Vacansoleil-DCM 2012 Tour de France Team

The Vacansoleil-DCM team look like they could snare a few wins as well as days in jerseys. Johnny Hoogerland returns after his horrific crash last year, Wout Poels will lead an assault upon the white jersey, Lieuwe Westra will look at the ITT’s and hope for a win while Kenny Robert van Hummel will try and match it in the sprints. The team looks like it has a good balance for all round success and depending in how its riders are travelling will probably reassess and decode to focus upon one or two riders in order to help them achieve their ambitions. This may be supporting Poels in his quest for the young riders classification jersey or supporting Hoogerland in his chase for the maillot pois.

Vacansoleil-DCM 2012 Tour de France Team

Kris Boeckmans 

Johnny Hoogerland 

Gustav Erik Larsson 

Marco Marcato 

Wout Poels 

Rob Ruijgh 

Rafael Valls Ferri 

Kenny Robert van Hummel 

Lieuwe Westra

Team Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank 2012 Tour de France Team

Team Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank is the new name for Saxo-Bank and the team will debut a new jersey at the Tour with Tinkoff as co-sponsor. The team will lack a genuine GC candidate this year as they are missing Alberto Contador through suspension. In his absence the team look likely to chase stage wins through breakaways and also with the sprinter Juan José Haedo. This could be a tough Tour for Saxo-Bank who is a team accustomed to success during July.

Team Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank 2012 Tour de France Team

Jonathan Cantwell 

Juan José Haedo 

Karsten Kroon 

Anders Lund 

Michael Mørkøv 

Nick Nuyens 

Sergio Miguel Moreira Paulinho 

Chris Anker Sørenson 

Niki Sørenson

Saur-Sojasun 2012 Tour de France Team

Saur-Sojasun make their second Tour appearance in 2012 and an improvement upon their debut would be more than welcomed. The addition of stage winner Brice Feillu has been welcomed and he represents a real chance for success. Otherwise expect Saur-Sojasun to attempt to get into breakaways but not much else.

Saur-Sojasun 2012 Tour de France Team

                                                                     Jérôme Coppel 

Anthony Delaplace 

Jimmy Engoulvent 

Brice Feillu 

Fabrice Jeandesboz 

Cyril Lemoine 

Guillaume Levarlet 

Jean-Marc Marino 

Julien Simon

Pro Team Astana 2012 Tour de France Team

Astana look unlikely to light up the Tour but may snare a stage win. Alexander Vinokourov returns for what must surely be his last Tour after crashing out of last year’s race. He will try for a stage win but that’s about all Astana can expect. Janez Brajkovic was unlucky last year as crashed out and may pose a threat to the top twenty GC but don’t expect too much from Astana in 2012.

Pro Team Astana 2012 Tour de France Team

Borut Bozic

Janez Brajkovic

Dmitriy Fofonov

Andriy Grivko

Maxim Iglinskiy

Andrey Kashechkin

Frederick Kiserlovski

Alexander Vinokourov

GC Candidates for the 2012 Tour de France

In recent editions of the Tour de France Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck have been the major protagonists of the race. In 2012 neither will be racing due to a doping ban and injury respectively. One rider who has stood on the podium three times during the Schleck Contador reign is Australian Cadel Evans who will begin the race in Liege as the defending champion. Without the two Tour winners Evans has been regarded by many as the favourite for the yellow jersey for the second year running. His greatest competition will come from a rider who has won Olympic gold medals and world champions on the track but has turned his attention to becoming the first British rider to win a Tour de France. Evans and Bradley Wiggins squared off in June at the Critérium de Dauphiné in which Wiggins won and became the first rider to win Paris-Nice, the Tour de Romandie and the Dauphiné in one season. Due to these impressive results Wiggins has become a realistic rival to Evans in the race for yellow. Behind these two riders is cast of candidates who are capable of entering Paris on the 22nd of July in yellow but if that is to happen, than it would be a Tour that Evans and Wiggins had lost.

Evans will be riding for the BMC racing team once again with the core of his team last year backing up again. The addition of American Tejay Van Garderen looks to be a canny move that will provide Evans much needed support in the mountains of which he has lacked in past Tours. George Hincapie is returning for his 17th Tour start and will again be a crucial component if Evans is to go back to back. BMC enters the Tour this year with the single objective of taking the yellow jersey to Paris and seeing Evans atop the podium on the Champs-Élysées. The dedication of BMC to ensure Evans wins his second Tour title is a major reason for why Evans is carrying the favourite title.

Bradley Wiggin’s two best Grand Tour performances have come at the Tour and the Vuelta. In 2009 he finished a surprise fourth although his results since then have indicated that the move from the track to the road has been a success. A third place in last year’s Vuelta was the first time Wiggins had stood upon a Grand Tour podium and can hardly be said to be his last podium appearance. Wiggins has grown in confidence on the road and the responsibility as team captain is one he has settled into comfortably. Wiggins will have the support of two Australians in the mountains, Richie Porte and Michael Rogers, who have both ridden alongside the Britton this season when he has won a stage race. Whereas Evans is assured of complete team support, Team Sky in comparison will have to juggle the GC aspirations of Wiggins with the stage wins and possible green jersey ambitions of world champion Mark Cavendish. This is a clear distinction between BMC and Sky and where their ambitions lay.

Behind the two favourites are two former Grand Tour winners, both at the Vuelta, Dennis Menchov and Vincenzo Nibali who look likely to threaten the GC but with the 100kms plus of time trialling its looks unlikely they will be wearing yellow in Paris. As well as his two Vuelta wins Menchov has a Giro under his belt to go with two podium finishes at the Tour. The Italian Michele Scarponi is the beneficiary of Alberto Contador's positive drug test as he was awarded the 2011 Giro d’Italia title and will be another rider in the peloton to have won a Grand Tour. Joining these three as Grand Tour winners is Ivan Basso, two time winner of the Giro, the 2012 Giro winner Ryder Hesjedal, 2011 Vuelta Winner Juan Jose Cobo, 2009 Vuelta Winner Alejandro Valverde and finally the 2006 Vuelta winner Alexander Vinokourov who make up the Grand Tour winners in the 2012 Tour de France peloton. Of the previous winners Menchov and Nibali look to be the most threatening to Evans and Wiggins. Basso will be riding in support of Nibali, Hesjedal seems unlikely to be able to complete the first Giro-Tour double since 1998 while Valverde and Vinokourov are arguably not the riders they were when they when won the Vuelta. Juan Jose Cobo was a surprise winner at the Vuelta and the Tour looks to a be a step too far for the Spaniard. Valverde is returning from a doping ban and does not appear to have the high mountain prowess he once exhibited, nor does his time trialling appear to be at the level of a Tour winner. Much the same could be said of Vinokourov except that his return from doping was now several seasons ago and at 38 would need to perform at a superhuman level to crack the top five.

The challenges to Evans and Wiggins extend beyond Grand Tour winners who still represent a real threat to the overall. Franck Schleck finished third last year standing on the podium with his brother Andy. Schleck has been clear in letting all and sundry know that he is not in Tour winning form. A mountain stage win and possibly the maillot pois could be the new objectives for Schleck. An abject Giro doesn’t bode well for Schleck’s chances at the Tour but he is a proven Tour rider and may lift himself to a level that has so far this season evaded him. Behind Schleck there are several riders with top ten Tour results who are looking to improve upon and move onto the podium. Robert Gesink, Pierre Rolland and Jurgen van den Broeck are all capable of raising themselves into the next echelon and have teams that can provide the needed support. However where these rivals falter in their challenge for yellow is in their time trailing. As Gesink, Rolland and van den Broeck are all good climbers the mountain stages may see the fireworks go off unlike we have seen in recent years. These riders will need to make up time to stem any losses in the 100kms plus of time trialling.

