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Published on Friday, 26 December 2014 11:13

Tour de France 2015 - A First Look!

The route for the 2015 Tour de France looks like it's going to be a fascinating and exciting race for sure.

It starts for the fifth time in the Netherlands in the town of Utrecht and sweeps along the coast, passing through Belgium for a finish on the iconic Mur du Huy on stage 3.

Six more stages take them along the north coast of France and in to Brittany, where stage 8 will see the prime time Saturday TV audience treated to a spectacular finish on the Mûr de Bretagne for the first time ever, a climb often used in races in the region. Sunday sees a Team Time Trial over 28kms from Vannes to Plumelec.

From there they take in a long transfer on their first 'rest' day as they cross the length of the country to the start of stage 10 in Tarbes. There follows the first big tests of the Tour with three finishes in the Pyrenees including the brutal finish to the Plateau de Beille. 

Next come four 'transition' stages which take them across the Massif Central and on to the foot hills of the Alps with a finish in the often visited town of Gap. The next four stages will crown the winner of the TDF2015 with plenty of climbing to seperate the men form the boys. Hopefully the race will be still close enough going in to the penultimate stage which takes in the Col Du Telegraphe, Col du Galibier and the final ascension to Alpe d'Huez to make it a winner-takes-all battle.

The final stage is the usual procession to Paris on July 26th to finish off a route that covers 3,344 kilometres, the shortest Tour since 2002 when they covered 3,282 kilometres.

Bonus Seconds are Back.. Sort of!

The race organisers have made a couple of big changes to the race this year which should add to the interest and spice up the GC in the opening week and the competition for the Points jersey. 

First off, they have added bonus seconds back in to the race for the first time since cutting them out in 2008. But they have added a twist - the 10, 6 and 4 second bonuses for 1st, 2nd and 3rd are available for stages 2 to 8 only and not for the 1st stage TT or the TTT on stage 9 or any after that. So it could mean that we could see the yellow jersey change hands on a number of occassions what with the sprint finish on stage 2, the finish on the Mur du Huy, the cobbles, the possibilities of a break win on the coast and the Mur de Bretagne finish. It might depend though on just how much time Tony Martin or Tom Dumoulin put in to the rest of them in the opening 14kms time trial, as they might hold it for a while.

By removing them for the remainder of the race though it means that the battle for the GC will be all down to the time gaps between riders on the climbs and not skewed by bonuses. An interesting point on time bonuses or the lack of them is that Mark Cavendish and André Greipel have never worn the yellow jersey, despite all the stages they have won between them.  

Green Jersey Changes

The other big change to the Tour is the revision to the Green Jersey competition in what looks like an attempt to make it a more open competition for the pure sprinters and not just Peter Sagan's for the taking again. “We want to give more of a bonus for those who win,” Christian Prudhomme said about the change to the points structure, referring to the fact Sagan strolled to victory in the jersey last year without winning a single stage. 

They are now awarding 50 points to the winner and 30 to the runner up meaning the difference is a large 20 points, compared to just 10 under the old rules. Points are now awarded as follows - 50, 30, 20, 18, 16, 14, 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 — compared to what it was previously: 45, 35, 30, 26, 22, 20, 18, 16, 14, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, so it's most definitely weighted towards the stage winners.

The end result in terms of the betting is that Sagan is no longer the absolute certainty he has been for the last two years, getting a quote of 8/11 with Skybet and 4/6 from Paddy Power, compared to 1/2 for the 2014 edition. 

One other interesting thing to note about the 2015 Tour de France route is the lack of Time Trialling miles. There are just 14kms of a solo time trial and that comes on the opening stage. It will be interesting to see just how much of a time gap we see between the main contenders but you'd expect Froome to best Nibali, Contador and Quintana with the likes of Rodriguez, Dan Martin and Valverde probably losing considerable amounts of time on the very first day. The fact the TTT comes 9 stages in could also mean that several teams could be down on riders what with all the crashes that normally happen on the opening week, particularly as they will be riding over 13kms of cobbles. 

Overall though, it looks a very balanced and exciting route to me. There is something for everyone. The opening week will see sprinters battle it out but also see the GC men go head to head with the classics men on the cobbles and up the Murs. The opening salvos in the Pyrenees will see some time gaps open and the transition stages should see some breakaway wins and some sprints, but the final four stages in the Alps are going to be spectacular. 

Going on his performance in 2014 and how he handled the cobbles and the mountains, Vincenzo Nibali surely has a big chance again. Alberto Contador will love the mountain stages but will need to keep his wits about him on the opening week. Chris Froome was so disappointed by the lack of TT miles in the race he threw the toys out of the pram and threatened to not ride the Tour (but has since back-tracked on that and it looks like he will) and Nairo Quintana will be looking forward to the hills but must dread the opening week too. I can't really see beyond the four of them, but let's just hope they all make it to the race in top form, and particularly make it to the final 4 days within a couple of minutes of each other at most to serve us up a finale to remember.

And while we are talking about jerseys, I can't help but mention the new Maillot Jaune.. In their attempt to add a silhoutte of the Arc de Triomphe to the front of the jersey, the designers have accidentally (well you would hope accidentally) given the jersey quite a bizarre image on the front and centre.

I think it's pretty clear what I'm referring to in the picture on the left, it looks like the wearer of the jersey got just a little too excited by the prospect of wearing the famous jersey, or the podium girls were just a little too friendly than is in the job description!

I don't know if this is the actual design they will be presenting on a daily basis or if it's just a show piece jersey but it would be quite embarassing for the riders to be photographed with that on them every day on the podium!

The Early Betting

As for the betting, there are plenty of bookmakers with odds out already, and as I said above, the bookies can't really see past the four of them either. Small variations aside, they are all more or less 3/1 to win - that's an incredibly tight market for a 198 runner race, the top 4 in the betting make up 100% of the book! Chris Froome just marginally edges favouritism by being best price 11/4 with 888Sport, but in places Contador and Quintana are as low as 9/4 (3/1 best price) and Nibali has the biggest range, being as low as 3/1 but as high as 11/2 with Boylesports.

Looking beyond those four, if you are trying to find a value outsider to maybe podium like Peraud or Pinot last year, prices do jump up as a result of the top four being so short. Pinot is 33/1 to better his heroics from last year, Majka is 40/1 and Bardet is 66/1. Van Garderen and Aru are 80/1 and Uran is 100/1. Wilco Kelderman is looking like he is going to get his first ride in the Tour this year and he is 150/1 to pull off a shock. Carlos Betancur has been making claims that he has never felt so good at this time of the year and if he can control his weight and focus a little bit better in 2015 than in 2014 then the 150/1 he is available at might look big in July for the 2014 winner of Paris-Nice and the Tour du Haut Var. There are some big prices available also for the likes of Bauke Mollema, Jurgen Van den Broeck and Dan Martin. 

It's too early to call, especially as there is no value in any of them at 3/1 - if you do fancy any of them, do you want to back them now at 3/1, when they could possibly not even make the race? Of course should they start the season well and win say Paris-Nice or the Giro, their price will shorten, but how much from 3/1? It's probably worth watching and waiting a little longer. Come back here for more updates as the season goes on.  

Roll on July the 4th, I can't wait, as I'm sure you can't.. Post your comments below and let's open a discussion forum for all your thoughts on the Tour Route and your favourites etc. 

Go to Tour de France 2015 stages 1 - 8

Go to Tour de France 2015 Stages 9 - 15

Go to Tour de France 2015 Stages 16 - 21

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