Tour de France: There's nothing quite like it

Through fields of sunflowers with heads raised to the skies, over and down back-breaking, steep high mountains, battling gusty winds and damp rain, 198 cyclists will spend the next three weeks battling it out for the coveted yellow jersey in the 100th edition of the Tour de France.

The race, which starts by visiting the island of Corsica for the first-time ever, will not have a prologue against the clock, giving daredevil sprinters like Britain’s Mark Cavendish and Germany’s Andre Griepel a crack at claiming the first yellow jersey at the end of stage 1.

But cycling fans around the world would be waiting for the real showdowns between contenders such as Sky’s Christopher Froome, controversial former champion Alberto Contador (Saxo-Tinkoff), BMC’s 2011 champ Cadel Evans, RadioShack Nissan’s Andy Shleck and a whole host of veteran and upcoming climbers as the Tour shifts to the Pyrenees and the Alps.

Having a strong nine-member squad with each rider able to perform a certain role is as crucial for succeeding in the Tour as having the one supreme rider in their midst. In this regard, Britain’s Team Sky, despite the absence of defending champion Bradley Wiggins and youngster Rigoberto Uran Uran, who finished on the podium at the Giro d’Italia, once again look the strongest.

The real beauty of the Tour is its unpredictability. The best laid plans can be undone by a sudden crash in the peloton, a strong gust of wind that splits the main field, a puncture at the wrong moment, an over-enthusiastic supporter who trips up his idol’s handles in a bid to egg him on, a severe thunderstorm or some times, by snow.

There have also been times when cyclists in a breakaway at the start of the stage have had to stop at a railway crossing, cameramen on motorbikes have crashed into riders while overtaking the peloton and inevitably, twice or thrice over the 21 stages, of an early breakaway never getting pulled back, leading to some memorable stories of grit, determination and eventual success.

This year’s Tour promises to have all this and much more. With two rather uphill individual time trials and an early team time trial (stage 4), the race against the clock and terrain just got all the more daunting. Serious time gaps are there to be made on these stages, and there is also the chance for the emergence of a new king against the clock considering the absence of ‘Spartacus’ Fabian Cancellara.

Chris Froome

With no distractions of an Olympics around the corner, favourites such as Froome and Contador have focused entirely on the Tour, although the former currently seems to be in much superior form as was confirmed by his comfortable victory in the Criterium du Dauphine.

Other major names to watch out for this year would include Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Sharp), Teejay van Garderen (BMC), Janez Brajkovic and Jakob Fuglsang (Astana), Richie Porte (Sky), Joachim Rodriguez (Katusha) and Jurgen van den Broeck (Lotto-Belisol). Youngsters Dan Martin and Andrew Talansky (Garmin), Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) and Nairo Quintana (Movistar) are also capable of creating a flutter in the mountain stages.

Still, just as much as the Tour is about the cyclists, the teams, their tactics and the route, the living heartbeat of this grand spectacle is the fans. From around Europe and beyond, cycling fans flock to France to take in the sights and sounds of the Tour.

In a bid to outdo the hordes who camp out in the thousands to make their presence felt on the slopes of the mountains and the various stage-finish cities, the farmers and villagers execute their own eye-catching greetings to the Tour whether with craftily designed larger-than-life replicas of the Tour’s logo or in other exquisitely unique and innovative methods. Helicopter shots of the French countryside, chequered by the rainbow-coloured peloton and the trailing entourage always make for one of the greatest sporting spectacles in the world.

Cycling as a whole has been rocked by doping scandals consistently over the last decade and more. The shocking admissions of Lance Armstrong, Jan Ullrich and others have led many to question the very integrity of the sport. Much like Indian cricket in the last two months, there will remain a shadow over the sports reputation for some time to come.

However, for the fans gathered on the Alpe d’Huez or the Champs-Ellyses, for the millions watching on TV and the millions more that will gather along the streets of France to cheer the race as it passes by, Le Tour is indeed the playground of men of steel.

Let the games begin.