What could eventuate is a situation similar to last year in which the GC men hardly had a second to rest. The flat sprinters stages are traditionally an avenue by which they can rest and recuperate from their climbing efforts. Although with so many GC candidates unable to gain time in the TT, in fact they are more likely to lose time, this could see endless attacks and attempts to gain precious seconds in order to build a lead over Evans and Wiggins before the Stage 19 time trial. A consequence of this may be a repeat of the nervous opening week of the 2011 Tour in which crashes were a constant feature. Wiggins was a victim of this as he was caught up in a crash on Stage 7 breaking his collar bone in 2011. As a result he had to abandon, being joined in abandoning by Vinokourov and van den Broeck as they also suffered extensive injuries and were unable to complete the race.

With so many teams looking to launch a bid for the yellow jersey as well as a several teams looking for sprint wins, flat stages look to be the most precious of all in 2012. As the GC men look to race at the head of the peloton and stay out of trouble, as the stage reaches its conclusion and teams move their sprinters forward in anticipation for the sprint, the GC men will need to incredibly astute or face and early exit from the Tour. This is where the inexperience of riders can be shown and the necessity of GC teams to have a tough, uncompromising general on the road. Hincapie has been bossing the peloton for years and in his last Tour it can be expected he will not relent until the final sprint on the Champs-Élysées. With Team Sky looking to take stage wins in the sprints with Mark Cavendish Wiggins may find himself compromised and lack the support that Evans will be given every second that the race is hurtling along at 70km/h with 198 riders jostling for a better position. Team Sky will look to control the peloton leading into the sprints but with Orica-GreenEdge, Argos-Shimano Liquigas-Cannondale, Lampre et al all trying to get their sprinter into position carnage awaits.

For the riders who have shown promise, the lack of Contador and Schleck will allow their stars to shine a little brighter if they achieve success. Gesink and Bauke Mollema at Rabobank are two riders that will push for top five GC results. Rolland looks like he will have a freer role than last year where he rode amazingly to protect Voeckler during his stint in yellow while riding himself into the white jersey. For him a stint in yellow may await as he showed his prowess on the slopes of L'Alpe d'Huez by winning the stage ahead of Contador. van den Broeck has had three top ten results at Grand Tour’s and will have the support of Jelle Vanendert in the mountains which will be pivotal to any success he has. These riders will need to initiate attacks and look to isolate Evans and Wiggins in the big mountain stages if they want to do more than finish top five. Menchov has ridden into high GC positions recently by following the wheels of Contador and Evans but such a pragmatic approach won't win the Tour if riders will only follow. Nibali will have a helpful team mate in Basso as the two will work in tandem to put the hammer down and blow the race apart during the mountains.

Of the GC teams most will have at least a dual prong attack that they will be able to call upon. Nibali will have Basso, van den Broeck will have Vanendert, Rabobank have three with Gesink, Mollema and Kruijswijk, Sky also have three with Wiggins, Porte and Rogers while Evans will have van Garderen. Rolland won't have the same support as his rivals nor will Menchov but they will look to benefit from indecision between these teams as to when attack and may be allowed to launch their attacks without being hauled in.

Evans and Wiggins are the two clear favourites due to their TT prowess and strong team support. The distinction between the two is Evans is a Tour winner and will be riding with more or less the team that delivered him to Paris in yellow. Wiggins may hold a psychological edge over Evans after his win at the Dauphiné although Evans may feel that is redundant as he is the defending Tour winner. With the other GC candidates lined up behind these two and none of them possessing the TT skill of Evans and Wiggins the mountains look to be the source of constant animation in the race for yellow as they will look for enough time to hold off the TT specialists. There will be very little time for recovery and by Paris the winner will be there deservedly. An attack similar to Andy Schleck on Stage 18 to Serre Chevalier would break open the race and the GC standings but it appears every beside Evans and Wiggins will be riding for third place.

Liquigas-Cannondale 2012 Tour de France Team

Liquigas-Cannondale go into the Tour with Peter Sagan a favourite for numerous stage wins and possibly the green jersey and will have Vincenzo Nibali chasing yellow. Providing support to Nibali will be Ivan Basso in his quest for a second Grand Tour win. Sagan will have support in the sprints but has shown that he can fend for himself when the going gets tough.


Depending on how these two riders fare Liquigas-Cannondale look likely to shift their attention if one rider is having a bad Tour. Sagan is making his debut in the Tour and a stage win looks more than likely for the Slovakian. Sagan made his Grand Tour debut at the Vuelta in 2011 where he won three stages. Up against Cavendish, Kittel, Goss and Greipel will be major test to the 22 year old but Sagan has continued to win again and again even against the top sprinters. Nibali showed the potential he has as a GC man by winning the 2010 Vuelta but has failed to win another Grand Tour since. A second and third placing at the Giro in 2010 and 2011 is the closest he has come since.


Sagan is undoubtedly the brightest star on the Liquigas-Cannondale team but won't be their only avenue to success. Basso may snare a stage win if his GC position is low and is allowed to chase a win without threatening the overall GC. Nibali looks like he can finish in the top ten but a podium finish looks beyond the Sicilian. In this case Sagan looks like the best chance Liquigas-Cannondale will have for success in 2012.

Liquigas-Cannondale 2012 Tour de France Team

Ivan Basso

Federico Canuti

Kristijan Koren

Dominique Nerz

Vincenzo Nibali

Daniel Oss

Peter Sagan

Sylvester Szmyd

Alessandro Vanotti

Garmin-Sharp 2012 Tour de France Team

The Garmin-Sharp team will be quite a mix in 2012 with genuine chances in both the road stages and time trial stages. Tyler Farrar will be looking to add to his stage win from last year and the team will again focus on the TTT after their success last year. Dan Martin and Ryder Hesjedal can provide the potential for mountain stage wins. Hesjedal is coming off his Giro win and a GC challenge looks to be beyond the Canadian. He may end up being a domestique for Martin in the mountains as the Irishman chases success in the mountains. Thomas Danielson could also be a domestique for Martin who may be chasing the maillot pois depending on his results.


Farrar will be competing in the sprints against Cavendish et al and the Garmin team will be providing a lead out train for him to notch up the sprint wins. David Millar is chance in the ITT’s as will be ‘Captain America’ David Zabriskie. Garmin are far from being short in potential stage winners both on the road and in the TT’s but whether or not they can a charmed Tour as last year seems unlikely. However the American team has performed well during July and have the quality throughout the squad to win repeat stage wins. Garmin’s tactics appear to be changeable with several cards up their sleeves and depending on the results of the team their approach looks to be adjustable.

Garmin-Sharp 2012 Tour de France Team

Thomas Danielson

Tyler Farrar

Ryder Hesjedal

Robert Hunter

Daniel Martin

David Miller

Johan Vansummeren

Christian Vande Velde

David Zabriskie

FDJ-Bigmat 2012 Tour de France Team

The youngest rider in the peloton is on the FDJ-Bigmat team and an outside chance for the white jersey. Thibaut Pinot will be riding his first Grand Tour and carries large expectations on his young shoulders. Last year Jérémy Roy was a constant sight in the breakaways and will again be breakaway feature. Similar to the French teams in the Tour, breakaways will provide the greatest opportunity for success.

Pinot will provide an avenue for success that has eluded FDJ for several years. Rather than chase stage wins, FDJ may be able to chase a jersey as well. The FDJ team has stage winners in Pierrick Fédrigo and Sandy Casar who have both won three stages. The hopes of FDJ will rest upon Pinot, Casar and Fédrigo in 2012. How Pinot copes with the pressures of a Grand Tour remain to be seen and regarding his progress over the three weeks his team may change its focus to purely chasing stage wins.

