Publications
Partners
Paris - Reigning champion Chris Froome will be among those embarking on the 2018 Tour de France on Saturday after being cleared of doping suspicions, but an army of detractors, talented rivals and a course that doesn't suit him still stand in the way of his fifth title.
Organisers lifted a ban on the British rider after he was cleared by world anti-doping authorities (WADA) and the International Cycling Union (UCI) of all wrongdoing and an anti-doping case against him was dropped.
But the case has created a tense atmosphere that Team Sky's Froome will have to deal with mentally after it triggered a chorus of opposition against him.
Tour great Bernard Hinault called on Tour riders to strike in protest if Froome were to take part, and the way the organisers ASO banned him before he was cleared could hardly have made the champion feel welcome.
The race is, as Ireland's Dan Martin described it, "a tale of two halves" with a flattish first part featuring treacherous cobbles and crosswinds followed by six mountain and four hilly stages packed into the latter part of the 3,351 kilometres (2,082 miles).
Whatever added tests facing Froome, route designer Thierry Gouvenou said the switch between the flat and the mountains "is perhaps the greatest challenge of this Tour".
Huge crowds are expected as the race sets off from Noirmoutier on France's Atlantic coast and early challenges include a 35km team time trial on day three, while a run to the pretty seaside town of Quimper on day five features 10 hills.
The route designer also built in two ascents of the feared Mur de Bretagne on stage eight, and the day after comes the feared cobbled road to Roubaix.
There are more than 20km of roughly hewn cobbles along old mining roads, and cycling folklore has it that the cobbles themselves choose their victims.
Britain's Mark Cavendish, who has 30 stage wins, said it was the hardest Tour de France route he'd ever seen and doubted he'd make it to the mountains.
Winner of the 2016 white jersey, Briton Adam Yates, said he expected to struggle over the first week.
"I'm a very light man, so I'm not looking forward to the wind in the Vendee," said the Mitchelton-Scott man.
The race also lacks the kind of long, flat individual time trial where four-time winner Froome often pulverises his opponents.
Organisers have also reduced team size, seen as a way of unlocking Sky's stranglehold on the Tour.
"There are only eight riders per team so it's a real strategic decision between the rollers and the climbers, the first part and the second," Gouvenou said.
After a rest day on which the riders fly from the north coast to Annecy in France's southeast, there follows three visually stunning Alpine mountain stages, four hilly stages and three Pyrenean mountain stages inside a breathless 12 days.
Many of France's great mountains will feature, such as the Alpe d'Huez and the Col du Tourmalet.
But the two key mountain challenges are a brutal, uphill 31km individual time trial and a short 65km 17th stage featuring 38km of climbs to a summit finish at the Col de Portet in the southwest.
At 2,215 metres (7,265 feet), Portet is the highest summit ever to feature in a Tour de France and will provide the backdrop for a true champion.
Some feel the great French hope Romain Bardet will finally deliver for the home nation with a AG2R-La Mondiale team crafted to hit peak form in the final week.
The deeply experienced Australian BMC leader Richie Porte has proven stamina, while the 2014 champion, Italy's wily Vincenzo Nibali, will certainly have a trick or two up his sleeve.
At 25, Adam Yates may be ready to unleash the kind of climb potential his twin brother Simon showed on the Giro in May, when he came within two stages of beating the eventual champion Froome.
Froome can settle many scores and arguments if he can win without the long flat time trial, without a ninth man and likely without much encouragement from the 10 million spectators expected to line the French roadside as the drama unfolds.
The 21 stages on the 2018 Tour de France:
July 7
Stage 1: Noirmoutier to Fontenay - 189km
July 8
Stage 2: Mouilleron-Saint-Germain to La Roche-sur-Yon - 183km
July 9
Stage 3: Cholet to Cholet - 35km (team time-trial)
July 10
Stage 4: La Baule to Sarzeau - 192km
July 11
Stage 5: Lorient to Quimper - 203km
July 12
Stage 6: Brest to Mur-de-Bretagne Guerledan - 181km
July 13
Stage 7: Fougeres to Chartres - 231km
July 14
Stage 8: Dreux to Amiens - 181 km
July 15
Stage 9: Arras Citadelle to Roubaix - 154km
July 16
Rest Day at Annecy
July 17
Stage 10: Annecy ro Le Grand-Bornand - 159km
July 18
Stage 11: Albertville to La Rosiere - 108km
July 19
Stage 12: Bourg-Saint-Maurice to Alpe d'Huez 175km
July 20
Stage 13: Bourg-d'Oisans to Valence - 169km
July 21
Stage 14: Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux to Mende - 187km
July 22
Stage 15: Millau to Carcassonne - 181km
July 23
Rest Day at Carcassonne
July 24
Stage 16: Carcassonne to Bagneres-de-Luchon - 218km
July 25
Stage 17: Bagneres-de-Luchon to Saint-Lary-Soulan col de Portet - 65km
July 26
Stage 18: Trie-sur-Baïse to Pau, 172km
July 27
Stage 19: Lourdes to Laruns, 200km
July 28
Stage 20: Saint-Pée-sur-Nivelle to Espelette, 31km (Individual time-trial)
July 29
Stage 21: Houilles to Champs Elysees - 115km
A list of Tour de France winners over the last 25 years:
2017: Chris Froome (GBR)
2016: Chris Froome (GBR)
2015: Chris Froome (GBR)
2014: Vincenzo Nibali (ITA)
2013: Chris Froome (GBR)
2012: Bradley Wiggins (GBR)
2011: Cadel Evans (AUS)
2010: Andy Schleck (LUX) *
2009: Alberto Contador (ESP)
2008: Carlos Sastre (ESP)
2007: Alberto Contador (ESP)
2006: Oscar Pereiro (ESP) **
2005: ***
2004: ***
2003: ***
2002: ***
2001: ***
2000: ***
1999: ***
1998: Marco Pantani (ITA)
1997: Jan Ullrich (GER)
1996: Bjarne Riis (DEN)
1995: Miguel Indurain (ESP)
1994: Miguel Indurain (ESP)
1993: Miguel Indurain (ESP)
1992: Miguel Indurain (ESP)
* Schleck awarded victory after Contador stripped of win for doping
** Pereiro awarded victory after Floyd Landis stripped of win for doping
*** Lance Armstrong stripped of seven consecutive victories from 1999-2005 for doping
List of most victories:
5 - Jacques Anquetil (FRA, 1957, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964), Eddie Merckx (BEL, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1974), Bernard Hinault (FRA, 1978, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1985), Miguel Indurain (ESP, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995)
4 - Chris Froome (GBR, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017)
3 - Philippe Thys (BEL, 1913, 1914, 1920), Louison Bobet (FRA, 1953, 1954, 1955), Greg LeMond (USA, 1986, 1989, 1990)
