Words <\/strong>John Whitney <\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n\n Will the ultimate showdown happen? <\/em><\/p>\n\n All the chatter <\/strong>at the back end of 2023 was about the prospect of the so-called \u2018Big Four\u2019 of stage racing squaring off against each other at this year\u2019s Tour de France. In this scenario, each of Jonas Vingegaard, Tadej Poga\u010dar, Primo\u017e Rogli\u010d and Remco Evenepoel would arrive at the Grand D\u00e9part <\/em>in fine fettle and we\u2019d see a battle for the ages play out on a level playing field. We know from experience, however, that it rarely works out like this. While it was most unlikely that a single crash at Itzulia Basque Country in April would skittle three of them in one fell swoop, the road to July is a long one, riddled with trapdoors and booby traps as riders train and race their way to peaking at the Tour. Only Vingegaard, with a punctured lung, suffered injuries that seriously threatened his Tour defence, but this was a timely reminder that professional cycling is too much of a tightrope walk to always get the caveat-free showdowns we crave. <\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n\n The relocated finish offers a tantalising finale to the Tour <\/em><\/p>\n\n It\u2019s rare that <\/strong>the Tour de France isn\u2019t the biggest sporting event of the year in the country \u2013 the 1924 Paris Olympics, or the 1998 football World Cup are two exceptions. And 2024 will be another, as the French capital hosts the Olympics once more, a century on from the last time. It has consequences for the race too, some unprecedented, some that happen every four years. For the first time ever, the finish of the Tour has moved from Paris, to accommodate the huge footprint of the Olympics, which will start five days later, on 26 July. For many this is welcome news. Not only has it moved south to Nice from France\u2019s biggest city, but the final stage will be competitive for the riders contending for the yellow jersey, which in Paris it famously isn\u2019t (the 1989 finale excluded). The race may also lack some key protagonists. Mathieu van der Poel will skip it if he decides to go for mountain bike gold at the Olympics, while on the women\u2019s side, world champ Lotte Kopecky will be a big miss to the race (the Olympic Omnium finishes the day before the women\u2019s Tour starts). <\/p>\n\n Will Mark Cavendish break the Tour stage win record… in Italy?<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Come Turin, the <\/strong>finish of stage 3 and the first likely opportunity of a sprint finish, all eyes will again be on Mark Cavendish and whether he can finally win his 35th stage and become the most successful stage hunter in Tour history. You can go all the way back to the 2017 edition, the first where he, with 30 stages under his belt, had a shot at 35, to find it as a talking point. In the eight years since 2016 he\u2019s won four \u2013 all in 2021 \u2013 and there\u2019s been plenty of time in that period where it seemed miles off. He\u2019s back for another stab in 2024, buoyed by a far stronger team than in the crash-curtailed 2023 race. It\u2019s charitable to say he started 2024 sluggishly but at 39 it\u2019s a more of a marathon than a sprint, and if there\u2019s one thing we know about Cavendish, he\u2019s a man for the big occasion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf there\u2019s one thing we know about Cavendish, he\u2019s a man for the big occasion\u201d <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div><\/section>\n\n <\/p>\n\n Giro and Tour attempt is typically bold <\/em><\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n\n The equality of <\/strong>the \u2018Big Four\u2019 set-to took a hit as early as last December when Poga\u010dar revealed his intention to target the Giro-Tour double. It\u2019s a challenge rarely targeted \u2013 Alberto Contador was the last to try in 2015 \u2013 and one that\u2019s even more rarely achieved (Marco Pantani was the last rider to manage it in the EPO-fuelled era in 1998). If he stayed fit and healthy, Poga\u010dar was hot favourite to win the Giro d\u2019Italia, but faces far more pitfalls at the Tour de France, even taking into account that crash in the Basque Country in April. In the magazine this issue you\u2019ll read his former coach I\u00f1igo San Mill\u00e1n talk about his legendary powers of recovery, but even this exceptional athlete will have his work cut out. Just a month separates the Giro and Tour, and even if he does cakewalk the Giro, it\u2019s a period in which he\u2019ll need to flush a Grand Tour out of his legs while his rivals fine-tune theirs.