The appointment with the 109 / o Tour de France of cycling is approaching, forcing the teams to tighten the time to develop strategies and men, in view of the start from Copenhagen next Friday.
Covid has redesigned the general classification of the Tour of Switzerland and could also have straschichi on the Grande Boucle.
Woe to let your guard down, because the virus can erase ambitions and crush ambitions for success.
There are those who aim for the final yellow jersey (Tadej Pogacar above all);
some at some prestigious stage (Damiano Caruso) and a place on the podium;
who at the time trial (Filippo Ganna);
who, on the other hand, will be awarded the first yellow jersey, which will be awarded on Friday 1st July.
The first chapter of a race to be experienced day after day will be a 13.2 kilometer time trial in Copenhagen (also the Giro d'Italia in 2012 started from Denmark,
but from Herling).
The Belgian Wout Van Aert will aim to win against his rival - who will do the same - the Dutch Mathieu Van der Poel;
both, however, will have to deal with the double world champion, as well as the new Italian champion of the challenges against time, Filippo Ganna.
The latter, once the Tour experience is closed, will aim straight for the hour record set in August.
The French do not have great ambitions, because the present is not particularly rosy.
The last transalpine winner remains Bernard Hinault in 1985. From that moment on, only five second places, including Laurent Fignon's one for only 8 ", who squandered a 50" lead over Greg Lemond in 1989. The times of the fat cows are finished: apart from the smoke in the eyes of Thomas Voeckler in 2011 and Julian Alaphilippe in 2019, little or nothing remains.
Hopes (few) placed in Romain Bardet, Thibaut Pinot and David Gaudu, with the first of the three already finished twice on the podium of the Grande Boucle, second in 2016 and third in 2017. The big favorite therefore remains Pogacar, who chases the third seal consecutive.
The UAE captain Emirates will take up the new challenge of compatriot Primoz Roglic, of Danes Jonas Vingegaard and Jakob Fuglsang, of British Thomas Pidcock and Adam Yates, of Colombians Nairo Quintana and Rigoberto Uran.
Tri-world champion Peter Sagan will be chasing the points classification.
Italy's hopes are still pinned on the Sicilian rider, after the last success of Vincenzo Nibali from Messina, who triumphed on the Elysian Fields in 2014: it is Damiano Caruso, from Ragusa, who renounced the Giro d '
Italy - where he probably could have aimed for success - to better prepare the Tour. The first three stages will be staged in Denmark, which will host 400 of the 3,350 kilometers of the overall route.
The caravan will return to France with the 4th fraction, from Dunkerque to Calais.
In the following days he will pay homage to the Arenberg forest, the symbol of 'Roubaix'.
To be circled in red is the 7th stage which on 8 July will take the riders to the Planche des Belles Filles, in the Vosges, with a 10% gradient and the finish on a dirt road.
Then there will be the Alps, with an encroachment on Switzerland.
On 14 July, the day of the French national holiday, the arrival at Alpe d'Huez.
The Pyrenees will face each other in the last week.
The last 40km time trial will end in Rocamadour,