FDJ-Bigmat 2012 Tour de France Team

Sandy Casar 

Pierrick Fédrigo 

Yauheni Hutarovich 

Matthieu Ladagnous 

Cédric Pineau 

Thibaut Pinot 

Anthony Roux 

Jérémy Roy 

Arthur Vichot 

Euskaltel-Euskadi 2012 Tour de France Team

The Euskaltel-Euskadi team for the 2012 will be looking to provide a platform for Samuel Sanchez to repeat his maillot pois performance from last year. There may be opportunities for stage wins in the team but it will be the Sammy Sanchez show. Gorka Izagirre Insausti will be an ally in mountains as Sanchez won't be able to call upon the help of Alberto Contador as he was able to last year.

Euskaltel-Euskadi will be hoping for a good Tour to bag World Tour points and ensure that the team survives for the next few seasons as least. Sanchez is the team’s best hope for success but he seems unlikely to be able to reproduce his climbing efforts of 2011. Euskaltel-Euskadi have performed better in the Giro and Vuelta in recent years, Sanchez last year was the exception, but may be able to build upon the success of Sanchez last year.

Euskaltel-Euskadi 2012 Tour de France Team

Mikel Astarloza Chaurreau 

Jorge Azanza Soto 

Gorka Izagirre Insausti 

Egoi Martinez De Esteban 

Ruben Perez Moreno 

Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez 

Amets Txurruka 

Pablo Urtasun Perez 

Gorka Verdugo Marcotegui

Europcar 2012 Tour de France Team

2012 looks like it may see the return of a Frenchman to the Tour de France podium. After his win at L’Alpe d’Huez last year Pierre Rolland announced himself as the next French hope for a GC win. Europcar had a highly successful Tour last year with Thomas Voeckler in yellow for ten days and Rolland winning the young riders classification. It will be hard for them to replicate last year’s efforts, however Rolland is a future star and capable of reproducing his form from last year.

This year Rolland is the protected rider for Europcar with Voeckler likely to play Rolland’s role from last year. Europcar proved it has a strong team in the defence of Voeckler’s yellow jersey and with Rolland arguably a better rider in the mountains than Voeckler, a podium seems within reach for Europcar. Stage wins may come about through Rolland and Voeckler but it will be the GC that Europcar will target with stage wins a bonus. Voeckler will be key to reliving pressure off Rolland if it gets too much for the young rider. The experience last year of holding the yellow jersey for ten days will be invaluable to Rolland if he finds himself under the spotlight and in yellow.

Europcar 2012 Tour de France Team

Yukiya Arashiro

Giovanni Bernaudeau

Cyril Gautier

Yohann Gène

Vincent Jérôme

Christophe Kern

Davide Malacarne

Pierre Rolland

Thomas Voeckler

Cofidis Le Credit en Ligne 2012 Tour de France Team

Rein Taaramäe is real chance for the white jersey this year and represents Cofidis best chance of success. David Moncoutie has won the climbers classification at the Vuelta but hasn’t been able to replicate such form at the Tour. Moncoutie has won two stages at the Tour and along with Samuel Dumoulin these two are the only stage winners on the team.

Rein Taaramäe finished 12th in last year’s edition as well as second in the young riders classification. Taaramäe is the only rider from young riders classification who is eligible again in 2012. A good time trialist who has won his native Estonian ITT titles three times, Taaramäe will have this edge over his white jersey rivals. Taaramäe will have Moncoutie as an ally in the mountains and Romain Zingle who is also eligible for the white jersey may provide to be a good asset if Taaramäe is to make it to Paris in white.

As well as providing a basis for Taaramäe’s assault on white, Cofidis will look for breakaways and stage wins. Taaramäe is Cofidis best chance for success in the 2012 Tour but Taaramäe will need to prove he has the mental strength to cope with the pressure of being the team leader.

Cofidis Le Credit en Ligne 2012 Tour de France Team

Rémy Di Gregorio

Samuel Dumoulin

Nicholas Edet

Julien Fouchard

Jan Ghyselinck

Luis Angel Mate Mardones

David Moncoutie

Rein Taaramäe

Romain Zingle

AG2R La Mondiale 2012 Tour de France Team

The Ag2R team in 2012 comprises of ‘8 1/2’ Frenchmen. Nicholas Roche is the half Frenchman on the team with his famous Irish father Steven and his French mother meaning he makes up the half on the team. The almost all French approach will hopefully bring about long awaited success for the French team in 2012.

AG2R will be an animator of the race this year looking for breakaways in order to snare a stage win. The team comprises of several seasoned Tour men who have yet to fulfil expectations. Rinaldo Nocentini wore the yellow jersey for eight days in 2009 which was the last time AG2R tasted real success at the Tour. Nocentini isn’t on the team this year and Roche represents a possibility of a stage win. It has been a lean period for AG2R in terms of stage wins with the last one coming in 2008 during Stages 9 and 16. Christophe Riblon is the one rider on the team who has won a stage and will be looking to double his tally. Jean-Christophe Peraud finished tenth last year and will be the GC candidate for the team.

Stage wins look most likely to occur through breakaways and a strong race by Peraud could result in a successful Tour. However breakaways and top ten stage results may be the best it’ll get for them.

AG2R La Mondiale 2012 Tour de France Team 

 Maxime Bouet 

Mikaël Cherrel 

Hubert DuPont 

Blel Kadri 

Sébastien Minard 

Lloyd Mondory 

Jean-Christophe Peraud 

Christophe Riblon 

Nicholas Roche 

Orica-GreenEdge 2012 Tour de France Team

The new Australian outfit will be making its debut in 2012 at the Tour. The debut season for GreenEdge has so far been a success. Beginning with Simon Gerrans winning the Australian nationals in January, GreenEdge has continued to win one day races and stage races. The biggest win of the season has been Milan-San Remo so far. Gerrans won ahead of Fabian Cancellara and Vincenzo Nibali to make it two consecutive wins for Australian riders after Matt Goss won in 2011. Gerrans and Goss represent GreenEdge’s best hope of a stage win in the Tour and the team has been built around their potential success.

A crucial component of the team will be Stuart O’Grady who will be making his 16th start at the Tour de France. His experience will be vital to the team as they look to impress at their second Grand Tour. At the Giro d’Italia Matt Goss won the team’s first Grand Tour stage and his second Grand Tour stage. Goss will be fighting it out in the sprints against his ex-team mate Mark Cavendish the excess of sprinting stars during this year’s edition. A silver medallist at the worlds in Copenhagen last year was a sign that Goss is sprinter on the rise. Goss will be making his second Tour appearance in 2012 and anything less than a stage win will probably be seen personally as a bit of a failure. Goss is currently one of the world’s fastest sprinters and a stage win at the Tour would be a just reward.

GreenEdge is above expectations in where they want to be so far this season. A stage win would be massive boost for the team but with Goss contesting the sprints a stint in the green jersey looks likely. Gerrans will look for breakaway opportunities in order to add to his one stage win. Already a stage winner in all the Grand Tours, Gerrans is proven Tour rider and with the support GreenEdge is offering him this year Gerrans look set for a stellar Tour.

Orica-GreenEdge 2012 Tour de France Team

Michael Albasini 

Baden Cooke 

Simon Gerrans 

Mathew Harley Goss 

Daryl Impey 

Brett Lancaster 

Sebastiaan Langeveld 

Stuart O’Grady 

Pieter Weening

2012 Le Tour de France Young Riders Classification

The youth classification of the Tour de France in 2012 is, compared to recent years, somewhat underwhelming. Since the youth classification, the white jersey, was introduced in 1975 six riders who won the white jersey have gone on to win yellow. Recently Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador have won both classifications in the same year. Pierre Rolland who won the classification last year is no longer eligible and of the top ten young riders in last year’s Tour, only one rider is eligible in 2012. Second in the classification last year by only 46 seconds, the Estonian Rein Taaramäe is one of the favourites to win the classification in 2012 after finishing behind Rolland last year. The eligible riders in this edition will find themselves either riding for their captains, helping them achieve their GC ambitions or having a tilt at the white jersey with a mix of team support and little Grand Tour experience to draw upon. Therefore there is a chance that the next young star emerges from the 2012 Tour but on paper it is a weaker classification than it has been for several years.

