Looking Back - The 1997 Tour de France, episode 1: Preamble

Tuesday, July 1, 1997

My formative years of watching the Tour de France was the 1990s. That era is often remembered for all the wrong reasons now, but only in hindsight. I have so many memories of watching the Tour then, more so than in most years since, that I remember it with a great fondness. That's a product of the enthusiasm of youth, but also because of the Tour itself. In part because it only lasts three weeks of a year, in a way separate from the rest of the cycling season, but also because it is so epic.

Climbing off the fence: Tour predictions

Alright, it is time to slide right off the fence now and begin some hard and bold predictions. Below are my picks for the top five on GC as well as the respective jersey winners.

Disclaimer: Do not bet on this, not if you value your money. Take it with a shaker full of salt.

What to expect from this years Tour de France

I'm going to make a few bold predictions here. In three weeks time when the Tour de France rolls onto the Champs-Élysées, Chris Froome will be in yellow, Peter Sagan in green and Rafal Majka in polka-dots. Something tells me I wouldn't get great odds on such a sweep. Majka is no sure bet for the mountains classification, and nor is Froome for yellow, but Sagan seems almost a cert for the points competition.

Of the 21 stages on this Tour, there are about 11 that Sagan could win. He won't do that, of course but he'll win some and he'll finish second in others. I wouldn't surprised if he finished in the top 10 of half the stages. He'll still finish an hour or two down on general classification, but he'll make his mark like few others. Indeed he could well find himself in yellow within the first week if he puts in a solid prologue on Saturday.

The Tour de France is here and there is nothing quite like it

Another Tour is upon us. The most wonderful time of the year. The biggest race of them all. La Grande Boucle; the Large Loop. The Tour de France. Though less a loop in 2017 and more a winding journey south. No traditional clockwise or anti-clockwise route; instead a line that slithers its way down through France like a snake.

Starting in Düsseldorf, Germany, the race will travel through Belgium and Luxembourg, reaching France by day four, and the south coast of France by stage 20. That will settle the race before its sudden appearance in Paris for the sprinters classic.

The Tour has crept up on me while it's been raining outside

Sometimes the Tour de France can't come soon enough. Sometimes it creeps up on you when you're not looking. This year it has felt like the later. One day it was mid-April and raining outside when without warning I looked up and noticed we were through the first week of June already ... and it was still raining outside. And now we're about to hit the final week of June and I've yet to catch my breath and notice that somewhere between now and winter there was spring. Time goes by when you're having fun. Time is what happens when you're busy making plans.

I've been having fun riding my bike and I've been busy planing various rides on Strava. I've been doing family things, watching baseball, monitoring Liverpool's transfer rumours and generally ignoring the world of professional cycling. That's not like me, at least in recent years. I mean, I do all the other things, but usually I'm still scrambling to find a dodgy feed of the Dauphine or Tour de Suisse. Not this year. Checking results of the Dauphine aside I all but ignored cycling this month. I didn't even know that Rohan Dennis had won in Switzerland until a few days ago. And only today have I checked to see that my boy Silvan Dillier won the Route du Sud. Oh and I see that Pierre Rolland won a stage down there. A sure bet for one at the Tour I reckon.

Sometimes you need the break, even if it isn't intentional. And because of it I'm starting get a slow build of excitement about the impending and sudden arrival of the Tour. Yes, that look up to see early June had become late June and the rain still falling, left me shocked to remember that Tour eve was only a week away.

It was walking into a shop and seeing a Tour preview magazine on the shelf that kicked me into focus again. And then seeing an article about team selections and the status of Mark Cavendish. And then the arrival in my unplayed list of the Cycling Podcast's Tour preview episode.

Time to tune in again to the cycling world. Time to look up the route map and stage profiles once more and remind myself of what to expect. Time to make a few bold predictions: Rohan Dennis for yellow on stage one; Sagan in yellow by stage five; Froome in yellow by Paris. I'll go do that now and try to report back in a few days time before it all kicks off on July 1.

Time to get excited.