Bahrain Victorious head to the 109th edition of La Grande Boucle with a strong line-up and a target of a podium in the General Classification with Jack Haig and Damiano Caruso.
The GC leaders will have the support of Jan Tratnik, Kamil Gradek, Fred Wright and the experienced Luis Leon Sanchez. 2021 stage winners Matej Mohorič and Dylan Teuns, both looking for a third stage win at Tour de France, round up the versatile line-up for Bahrain Victorious.
The 109th edition of the Tour departs from Copenhagen, Denmark, on Friday, concluding with the sprint finish on the Champs-Élysées on July 24. The 21 stages cover 3,349.8km and a versatile parcour with two time trials, classic like cobble stages, bunch sprints, chances for echelons, and plenty of climbs as riders tackle 48,530 vertical metres.
The GC contenders will be looking towards the first week with the opening time trial and a technical stage 5, where they take on 11 sectors of Paris Roubaix cobbles.
The first summit finish is on stage 7 on Planche des Belles Filles, a happy hunting ground for Teuns, where he won his first stage at the Tour de France in 2019 and later proposed to his wife.
Stage 11 and 12 will be the big test in the Alps for the GC contenders as they battle a gruelling vertical 8,730m and five Hors Categorie climbs over the two stages.
The next test comes in the Pyrenees on stages 17 and 18, with four category 1 climbs and two Hor Categorie climbs over 7,388m, with the final shake-up in the GC coming on stage 20 on the 40km time trial ending in Rocamadour.
Haig will focus on those key stages as he looks to fight for the GC: “I’m feeling really good coming into the Tour and maybe a little more relaxed this year than last year. Last year I went into the race with a lot of pressure on myself and to prove to my new team that I could perform.”
&uuid=(email))