A year in which genuine young GC rider’s are a rarity, Rein Taaramäe has one last chance to win the white jersey and is favourite to do so. Having finished 12th overall last year he will be looking to improve upon that result but with white jersey winners finishing 12th overall in 2008, 2006, 2005, 1993, 1988 and 1980 finishing 12th again may not harm his hopes for the white jersey. He will however have some competition from the Rabobank team, BMC, Cofidis and to an extent Vacansoleil-DCM. Rabobank are a team which will be looking at high placings for their two GC men, Robert Gesink and Bauke Mollema, but this may be beneficial to their white jersey hopefuls. Last year saw Rolland benefit from Thomas Voeckler fourth placing as he finished 11th overall and 1st in the young rider classification. This was the result of helping Voeckler through the mountains and remaining at the front of the race. A domestique doesn’t have to compromise their personal ambitions but it is more likely they will benefit from helping than by launching their own attacks to gain time. It seems unlikely that the candidates in the young riders classification will be initiating attacks. Instead they will be looking to make up time or bridge their rivals in the ITT with the mountain stages more or less who can hold on the longest without conceding precious seconds overall.

At BMC Cadel Evans has had the team built around his attempt to win back to back Tour’s but with Tejay Van Garderen looking like he will be key domestique in the mountains, he may also benefit from having a GC man in his team to follow. Thibaut Pinot and Taaramäe will need to rely on their teams to offer help when needed or will find themselves chasing wheels. These two riders won't have a GC hopeful in their ranks that they will be riding for nor can they benefit from this is the way Van Garderen and Kruijswijk will. This will be the difference between the eventual winner of the classification and the top ten. However playing the domestique role may also hurt Van Garderen and Kruijswijk and their white jersey hopes.

Steven Kruijswijk (Rabobank) 07.06.1987 

 Debut Tour de France participation 

Another rider who could be capable of a yellow-white double makes an awaited Tour debut in 2012. Having finished three Grand Tours of which his best result was 8th in the 2011 Giro d’Italia, Kruijswijk will find himself somewhat limited in his opportunities as Robert Gesink and Bauke Mollema will be leading the Rabobank charge this year. Kruijswijk’s white jersey hopes will rest upon how the Rabobank GC approach goes and depending on the form of the two GC riders; he could find himself as the GC man for Rabobank. This could be the Grand Tour in which Kruijswijk shows his potential.

As Kruijswijk is making his debut this year how he handles the Tour over the three weeks will be crucial in whether or not he can arrive in Paris in white. The support among Rabobank will be split and this may cost Kruijswijk who could find himself chasing stages rather than overall in the classification. He does however remain a favourite after his promising Grand Tour appearances and this will be beneficial when up against riders making their debut Tour appearances. A top ten in the classification would be the very least expected of the Dutchman.

Thibaut Pinot (FDJ-Bigmat) 29.5.1990 

 Debut Tour de France participation 

The youngest rider in this year’s edition of the Tour makes his debut in 2012 with a sneaking suspicion that he can finish in Paris wearing white. The exciting French talent will also be making his Grand Tour debut and whether or not he can finish the three week race will weigh heavily upon his white jersey hopes. Having won the young riders classification at Bayern-Rundfahrt this year where he also finished 7th overall, indicated that in stage races he can be competitive and can also take stage wins. FDJ-Bigmat will be able to provide support for the 22 year old but again, Pinot is a young rider with large expectations upon his shoulders. Having seen Rolland win the classification last year, the French desire for Tour success has been slightly appeased and thus the hopes that rest upon Pinot won't be as high as they possibly may have been if Rolland hadn’t had a breakout Tour.

Pinot may be an early leader in the classification but how he copes with the mountain stages will be interesting to see. He could suffer in the ITT stages as the mental strength of the young riders is often most under the spotlight during the ITT as they push for glory. At 22 Pinot will have several more chances at the white jersey and 2012 may become a dress rehearsal as Pinot as he learns the Grand Tour ropes and prepares for future success. Pinot should still perform well and looks like he may be fighting to yellow in the years to come.

Wout Poels (Vacansoleil-DCM) 

 2nd Tour de France participation 

The young Dutch rider will be looking for stage wins throughout the Tour but after his Tour of Luxembourg performance in which he won the queen stage and young riders classification, a white jersey could also be his. Not as focused as his other young rivals on the overall, Poels nevertheless is considered a favourite after an impressive 2012 season so far.

Making his second Tour appearances after failing to finish in 2011, Poels will be hoping to add to his young rider classification wins at the Tour of Luxembourg and Tirreno-Adriatico in 2012. With his Vacansoleil-DCM team chasing stage wins, a good first week for Poels could see the team shift their focus onto providing the platform for white jersey success. For many fans they will have a soft spot for the Dutch team after last year’s horrific crash in which Johnny Hoogerland was hit by a media car during Stage 9 and flung into a barbwire fence. Hoogerland amazingly not only finished the stage, but also the Tour. He arrived in Saint-Flour after the crash to applause and with the maillot pois awaiting him. Vacansoleil-DCM will be hoping for more podium appearances in 2012 but without the crashes. Poels could be a repeat offender on the podium this year but that will rest upon how he manages to remain competitive over the three weeks. he looks the most likely of the young riders to initiate attacks as he chases stage wins and as a result may find himself in a high overall position in the race for the white jersey

Rein Taaramäe (Cofidis) D.O.B. 24.04.1987 

 3rd Tour de France participation

The Estonian has won two previous youth classifications which both came in 2011. This was achieved at Paris-Nice and the Critérium International in which he finished 3rd and 4th respectively. After his Tour appearance last year, Taaramäe went to the Vuelta and won Stage 14 to show he could reproduce his efforts in July. However the Vuelta does not award a youth classification jersey and he had to settle for a stage win only. These results showed that Taaramäe is capable of riding stage races and registering results when doing so. Continuing his form from 2011, Taaramäe won the Estonian ITT national championships for a third time after finishing 2nd overall at the Vuelta a Andalucía and 3rd at Étoile de Bessèges. A stage win at the Tour would be a bonus to the Cofidis rider but a long stint in the white jersey looks more likely. Up against Edvald Boasson Hagen in the opening prologue, Taaramäe would be unlikely to be called up the presentation in Liege as the Norwegian is a superior time trailer and is also eligible for the white jersey.

Taaramäe showed that he can compete in Grand Tours in 2011 with his one day stint in white at the Tour and his Vuelta stage win. It is expected that he builds upon his success and 2012 looks to be the year he can ascend to the next level and become the 30th rider to win this classification. Up against the Rabobank team, Taaramäe may find himself isolated and allies will be hard to come by. He won't be the only rider to experience this and therefore his strong result last year means he is just ahead of the rest. He will be known to the peloton after having twice ridden the Tour and therefore lacks an element of surprise but his ITT prowess holds him in good stead for white.

Tejay Van Garderen (BMC) D.O.B. 12.08. 1988 

 2nd Tour de France participation

Tejay Van Garderen will be making his second Tour appearance in 2012 and his first for BMC. After his debut Tour in which he became the first American to wear the climber’s maillot pois, the BMC rider will be hoping for more podium appearances. In 2011 Van Garderen won the young riders classification at the Tour of California and the USA Procycling challenge. In 2012 he added to these victories another young rider classification at Paris-Nice. Already a Grand Tour Stage winner after his HTC team won the 2010 TTT stage at the Vuelta, Van Garderen looks to be a future star of cycling and capable of adding to his Grand Tour stage win tally.