<\/span><\/p>\n\n Stage 9\u2019s 32 kilometres of gravel adds a tasty new flavour to proceedings <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n As with the <\/strong>fuss generated each time the cobbles of northern France are included on the Tour\u2019s route, it was no surprise to see a similar level of opprobrium directed at stage 9\u2019s gravel stage in Troyes. Visma Lease a Bike boss Richard Plugge called the 32km of gravel roads \u201cunnecessary\u201d and said it \u201cincreases the chance of bad luck\u201d. Even Poga\u010dar, who\u2019s twice detonated the opposition at the calendar\u2019s premier gravel rendezvous, Strade Bianche, told FloBikes the stage is \u201cpretty risky\u201d for the GC favourites, before adding that \u201cwe risk it anyway every day\u201d. Which is really the key point in this discussion. Risk abounds in this sport. Descending mountains at 100km\/h, high-speed pile-ups in a packed peloton on flat, straight roads or a touching of wheels at seemingly quiet moments of a race\u2026 event-ending incidents are present from the flag to the finish. Counter intuitively, such is the apprehension with which gravel is viewed, it may actually have a moderating effect on how it is raced. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>\n\n <\/p>\n\n Young rider\u2019s comp in need of a revamp <\/em><\/p>\n\n Every year it\u2019s <\/strong>the polka dots of the King of the Mountains jersey that gets talked down as a flawed competition. It is, frankly. It can be won in a couple of ways, both of which do it few favours. For the rider who\u2019s patently not the King of the Mountains but has accumulated the most points in the shrewdest way according to the rules, it\u2019s a deserved reward that gets few plaudits. For the GC winner or contender who wins it by accident in the final mountain stages of the race, it\u2019s nothing but an additional or unnecessary byproduct of overall race success or failure. It\u2019s not just the KOM competition that needs a rethink, but the white jersey too. Awarded to the highest-placed young rider (under-26) of the race, in the last five editions it\u2019s been awarded to Tadej Poga\u010dar (4) and Egan Bernal (1) \u2013 either winners or runners-up of the race. Such is the current dominance of youth at the race, perhaps organisers should look at reducing the upper age limit for this category (the lower age limit for entering the Tour is 18). If you\u2019re 25 these days, you\u2019re an elder statesman. <\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n\n Sprinters of the race have rarely had it so tough<\/em><\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n\n Do you trust <\/strong> the opinion of a sprinter or not when they say the 2024 route \u201cmight be the hardest route I\u2019ve ever seen at the Tour de France\u201d. That\u2019s what Mark Cavendish told assembled media at the Tour launch in October and as one of the riders regularly bringing up the rear in the gruppetto, we tend to believe that they\u2019re the ones who know what they\u2019re talking about, not the GC favourites. Sprint opportunities are few on the ground \u2013 nothing until stage 3, high mountains early doors on stage 4 and a huge number of hilly and mountainous days across the three weeks. Notably, this year they don\u2019t even have the carrot in the final week schlep through the Alps of a final stage sprint finish on the Champs-\u00c9lys\u00e9es, with the finish relocating as a one-off to Nice. Stage 16, to N\u00eemes, looks to be their final opportunity of the race.<\/span><\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n\n Youthful contenders continue to make a stage-racing impact <\/em><\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n\n Professional cycling likes <\/strong>to follow trends, and the flourishing of young riders over the last five years or so has shifted the thinking, for several reasons, on the peak years of a Tour de France contender. So who might break through to wider prominence in 2024 and beyond? Poga\u010dar\u2019s UAE Team Emirates colleague, the 21-year-old Spaniard Juan Ayuso, has a Vuelta podium to his name as a teenager and, should the Slovenian fall out of contention, will be in line to deputise. The team have something of a monopoly on the best young stage-racing talent, with Isaac Del Toro, 20 (with a contract to 2029!), and Jan Christen,19, on their books, even if this year\u2019s Tour comes too early. Ineos Grenadiers have always sought to recruit the world\u2019s best young talent and in American Andrew August, 18, they think they\u2019ve got a good one.<\/span><\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2024\/05\/fe1dc0cf-f85d-425c-bd0d-0e881f1e81a9.jpg\")
01<\/span> The long and winding road<\/span><\/h4>\n\n
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02<\/span> Nice timing<\/span><\/h4>\n\n
03<\/span> Turin breaks<\/span><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
04<\/span> Poga\u010dar: At the double<\/span><\/h4>\n\n
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05<\/span> Rough justice<\/span><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
06<\/span> White noise<\/span><\/h4>\n\n
07<\/span> Hard yards<\/span><\/h4>\n\n
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08<\/span> Fluorescent adolescents<\/span><\/h4>\n\n
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