with a stage start in Ypres, before battle commences on the cobbles.

After a couple of flat stages the race hits the Vosges with three hilly stages, including a steep finish into the lakeside town of Gérardmer on stage eight, before the first summit finish of the Tour at La Planche des Belles Filles, the scene of Froome’s first stage Tour stage win in 2012.

Two more flat stages, which Cavendish will no doubt be eyeing up, bring us to the Alps, where two tougher summit finishes await at the ski resorts of Chamrousse and Risoul.

Nairo Quintana knows the climb to Risoul well, having claimed two stages there at the 2010 Tour de l’Avenir, and will no doubt use this experience to put early pressure on Chris Froome in the mountains.

After rushing across southern France the race will arrive in the Pyrenees, where it will be greeted with the longest stage of the race, a 237km epic between Carcassonne and Bagnères-de-Luchon, including the hors-catégorie climb of the Port de Balès.

Two more summit finishes on the Pla d’Adet and the Hautacam will give the pure climbers such as Quintana, Contador, Nibali, and Rodriguez a final chance to put time into Froome before the Tour bids adieu to the mountains and heads towards Paris, via one final test.

A 54km individual time trial will finalise the general classification on the penultimate day of the race, and will surely play into Froome’s hands.

Much of the Team Sky rider’s victory in the 2013 Tour was built on his overwhelming superiority against the clock, and although there is less time trialling this year, this long final challenge should allow him to regain any ground lost in the Pyrenees, or perhaps even put the cherry on top of a dominant victory.

From there all that remains is the final procession into Paris, where Mark Cavendish will be eager to reassert his authority on the Champs-Éysées after defeat to Marcel Kittel there last year, and perhaps once again pull on the green jersey.

As for the final wearer of the yellow jersey, this is a very balanced route which might not favour Froome as much as last year’s race. If Nairo Quintana can continue to grow as a rider then it will be he, along with Vincenzo Nibali, who will provide the greatest challenge to a third successive British victory in the world’s largest bike race.