Van Garderen will be eligible for the young riders classification again in 2013 but still remains a favourite for the classification this year. The only thing that detracts from his chances is that his team mate Cadel Evans will be chasing yellow. That does not mean Van Garderen will necessarily suffer in his quest for white but his efforts will need to be measured in order to ensure that he is at the Tour for Evans and not himself. However Rolland showed last year that although he was riding as a domestique for Thomas Voeckler his personal aspirations were not heavily affected by this role. Van Garderen will have taken notice of this and also looks to be the greatest ITT threat of the young riders who can match it in the mountains with the older riders. In this discipline Van Garderen may push himself that little bit further so that in the mountains he remains a key ally for Evans. Should Evans have a disastrous Tour, Van Garderen will find himself as the GC man for BMC and could find himself a smokey for a white-yellow double. The experience he gained from last year will be crucial as Van Garderen can draw upon that experience and know how far he can push himself while still remaining a key climbing ally for Evans.

Eligible Riders for the 2012 Tour de France Youth Classification

Edvald Boasson Hagen (Sky Procycling) 05.17. 1987 (3rd)*
Kris Boeckmans (Vacansoleil-DCM) 13.02.1987 (1st) 

Anthony Delaplace (Saur-Sojasun) 11.08.1989 (2nd)

Nicolas Edet (Cofidis) 02.12.1987 (1st) Tony Gallopin (Radioshack-Nissan) 24.05.1988 (2nd)
Cyril Gautier (Europcar) 26.09.1987 (3rd)
Patrick Gretsch (Argos-Shimano) 07.04.1987 (1st)
Gorka Izagirre Insausti (Euskaltel-Euskadi) 07.10.1987 (1st)
Marcel Kittel (Argos-Shimano) 11.05.1988 (1st)
Steven Kruijswijk (Rabobank Cycling Team) 07.06.1987 (1st)
Domenique Nerz (Liquigas-Cannondale) 25.08.1989 (1st)
Daniel Oss (Liquigas-Cannondale) 13.01.1987 (3rd)
Thibaut Pinot (FDJ-Bigmat) 29.05.1990 (1st)
Wout Poels (Vacansoleil-DCM) 01.10.1987 (2nd) Anthony Roux (FDJ-Bigmat) 18.04.1987 (3rd)
Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) 26.01.1990 (1st) Rein Taaramäe (Cofidis) 24.04.1987 (3rd)
Rafael Valls Ferri (Vacansoleil-DCM) 27.06.1987 (2nd)
Tejay Van Garderen (BMC) 12.08.1988 (2nd)
Arthur Vichot (FDJ-Bigmat) 26.11.1988 (1st)
Romain Zingle (Cofidis) 29.1.1987 (2nd)

*Note: Tour appearances in brackets

What to Expect of the Sprinters in the 2012 Tour de France

The winner of the sprinters points classification and green jersey in the 2011 Tour de France will be returning to defend his jersey as well as adding to his 20 stage wins. In his four Tour appearances, Mark Cavendish has amazingly won an average of five stages a year. In the last three editions of the race he has won the final sprint on the Champs-Élysées and become the first person to ever have done so. The success of Cavendish was built upon his previous team which was last known as HTC-Highroad after undergoing numerous name changes. A sight which became a defining feature of the Tour’s flat stages from 2008 till last year would be his team moving to the front of the peloton is the final 10kms or so and take complete control of the race. Quite often this would involve all nine team members as they rode in a solitary line, a train, one behind another with Cavendish in 9th wheel. The riders at the front would all give 100% and peel away once they had given their all. The 8th rider in the HTC train was the Australian Mark Renshaw who time after time was the man to deliver Cavendish to the finish line, arms aloft. Renshaw became known as the best lead out man in the peloton, so successful was he in navigating and negotiating the final kilometre before dropping Cavendish off anywhere between 500m and 50m to the finish line that Renshaw’s decision to race the 2012 season as a sprinter led some to suggest Cavendish would no longer be such a convincing stage winner.

In 2012 the complexion of the sprints will be an entirely new phenomenon. Cavendish will be riding in the rainbow stripes of the world champion with his new team, Team Sky. Sky cannot offer the same services that Cavendish has grown accustomed to as Bradley Wiggins leads the Sky team in 2012 as he prepares an assault on the yellow jersey. So not only does Cavendish find himself at a new team but on one in which the aspirations for success are shared between the yellow and green, with yellow the more highly coveted of the two for Sky. As HTC-Highroad was disbanded following the conclusion of the 2011 season, the team has been spread across the peloton in 2012. Renshaw has decided that at 28 this would be the last opportunity he would have to peruse his own glory as a protected sprinter. Renshaw moved to the Dutch team Rabobank with promises of being provided the opportunity to match it with Cavendish at the Tour. This adds another level of intrigue to the race for the green jersey in 2012 with the defending jersey holder racing on a new team against his old lead-out man with no guarantee of being offered the protection and support that has been crucial in winning 20 stages in only four appearances.

The final standings in the sprinters classification in 2011 had only six recognised sprinters in the top ten. The calibre and class of the sprinters who will compete in this year’s edition of the Tour is astonishing. In 2011 Cavendish was up against his old team mate André Greipel who took a maiden Tour stage win. Another rival, the American Tyler Farrar, also took a stage win and Jose Joaquin Rojas proved to be a continual thorn in his side. Along with Mat Goss, they were the big sprinters of 2011. In the first seven stages Rojas took the green jersey on two occasions. The Belgian Philippe Gilbert also wrested the jersey off Cavendish, leading the classification on three occasions. In 2012 Cavendish will find himself up against the cream of the crop with world class sprinters left right and centre. The completion in 2012 will be of a calibre that is echelons above the class of 2011. Farrar and Greipel will again look to antagonise the Sky rider but will also find themselves fighting off new rivals. Marcel Kittel and Peter Sagan are both prolific winners who are set to make their Tour debut in Liege. Add to this mix of fast men, Matt Goss, the silver medallist from the Copenhagen worlds last year, three time world champion Óscar Freire, Mark Renshaw, Tony Gallopin, Robbie Hunter and the endless opportunists in the peloton. 2012 is shaping up as a battle royal for the maillot vert.

The teams of Matt Goss and Marcel Kittel have primarily been assembled to deliver stage wins for their respective teams, Orica-GreenEdge and Argos Shimano. Several teams will need to balance the ambitions of their sprinters with a team that has been organised primarily around a strong GC performance of one or two riders on the team. Orica-GreenEdge and Argos Shimano will be focused on the sprints with no concern of the GC positions that there riders place in. They will however look for breakaway opportunities and any chance at a stage win will not go begging for these hungry debut teams. Peter Sagan won three stages in his debut Grand Tour appearance at the 2011 Vuelta proving all the hype was well and truly justified that surrounds the 22 year old. In 2012 Sagan has been unstoppable. In May at the Tour of California he won five stages which included the first four stages of the race. As well as the stages, Sagan won the sprinters classification and continued his good form in June at the Tour de Suisse. Broadening his repertoire, Sagan won the opening ITT prologue, three stages, as well as another sprinters classification. Coming off a successful defence of his Slovakian national championship road race win, Sagan will be a real force in the sprints even with his team mate Vincenzo Nibali attempting to achieve a high GC position.

