Tour de France: Slow starters will not be left with a mountain to climb in one of the most open races in years

Susan Swarbrick

Columnist and Senior Features Writer

Saturday 30 June 2012

THE route for the 2012 Tour de France could blow the field wide open, according to Roche.

Cadel Evans is among Stephen Roache's favourites

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Susan Swarbrick

"It's going to be interesting this year as there are only two mountain-top finishes and 100km of time trials," the Irish cycling legend and 1987 yellow jersey winner told Herald Sport. "Traditionally, when you have the mountains, a lot of guys are frightened off but, in a tour like this one, it will open the door for more cyclists to target top-20 places; some will know they can even go for top 10 if they get a lucky break."

When Roche won the Tour in 1987, it was considerably longer, stretching to more than 4000km in length; does he believe it is better in its current format of 3479km? "It's the riders who make the race," he says. "You can have a long tour and no-one attacking or a short tour and someone attacking every day. Different team tactics, commercial interests and those going to the front for the team classification when there is no chance of them winning the overall general classification: all that can change the whole strategy of the race. "Commentating on it now, even as a past rider and winner, it can be extremely complicated and difficult to understand what tactics are being used. The distance is not a major thing – there are plenty of riders who can do 3500km in three weeks – but Tour de France winners are legends, and they are so because they have done legendary things."It's something Roche touches upon in Born To Ride: what the French call "exploits". "It's not so much showmanship as grit," he explains. "Going out and doing something exceptional: that's what makes legends." The Tour de France has a long history of heroics, not least the plucky French rider Thomas Voeckler who, in both 2004 and 2011, won the hearts of many with his dogged tenacity to hold on to the yellow jersey day after day. "A guy like that could even end up winning it this year because there are only two mountain-top finishes," said Roche. "Someone like Voeckler, when you have four or five mountain-top finishes, if he had only five, or even 10 minutes' [advantage], it would be hard to hold on. But a Tour like this year's, and a group with a guy like Voeckler in there, even five minutes up, he could hope to be in the final shake-up."Asked for his leading picks for this year, Roche says: "[Cadel] Evans and [Bradley] Wiggins, of course. I think [Juergen] Van Den Broeck could be up there too; [Vincenzo] Nibali is another one. After that it's a bit of a pick 'n' mix, [Edvald] Boasson Hagen should be in the top 10, as should Chris Froome."Interestingly, even though he was speaking before Andy Schleck's withdrawal on account of a broken pelvis, Roche did not mention the RadioShack-Nissan-Trek rider, who was belatedly awarded the 2010 Tour in May after Alberto Contador was stripped of the title for failing a doping test. "I have a lot of respect for Schleck but I don't think he is a Tour de France winner," he said. "There are Tour winners like [Miguel] Indurian and [Lance] Armstrong, but Schleck would need a very particular type of Tour; he can't time trial for a start. How can you go out and try to win a Tour de France if you can't time trial?"Okay, he is a good climber, but he's not a great tactician either. In my opinion, he doesn't deserve to win the Tour de France. He hasn't got the necessary ingredients, yet."

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Tour de France: Slow starters will not be left with a mountain to climb in one of the most open races in years

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