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"Hey, I'm Marcel Kittel. I won 14 stages in the Tour de France. For the next three weeks I'll be commenting on the tour with Spiegel."
The 107th Tour de France starts this Saturday with 21st stages, 176 riders and 3500 kilometers of racing. But the Corona situation is particularly tense in the department around the starting point Nice and in the destination Paris.
O-Ton Marcel Kittel: " The cycling season had a huge break in the summer. The last big event with Paris-Nice took place in March and since then the racing drivers have been at home in training and have tried to simply get fit there keep preparing for the races that started again at the end of the year, at the beginning of August. And now we are just about to start the tour. And the racers have to follow a hygiene concept and also have to deal with very, very many other things, never in recent years e have played ine role, nor focus. Because of Corona pandemic. and that certainly plays a role in the minds of racers. "
As far as the route profile is concerned, this year's Tour of France is not for sprinters. There are a total of six mountain arrivals
O-Ton Marcel Kittel "Especially the first stage, which is shown as flat. I'm not exactly sure, it is definitely hilly. And the second stage has two first category mountains in it. So there are Immediately asked the climbers, maybe even the classification riders. Stage four we have a mountain finish straight away. And that actually goes through the whole tour. It is definitely a tour that focuses on the climbers and the classification riders And there we will also see big fights on the way. And I think it will remain exciting until the end with the time trial up to the Planche des Belles Filles, just before the Champs-Élysées, where the classification will really be decided . "
The Ineos team, the dominators of the last few years, and Jumbo-Visma are expected at the very front this time. Because every driver has an above-average class for himself. Last year's winner Egan Bernal from Colombia from Ineos and Primož Roglič from Slovenia from Jumbo-Visma are the favorites for the tour victory.
O-Ton Marcel Kittel " I think you shouldn't forget a Mitchelton Scott, just like a team FdJ with Thibaut Pinot, who is also French, who has already proven that he can go on the podium there in the tour. So there are a lot of racing drivers. And we as Germans can of course keep our fingers crossed for Emanuel Buchmann, who is there with his strong Bora team at the start. Max Schachmann among others, Gregor Mühlberger - all racing drivers who were also shown last year that you can support your captain there in the ranking. "
Twelve riders from Germany will take on the torture of the tour. Seasoned André Greipel starts for the Israeli team Start-Up Nation. One of his teammates is Nils Politt.
O-Ton Marcel Kittel "Overall, I think the German starters are well positioned: Simon Geschke is there, who has already won a stage on the tour. Tony Martin is going with them, albeit in a helper role. And of course for me the most promising candidates from Team Bora with Emanuel Buchmann for the classification, but also Max Schachmann possibly, if he has healed his collarbone with a stage win, or a Lennart Kämna, who also drove extremely well in the preparatory races of the Dauphiné. "
29 mountains, four mountain arrivals and a time trial in the Vosges: The Tour de France 2020 will be a challenge for the best cyclists in the world.