The first week of the 2011 Tour was remarked by the riders as highly stressful and dangerous as an increasingly swelling number of teams not only looked to contest the sprints but also wanted to move their GC men up to the front, away from potential crashes. This created an anxious Pelton that suffered several crashes leading to high profile injures and subsequent withdrawals from the race. With five teams having genuine chances at snaring the points jersey, sprints could become carnage. The first real opportunity to contest a bunch sprint will be the 207.5km Stage Two from Visé to Tournai. The sprinters who find themselves on teams split over yellow and green may be squeezed out by the trains of Orica-GreenEdge and Argos Shimano among others in the race to the finish line. Hopefully the sprints will only be scenes of the world’s fastest sprinters battling each other in clean and upright sprints.

The intermediate sprint points will again animate the flat stages and they will be challenged for all the way to Paris as one or two points may decide the winner of the classification. The sprints of the 2012 edition of the Tour look to be electric but with so many star sprinters and their lead-out’s vying for less and less space on the road, hopefully this is a classification that is won on the road and not by the last man standing after all his rivals have crashed out.

The fight for green in 2011 was one of the more intriguing sub plots of the Tour. With some many prolific winners fighting out the sprints, a big haul of multiple stage wins looks like it may not occur this year. The dominance of Cavendish may finally be broken. If broken by Goss or Greipel, it will merely be a continuation of the old HTC team but Kittel and Sagan represent new approaches to sprints and new styles. The points classification in 2012 will surely be a major talking point throughout the race with such a high level calibre of sprinters also fine tuning their approach before the Olympic gold medal race in August and the world championships in September.

Green Jersey Standings in 2011	Points
Mark Cavendish	334
Jose Joaquin Rojas	272
Philippe Gilbert	236
Cadel Evans	208
Thor Hushovd	195

2012 National Time Trial Champions

Australia: Luke Durbridge (1st Title) GreenEdge
Austria: Riccardo Zoidl (1st Title) RC Arbö Wels-Gourmetfein
Belgium: Currently Philippe Gilbert (1st Title) BMC
Belarus: Branislau Samoilau (3rd Title) Movistar
Canada: Sven Tuft (8th Title) GreenEdge
Curaçao: Marc de Maar (2nd Title) UnitedHealthcare
Denmark: Jakob Fuglsang (2nd Title) RadioShack-Nissan-Trek
Estonia: Rein Taaramäe (3rd Title) Cofidis
Finland: Matti Helminen (1st Title) Landbouwkrediet-Euphony
France: Sylvain Chavanel (4th Title) Omega Pharma-Quick Step
Germany: Tony Martin (2nd Title) Omega Pharma-Quick Step
Ireland: Michael Hutchinson (1st Title) In-Gear Quickvit
Italy: Dario Cataldo (1st Title) Omega Pharma-Quick Step
Japan: Ryota Nishizono (1st Title) Bridgestone Anchor
Kazakhstan: Dmitriy Gruzdev (2nd Title) Astana
Latvia: Gatis Smukulis (2nd Title) Katusha
Lithuania: Ramūnas Navardauskas (1st Title) Garmin-Barracuda
Luxembourg: Ben Gastauer (1st Title) AG2R-La-Mondiale
Netherlands: Lieuwe Westra (2nd Title) Vacansoleil-DCM
New Zealand: Paul Odin (1st Title) Subway Procycling
Norway: Reidar Borgersen (1st Title) Team Joker Merida
Poland: Maciej Bodnar (2nd Title) Luquigas-Cannondale
Portugal: José Gonçalves (1st Title) Onda
Russia: Dennis Menchov (1st Title) Katusha
Slovakia: Peter Velits (1st Title) Omega Pharma-Quick Step
Slovenia: Robert Vrečer (1st Title) Team Vorarlberg
South Africa: Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg (1st Title) MTN Qhubeka
Spain: Luis León Sanchez (4th Title) Rabobank
Switzerland: Fabian Cancellara (7th Title) RadioShack-Nissan-Trek
Ukraine: Andriy Hryvko (5th Title) Astana
United Kingdom: Alex Dowsett (1st Title) Team Sky
United States: David Zabriskie (7th Title) Garmin-Barracuda

2012 National Road Race Champions

Australia: Simon Gerrans (1st Title) GreenEdge
Austria: Lukas Pöstlberger (1st Title) RC Arbö Wels-Gourmetfein
Belgium: Tom Boonen (2nd Title) Omega Pharma-Quick Step
Canada: Ryan Roth (1st Title) Spider Tech-C10
Denmark: Sebastian Lander (1st Title) Glud & Marstrand-LRO)
Estonia: Tanel Kangert (1st Title) Astana
Finland: Jarkko Niemi (1st Title) Koiviston Isku
France: Nacer Bouhanni (1st Title) FDJ-Big Mat
Germany: Fabian Wegmann (3rd Title) Garmin-Barracuda
Ireland: Matt Brammeier (3rd Title) Omega Pharma-Quick Step
Italy: Franco Pellizotti (1st Title) Androni Giocattoli-Venezuela
Japan: Yukihori Doi (1st Title) Argos-Shimano
Kazakhstan: Assan Bazayev (2nd Title) Astana
Latvia: Aleksejs Saramontins (5th Title) Cofidis
Lithuania: Gediminas Bagdonas (1st Title) An Post-Sean Kelly
Luxembourg: Laurent Didier (1st Title) RadioShack-Nissan-Trek
Netherlands: Niki Terpstra (2nd Title) Omega Pharma-Quick Step
New Zealand: James Williamson (1st Title) PureBlack Racing
Norway: Edvald Boasson Hagen (1st Title) Team Sky
Poland: Michal Golas (1st Title) Omega Pharma-Quick Step
Portugal: Manuel Antonio Cardoso (2nd Title) Caja Rural
Russia: Eduard Vorganov (1st Title) Katusha
Slovakia: Peter Sagan (2nd Title) Luquigas-Cannondale
Slovenia: Borut Božič (2nd Title) Astana
South Africa: Robbie Hunter (1st Title) Garmin-Barracuda
Spain: Francisco Ventoso (1st Title) Movistar
Switzerland: Martin Kohler (1st Title) BMC
Ukraine: Andriy Hryvko (1st Title) Astana
United Kingdom: Ian Stannard (1st Title) Team Sky
United States: Timmy Duggan (1st Title) Luquigas-Cannondale

Team Sky 2012 Tour de France Team

Team Sky has announced a team which is geared toward a tilt at delivering Bradley Wiggins to Paris in yellow. Mark Cavendish has his right hand man Bernie Eisel as his main support but several riders who will be crucial in providing support to Wiggins in the mountains can also lend a hand on the flat stages. Whether Sky can balance their yellow and green jersey ambitions will be a curious subplot throughout July.

Wiggins looks to be well protected in the mountains with the two Australians, Porte and Rogers as well as the Vuelta runner up from 2011 Chris Froome. Team Sky will still look to take home the yellow and green jerseys, but whether the blue Sky team can take yellow and make the green jersey reality, remains to be seen. The likelihood of Boasson Hagen chasing stages wins looks to be limited in 2012 with a repeat performance of his stage wins in 2011 unlikely. His role will be as support for both Wiggins and Cavendish as a super domestique and thus won't be as free to join breakaways. Wiggins and Cavendish will be the two most likely sources of Sky stage wins but with Rogers in the team, as a three time ITT world champion, he may take a surprise TT win. Froome and Porte in the mountains may snare a sneaky win as well if their GC ambitions look pale.

There is no doubt that Wiggins goes into the 2012 Tour as a major favourite, possible even as ‘the’ favourite and his Sky team has been built primarily around this favouritism. And rightly so. Cavendish may feel marginalised at times throughout the Tour but he has shown he is capable of winning stages by himself and that he can get by without relying upon a big lead out train. Eisel is the key man for Cav if he is to defend the green jersey from last year as he will be the one Sky rider totally at Cav’s disposal. Wiggins on the other hand has the support of the rest of team and baring a serious crash an ascent onto the podium looks more than likely. However his main rival Cadel Evans looks to have that little bit more of support than Wiggins as well as the knowledge that he has win the Tour where Wiggins has only ever stood on one Grand Tour podium.

