The 2013 Tour de France winner Chris Froome has hinted he may miss the 2015 edition in favour of a possible attempt at the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España, which he feels may offer more balanced routes that are more suitable to his blend of time trialling and climbing skills.
The 2015 Tour will include only 14 kilometres of individual time trialling, on day one in the Dutch city of Utrecht. This is the smallest amount since the race was relaunched after the second world war and the first time in recent years that the race has not included a time trial in the final week.
In a statement issued shortly after the launch of the 2015 race route on Wednesday morning, Team Sky’s Kenyan-born Briton, who crashed out of the 2014 event in the first week, said, “The team and I will have to give it some careful consideration before we make any commitments to which of the grand tours I will compete in.” The 2013 winner was not present at the launch in Paris.
Froome added: “The Giro with its inclusion of a long TT of 60km and tough uphill finishes will make it a well-balanced race, which suits me well. If I did the Giro I may also be able to get myself back to top shape for the Vuelta and go there with a realistic chance of aiming for the win. In the past I’ve only targeted one grand tour each season but it could be a good opportunity for me to focus seriously on two.”
The lack of time trialling in the 2015 Tour should suit the French riders, who staged a dramatic resurgence in the 2014 race, and as if to express their hope that history is on the home nation’s side, the organisers have included a finish at Pra Loup, the resort in the southern Alps where Bernard Thévenet toppled Eddy Merckx in 1975.
Although the surprise runner-up in 2014, Jean-Christophe Péraud, can hold his own against the watch, the younger French stars – Thibaut Pinot, Romain Bardet and Warren Barguil – are not noted time triallists, so they will relish a series of tough mountain stages in the third week. So, too, however, will this year’s Giro winner, Nairo Quintana of Colombia, and the defending Tour champion, Vincenzo Nibali.
After a rest-day in Gap on the final Tuesday, four consecutive stages of climbing in the Alps will decide the Tour. They reach a crescendo with the iconic climb of l’Alpe d’Huez on the final Saturday before the transfer to Paris. As well as the finishes at Pra Loup and at La Toussuire, there is a new, steep, Alpine ascent, Les Lacets de Montvernier, which consists of 18 tightly packed hairpins in less than four kilometres above the Maurienne Valley.
The 2015 race also includes the short, steep hill-top finishes that have become a trademark in recent years. Day three concludes on top of the steep ascent of the Mur de Huy in the Ardennes – now the usual finish of the Flèche Wallonne Classic – while stage eight finishes on the Mûr de Bretagne, where Cadel Evans won the stage en route to overall victory in 2011. There is another brief uphill finish at Mende in central France in the second week.
Another development is a return to the cobbled lanes of northern France where Nibali forged his victory in the 2014 Tour. Stage four, immediately after the Mur de Huy, includes seven cobbled sectors totalling 13km – roughly the same as the 2014 race – in the final 30km before the finish at Cambrai. There are seven sprint stages for Mark Cavendish and company, and time bonuses will be available on the early stages. If the sprinters such as Cavendish and Marcel Kittel can limit their losses at Huy, they will have a chance to contest the yellow jersey for the first seven days.
More controversially, the team time trial stage makes a return, over 28km through Brittany between Vannes and Plumelec on day nine, just before the race transfers south to the Pyrenees. It is usual for the team time trial to be held earlier – indeed, the rules stipulate it should be run in the first week – as by this stage it is likely that some teams could be understrength after losing one or more riders because of the crashes that usually pepper the first week. This could skew the result on a course that includes a tough hill finish.
The organiser Christian Prudhomme confirmed that the 2015 race will conclude with a repetition of the women’s event – La Course by the Tour de France – on the Champs Elysées and the Tour’s new slogan, Partageons la Passion, underlines his message of recent years that the event should spread its wings and become more inclusive.
Five key stages
Mur de Huy, stage three: this uphill finish comes so early in the race and is so steep, and so narrow, that it is likely to be key, as much for the crashes that could happen as a relatively fresh field fights for position before the foot of the climb.
Cambrai, stage four: the cobbles enabled Vincenzo Nibali to win the Tour last year, so they could play a part in 2015, particularly if the weather is as wet as in last July. One thing is certain: the teams will all be better prepared than they were this time round, as Alberto Contador lost his Tour here.
Plumelec stage nine: the team time trial will be a lottery because it comes so far into the race with a tough uphill finish. How teams get through the previous eight days will be crucial – any squad that loses more than one rider in the inevitable first-week crashes could pay a heavy price.
La Pierre Saint Martin, stage 10: the first mountain-top stage-finish is unknown and abrupt, and comes after a relatively flat run-in, so it will be an intense affair. It should set the pattern for the next week’s racing and potential winners should emerge here.
L’Alpe d’Huez, stage 20: the classic final set piece but coming on the penultimate day, as Mont Ventoux did in 2009 and Semnoz in 2013. It is preceded by three mountain stages, so could play into the hands of a pure climber like Quintana.
