Subdued Leeds yet to 'buzz' about hosting opening stage

Leeds was resisting Tour de France fever on Wednesday, just three days before the 'Grand Depart' in the city on Saturday.

While a huge banner advertising the Grand Boucle hung outside the Town Hall and a statue of the Black Prince (Edward of Woodstock) sported a yellow jersey, the city was largely devoid of indications the Tour was in town.

Paul Cooper, a managing partner at Metis Law, said it was surprising.

"It's not really got buzzing yet, I don't know why," he said.

His colleague and trainee solicitor Marcus Watson said: "I think it will change on Friday - just before the Tour starts, that's when people will get excited and the city will be covered in yellow."

Even a PR and marketing manager for the Yorkshire region said she was "disappointed" with the lack of fuss, but insisted that would change closer to the start, with various celebratory events, such as the Festival of Cycling, due to start on Friday.

The mood around town is a far cry from the excitement generated by this year's route, which had reigning champion Chris Froome purring with excitement.

He described it as "a very well-balanced route" that will "test all aspects of the eventual winner".

It is not just the route for the 101st edition of the Tour that has got riders, fans and organizers alike rightly excited, but also the potential for a true yellow jersey battle between Froome, twice-former winner Alberto Contador and perhaps even former Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a Espana champion Vincenzo Nibali.

Strong crosswinds

It will also be a poignant Tour as it will pass through the scene of some of the worst fighting of World War I, coming 100 years after the start of the Great War and amid commemorations throughout France.

Stage five starts in Ypres, Belgium, while stages six and seven visit Arras, the Chemin des Dames, Verdun and Douaumont, all sites of key battles and where memorials to the fallen still stand.

Those stages could also be key to the overall victory with stage five covering part of the Paris-Roubaix course, taking in 15.4 km of cobbles over nine separate sections in the final 70 km of the 156-km stage.

That is one day when specialists of the cobbled classics such as Tom Boonen and Fabian Cancellara will be expected to come to the fore.

The next two stages have the possibility of strong crosswinds that can split the peloton.

All three stages provide potential pitfalls where one of the contenders could see his overall hopes go up in smoke.

That happened to Movistar's Alejandro Valverde last year, when losing more than 10 minutes on the flat stage 13 won by Mark Cavendish.

The Manxman is in for a treat this year as the Tour starts in his homeland for only the second time - the 20th time it has begun outside France - with the opening stage ending in Harrogate in Yorkshire, where Cavendish's mother was born.

He will face stiff competition, though, from fellow sprinters Marcel Kittel, who won four stages last year, Andre Greipel and Peter Sagan, winner of the past three green jerseys for the best sprinter.

Once the first seven, mostly flat, stages have passed and, as long as the favorites have come through unscathed, the course becomes decidedly bumpy.

There are five altitude finishes over six mountain stages, alongside five other hilly routes.

The first shake-up among the potential winners should happen in stages eight and 10, the latter with the hugely exciting finish atop La Planche des Belles Filles, which made its Tour debut in 2012 when Froome won his maiden Tour stage, outsprinting then title-holder Cadel Evans, while Bradley Wiggins took yellow for the first time.

Following on from that, the serious business begins with back-to-back Alpine summit finishes on stages 13 and 14 before similar back-to-back uphill endings in the Pyrenees on stages 17 and 18, the latter of which culminates atop the Huatacam.

If the Tour has not already been decided by then, the penultimate stage sees the riders tackle a 54-km individual time trial.

Froome is by far the best time-trialler of the contenders so Contador and Nibali will need to be defending a lead over the Kenyan-born Briton if they are to harbor hopes of dethroning the Team Sky leader.

A statue of 'The Black Prince', Edward, is draped with a yellow cloth in reference to the Tour de France overall leader's yellow jersey in Leeds, England. The 101th edition of the event gets underway on Saturday. Lionel Bonaventure / Agence France-presse

(China Daily 07/05/2014 page16)