- Six man teams: In a "can we make this as gun to flag exciting as women’s racing?" (hint: no, you can’t) push, teams are limited to six riders. This will certainly increase the uncertainty in the field and seems like good news to me.
- A very flat course: As someone who knows Britain fairly well, I’m not sure I can think of a flatter landscape than stage 6 (Newmarket to Aldeburgh) will cover. More than that, there are very few bumps at all. Given that the sprinters have nothing much on this week and the climbers are in Spain, this is a sensible decision.
- The Brits won’t talk about the weather: well... probably. Things can happen fast, but the forecast is pretty settled for the next week, which makes a change given the conditions of some previous editions.
- The winner will be fast: There isn’t much in the parcours to knock the sprinters off. Stage 7 goes through the Cotswolds en route to Cheltenham from Hemel Hempstead. It is very pretty, manicured, hilly country, but it should all be big-ring stuff for these pros. I can’t see all the sprinters being dropped. Unless someone obliterates the 16km time trial (stage 5) or a breakaway wins, this one should come down to bonus seconds.
- The fast men aren’t bad: Dimension Data bring Boss-Hog, Eisel and Renshaw, which suggests they’re serious about supporting local boy and #1 dossard wearing Mark Cavendish. Opposing him will be Caleb Ewan, Alexander Kristoff, Dylan Groenewegen, Elia Viviani and Fernando Gaviria.
- There is some TT-ing skill here too: If the sprinters are going to be beaten, it’ll be because they share out the bonifications between them and nobody builds up a sufficient cushion to hold off the stage 5 chrono specialists. Tony Martin, Stefan Kung, Jonathan Castroviejo and Geraint Thomas, among many others who are pretty handy against the clock. If the TT was any longer, I’d be favouring these guys.
So we have ourselves a tasty little side-order of a race. Details can be found at the official site, or you could peruse the startlist and stage details.
Pick to win: Alexander Kristoff. He’ll need to sprint well enough to pick up some bonus seconds, but he’s going nicely, can cope with the hills and has a good enough short time trial when he needs it. Groenewegen and Martin are others I thought about.
Pick to win stage one: Dylan Groenewegen. Just a gut feeling that he’ll be sprinting better than Ewan and Cavendish at this stage of the season. Viviani is in the form of his life and can’t be ignored.
One to watch: Chris Lawless. The National U-23 Champion leads the UK national team and will be looking to impress his future employers in the big shiny battle bus throught the week. He nicked a stage of the Tour D’Avenir and could try the same stunt here.
So that’s it... except to say that I’m posting this early because I’m about to stroll up to the ceremonial start, which is on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile. Having just shifted the Fringe, the International Festival, the Book Festival and the Tattoo, our town is full of cyclists. I for one welcome our new road-closing hipster overlords. Hopefully there’ll be some pretty pictures attached to this page before too long.
Edited to add:
As promised, some thoughts and pictures from the start in Edinburgh this morning.
I expected crowds. Edinburgh is busy at the moment and anyone who passes is going to stop to have a look at a race start. What amazed me was the number of people who'd made the trip to watch the riders come through and could talk intelligently about the riders taking part on, for instance, the Wanty team. That's new in Britain.
It is always fun to be at the start of a race and see the sheer numbers of riders, support vehicles and team riders who are involved. The Royal Mile (no prizes for guessing how long the road is) wasn't long enough for all the vehicles, several of which were parked down side streets.
The atmosphere was fantastic and many of the riders were generous with their time. Geraint Thomas and Tony Martin were popular but Ryan Mullen was the friendliest rider I've ever seen, taking as long as everyone wanted to shake hands, take pictures and have a chat. He was great with a group of star-struck kids and he's someone I'm now sentimentally rooting for.
Speaking of rooting for riders, I found myself standing next to James Shaw's Mum and Dad at one point. Not many chances for them to see him ride in the UK and he's in the Lotto #1 jersey this week. They couldn't be more proud and were going home with armloads of souvenirs for his Grandma. He's hoping he continues to make them proud.
Anyway, I'll stop babbling. If a picture's worth a thousand words... have lots of words:
I wish they were running this stage from Kelso to Edinburgh, rather than the other way around. Look at the finish they could have enjoyed!
This is the less than luxurious team support van for the GB team. I had a brief word with Chris Lawless, understandably chuffed to be heading to Team Sky and hoping to do something this week on a parcours that isn't ideal.
Some of the unsung heroes of the race - the Bristol Ambulance Service are trailing the race all week. Just five of them with three vehicles to transport.
Some bikes for those of you who enjoy that sort of thing - some of which you might not see next year. Also, the bike of my pick for today's win.
A few riders with chances this week.
A few with chances for the future, from the Edinburgh cycling club's ceremonial start.
Finally, some wise advice for all riders on my walk home.