Wiggins ambition is clear and his form suggests that 2012 could finally be the year an Englishman wins the Tour. If this is to be Wiggins year, he will need to overcome the possibility of a fractured team if Cavendish starts winning multiple stages and demands more team support. To avoid this, Wiggins will need to be as high up as possible in the GC to justify protection and support on flat stages. He will also need to combat a strong BMC that will be racing for Cadel and Cadel only. Wiggins will have allies in his team in the mountains but if he is to win the Tour he will need to initiate attacks like he has never done so before. Wiggins ITT prowess ensures that losses in the mountains could be overcome by his TT ability but with Evans also a strong TT Wiggins will need to ride the tactical race of his life.

Team Sky 2012 Tour de France Team

Edvald Boasson Hagen 

 Mark Cavendish 

 Bernhard Eisel 

 Chris Froome 

 Christian Knees 

 Richie Porte 

 Michael Rogers

 Kanstantsin Siutsou 

Bradley Wiggins 

2012 Tour France Route

For all your Tour needs visit   Le Tour

Rabobank 2012 Tour de France Team

Can Rabobank fulfil its potential with a successful 2012 Tour de France? If so this looks to the year in which the stars are aligning for Rabobank. Robert Gesink is coming off an overall GC win at the Tour of California and this may be the year he elevates himself the next level which he has threatened to do since his 6th place in 2010. Along with Gesink, Rabobank boast Bauke Mollema as another top ten GC candidate. Despite only featuring once in the Tour and finishing a lowly 70th, Mollema has shown he can match it in a Grand Tour after his 4th place in last year’s Vuelta. In the sprints, Mark Renshaw will be looking to get one over Mark Cavendish who he was a lead out man at HTC for until last season. Steven Kruijswijk looks to be a promising candidate for the young rider’s classification whose potential further highlights the level of success that surrounds the Dutch team. Furthermore, Luis Leon Sanchez will be a genuine threat in the three ITT stages and as a three time stage winner and 11th place finisher in 2010 is a proven Tour rider.

The experience of Sanchez will certainly be crucial for Gesink and Mollema if they are to mount a challenge for top GC positions. The Hardman Laurens ten Dam will also be a crucial rider for the Rabobank challenge for Tour honours providing tactical nous and protection of the flat. In the sprints Renshaw may find himself fending off the other teams as he mounts his own challenge for stage wins. Renshaw won't be given full support unless the GC ambitions of Gesink and Mollema have faulted but even then that support may be transferred to Kruijswijk depending on how he is riding.

Steven Kruijswijk and Maarten Wynants are the only Rabobank riders making their debut at the Tour in 2012. This is a reflection upon the experience in the Rabobank team and come the third week of the Tour, may be important in ensuring Gesink’s ability to fade mentally and then physically are limited. The mental strength of Gesink has been questioned when he has failed to live up to expectations. If Gesink is to crash and carry injuries through mountain stages he may again slip to a lowly position of pull out of the Tour. Gesink and Mollema will both need to attack in the mountains in order to gain time of his rivals as their time trialling is nothing special and will not win them the Tour. Gesink will have his teammates as attacking allies and that will bode well for the Dutchmen when he looks to attack. Gesink showed that he can initiate attacks and carry them out to a stages conclusion as he showed at the Tour of California. A final positive for Gesink is that he looks to have recovered from a broken leg he suffered late last year.

Rabobank look to be focused on strong performances in the mountains. Renshaw will be hoping for some support in the flat stages but his team is far more focused on yellow than green. Unlike some of the other teams who are trying to balance GC and sprinting ambitions, Rabobank appear to be a GC team with a sprinter. Last year Sanchez was the shining light for Rabobank with a win in Stage 9 but that was about the extent of Rabobank 2011 Tour success. Gesink wore the youth classification jersey for several stages in an otherwise disappointing Tour. In 2012 a strong GC performance by its three GC men will justify the team selection and slant towards the overall rather than purely chasing stage wins as Rabobank has done in recent years.

2012 looms as a year in which Rabobank can mount a genuine challenge for the overall. Not since Michael Rasmussen was evicted from the 2007 Tour has Rabobank had a rider in a convincing GC position in the 3rd week. The three pronged attack of Gesink, Mollema and Kruijswijk have the potential to blow the race apart in the mountains. However, the impetus needs to be on the Dutch riders as they cannot wait for the attacks to happen. They need to be the instigators; an early stage win will boost confidence within the team and could be crucial to ensure the mental fragility which has also become a characteristic of the team is banished for the Tour. The Dutch may have reason to feel a little more optimistic about their GC chances in 2012 for good reason.

Rabobank 2012 Tour de France Team

Robert Gesink 

Steven Kruijswijk 

Bauke Mollema 

Mark Renshaw 

Luis Leon Sanchez 

Bram Tankink 

Laurens Ten Dam 

Maarten Tjallingii 

Maarten Wynants

Argos-Shimano 2012 Tour de France Team

The Argos-Shimano team has been build around delivering Marcel Kittel first across the line in any sprint contest. The 24 year old German has 7 wins so far this season and could have ten by the end of the Tour. The inclusion of Koen de Kort suggests the team may also look for breakaway opportunities but primarily their focus will be the sprints. Patrick Gretsch will hoping for a top ten in the Prologue to set the scene for the team and he also be looking at the other two ITT stages for some personal glory. These two riders will definitely be playing second fiddle to Kittel and his sprinting.

The team had been chosen to ensure there is a strong lead out train for Kittel who will look for a maiden win in his maiden Tour. Having won stages in 2012 at the Tour of Oman, Ster ZLM Toer, Three Days of Panne and Étoile de Bessèges Kittel has continued to build upon his 2011 successes. Having won stage 7 at last year’s Vuelta, Kittel has announced he can match it with the best at Grand Tour level. The sprints are going to be contested by the crème de la crème of sprinters in 2012 and Kittel is quickly proving he deserves to be mentioned as one of best currently racing.

The other star sprinter at Argos-Shimano, John Degenkolb, has missed out on a Tour place as the team has decided to focus on one sprinter alone. This may place more pressure on Kittel than he can handle as the team is built around him delivering a stage win. The presence of Mathieu Sprick who has ridden five Tours’ will be welcomed by Kittel as he will undoubtedly be offering both advice and protection throughout the three weeks. Besides Sprick, no other rider in the Argos-Shimano squad has raced more than one Tour.

This young team may be making its debut and be lacking experience but the potential and ambition of the team cannot be questioned. Kittel looks to be a future star of the sport and a win in the Tour would be more than welcomed. However how Kittel manages the pressure of a being the focal point of a new team looking to impress in its debut Tour remains to be seen. Kittel has the experience of the Vuelta from 2011 which will help him through the Tour but an early win will be far more beneficial mentally to the entire team.

Argos-Shimano 2012 Tour de France Team

Roy Curvers 

Koen de Kort 

Johannes Fröhlinger 

Patrick Gretsch 

Yann Huguet 

Marcel Kittel

Matthieu Sprick

Albert Timmer 

Tom Veelers

Katusha 2012 Tour de France Team

The two time Grand Tour winner Dennis Menchov will lead Katusha at the 2012 Tour de France. In the sprints the Russian team can call upon three-time world champion Óscar Freire who looks to be competing in his last Tour. Katusha has only one stage win in its three previous appearances so a GC attempt looks ambitious. However Menchov has twice finished on the podium at the Tour as well as winning the youth classification in 2003.

At 34, Menchov is certainly not inhibited by his age but rather the quality of his rivals will pose a hazard to his chances at overall. A top ten, maybe top five, would be more likely as Menchov has in recent Grand Tours followed moves rather than instigated them and in order to win a Tour a rider cannot simply hang back and follow attacks. Menchov won a stage at the Tour but that was way back in 2006 and repeat win looks highly unlikely. Even when Menchov finished 2nd in 2010 he made no effort to attack. He was simply the best of the rest who managed to minimise his losses and follow Schleck and Contador up the mountains better than the other GC men. Katusha’s chances at stages look like they will come through Freire. The absence of 2012 Giro d’Italia runner Joaquim Rodriguez will be detrimental to the chances of stage wins as the Spaniard is a proven winner. Rodriguez’s only Tour appearance so far ended in 8th position but a Giro-Tour double looks to have been too much for him.

On the flat stages Óscar Freire will be looking to add to his 4 stage wins and the points classification he won in 2008. Freire hasn’t competed in a Tour since 2010 and hasn’t won a stage since 2008. A stage win looks like it may be beyond the Spaniard but with his class another win cannot be discounted. Friere looks like he will be racing his last Tour this year and if he can go out with a stage win it will be fitting tribute to a champion rider.

Freire and Menchov will pose Katusha’s greatest chance of success in the Tour but there is the chance they will have a rider succeed in a breakaway. Luca Paolini is a Vuelta stage winner and a one day specialist who may be able to launch a successful breakaway. The Belarusian champion Aliaksandr Kuchynski will be a helpful domestique for Menchov but like the other Katusha riders, looks unable to launch or instigate stage winning moves or be able to match it with their breakaway companions. Vladimir Gusev may shake things up a little in the ITT’s but again it looks like the success of Katusha’s Tour will lay with Menchov and Freire.

Katusha 2012 Tour de France Team 

Giampaolo Caruso

 Oscar Freire 

 Vladimir Gusev 

 Joan Horrach 

 Aliaksandr Kuchynski

 Denis Menchov 

 Luca Paolini 

 Yuriy Trofimov

 Eduard Vorganov

RadioShack-Nissan 2012 Tour de France Team

The RadioShack-Nissan team has gone from being a one of the strongest GC teams in the Tour to a second tier GC team. Andy Schleck had been in questionable form leading up the Tour but he crashed during the ITT at the Critérium de Dauphiné fracturing his sacrum and will now be out for six weeks, missing the Tour. A duel between himself and Alberto Contador looks likely at the Vuelta in September as both riders going a season without a Grand Tour would be unimaginable and detrimental to their long term form. In Schleck’ place will be the evergreen American Chris Horner who was 9th in 201o but crashed out of last year’s edition. Horner has only finished one Grand Tour since 2007 and at 40 at tilt at the GC will be major test.

Jakob Fuglsang has expressed his disappointment at being left out of the team after being touted as one of Leopard’s GC candidates but he has found his opportunities within the new RadioShack team limited. He looks to be one of the rider’s who has suffered the most from the merger. An overall win at the Tour of Luxembourg looked to be enough for the Dane to make to it to Liege. However the loss of Andy Schleck due to his injury instead opened the door for Horner. Horner hasn’t raced since the Tour of California which makes Fuglsang’s omission all the more remarkable. Fränk Schleck has been less than forthright in coming forward and putting his hand up as the protected GC rider as it appeared he may be fatigued from his Giro d’Italia efforts and will also miss the company of his brother throughout the Tour.

RadioShack will still have a strong team for the Tour but for what purpose it is slightly unclear. Fabian Cancellara will be looking at the three ITT opportunities and will see these stages as a warm up for the Olympics and regaining his World Champion crown he lost to Tony Martin in 2011. Jens Voigt will line up for his 15th appearance and possibly his last as like Horner, he is also 40. Along with F. Schleck and Horner, Yaroslav Popovych will offer another GC option for the team. Having been on the podium twice at the Giro, placed 8th in the 2007 Tour and won the Tour’s Young Riders competition in 2005, Popovych has shown he can compete in Grand Tours.

As well as Fuglsang, the omission of Linus Gerdemann is slightly surprising as the German had proved to be a good mountain domestique in last year’s Tour and as a previous stage winner could offer another avenue to stage wins. Instead RadioShack may find success in the sprinter Tony Gallopin who has made the move over from Cofidis and will compete in his second Tour.

The loss of A. Schleck will be a big disappointment for the team which is still looking for wins in 2012. Cancellara will as always provide an opportunity for stage wins in the ITT as well as some time in yellow. In the mountains F. Schleck, Horner and Popovych should be able to record some decent results. On the flat Gallopin could provide a sneaky stage win but is yet to prove himself up against the world’s top sprinters. A 4th place on Stage 5 in last year’s Tour is a sign of his potential but RadioShack look more likely to chalk up wins through their experienced riders.

As the Tour progresses the GC plan of RadioShack will become clearer and an early stage win may just paper over the cracks that have begun to show with the Tour approaching and no one in top form. RadioShack will still be a major protagonist In the Tour but is unlikely that there will be two riders on the podium this edition. Stage wins and top ten GC positions look as good as it will get.

RadioShack-Nissan 2012 Tour de France Team 

Fabian Cancellara 

 Tony Gallopin 

 Chris Horner 

 Andreas Klöden 

 Maxime Monfort 

 Yaroslav Popovych 

 Fränk Schleck 

 Jens Voigt 

 Haimar Zubeldia

Lotto Belisol 2012 Tour de France Team

The Lotto Belisol team for the 2012 Tour will be lead by Andre Greipel as he looks to add to his single Tour win from last year. As well as supporting Greipel in his bid for stage wins and the Maillot Vert, Lotto will also be aiming to catapult Jurgen Van den Broeck and Jelle Vanendert into top ten GC positions. Vanendert had a breakout Tour last year coming 2nd at Luz Ardiden in stage 12 and winning Stage 14 at Plateau de Beille while holding onto the climber’s jersey from Stage 14 through to Stage 19. Van den Broeck will be looking emulate his team mate and take home a stage win. Lotto will be looking to add to its successful Tour last year in which it won three stages and had stints in yellow, green and the polka dot jerseys.

Van den Broeck crashed out of the 2011 Tour but his team was able to have success in his absence in thanks to Vanendert. 2012 will hopefully see Van den Broeck complete the Tour and build upon his 5th placing in 2010. Lotto is one of many teams that will be split between GC ambitions and the points category. Having two genuine favourites in both these categories will be testing to the Lotto team but as they showed last year, this a difficulty which can be overcome successfully. A key rider for Lotto who at 35 will be making a belated debut is the Kiwi Greg Henderson. Along with Adam Hanson these two riders will be supporting Greipel and protecting the GC men in the peloton. Hansen may have a chance to attack and try to win himself a stage but the super domestique may find his chances limited.

Andre Greipel along with Mark Cavendish, Matt Goss and Peter Sagan look to be the main sprinters in Tour this year. Cavendish will again be the man to beat but with his team focused on delivering him to Paris in yellow, he may not have the support that HTC offered him. Greipel knows he can beat Cavendish in a sprint and will hope the SKY train lacks the coherence Cavendish was accustomed to at HTC.

Similar to Omega Pharma-Quickstep, Lotto will be an animater of the race but they look like they will offer more of threat to the standings of the GC, points and climbers rather than purely stage wins that Quick Step will primarily be chasing. With a strong team evenly balanced for success on the flat and in the mountains how Lotto manages this split will be, like many other teams, of interest and shall determine how the 2012 Tour will be viewed in hindsight; a success or an overextension of its capabilities.

2012 Tour de France Lotto Belisol Team 

Andre Greipel

Lars Bak 

 Francis De Greef 

 Adam Hansen 

 Greg Henderson 

 Jürgen Roelandts 

 Marcel Sieberg 

 Jurgen Van den Broeck

 Jelle Vanendert