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The 2018 Tour de France started under a bright sun on Saturday at 11:09 at the exit of Noirmoutier-en-l'Ile (Vendée), starting a first stage that should lead the runners to Fontenay-le-Comte after 201 kilometers.
The preparations for the 105th edition of the Great Loop were marked by the controversy surrounding British title-holder Chris Froome, looking for a fifth victory on the Tour, cleared Monday by the Union Cycliste international after an abnormal doping control.
The start of the Great Loop was given Saturday at 11:09 by its director Christian Prudhomme in the presence of the French Minister of Sports Laura Flessel, Prince Albert of Monaco and Eddy Merckx, the Belgian champion who embodies the legend of cycling.
If the sky is a summer blue over the Vendée, the favorite of the race, the Briton Chris Froome, starts the race in an uncertain climate. The decision that ended Monday the proceedings against him, following an abnormal doping control, has generated mixed reactions, including in the public.
Whistled Thursday at the presentation of the teams, the four-time winner of the Tour presented the next day his defense in the media. With the aim of restoring calm in anticipation of the 3551 kilometers leading to the arrival, on July 29, on the Champs-Elysées.
The tour director called for "serenity". "In the bike, said Christian Prudhomme, we have the ability to encourage his or her champions and do not say anything for others.I think this is the attitude that must have, the most intelligent attitude" .
At the start of the race, Froome is at the center of the game. A fifth success would make him equal to the list of four record holders of five victories in the Tour (Anquetil, Merckx, Hinault, Indurain). The Brit would also achieve an unprecedented performance in the twenty-first century, the Giro-Tour double, as the Italian "Pirate" Marco Pantani is the last to succeed twenty years ago.
– The first sprint? –
The opponents of the Briton count in number. On the French side, Romain Bardet is openly targeting the yellow jersey after his results of the last two editions (2nd and 3rd). "My two podiums allow me to calculate less.To make a third without taking risks, without attacking, it does not interest me at all," he said in advance.
"The density of the plateau is incredible", adds the Auvergnat team AG2R La Mondiale. The best runners of great tours are present in the peloton of the 22 teams, with rare exceptions (Aru, Pinot, S. Yates).
Colombia has two elements. Rigoberto Uran finished second last year, Nairo Quintana did the same twice before. But, like the other contenders, the Andean climbers will have to overcome the traps of nine days in the plain, from the great west to the north of France.
The main obstacle, feared of all, is at the end of the sequence, July 15, the day of the finals of the World Cup football. Some twenty kilometers of cobblestones of Paris-Roubaix are to cross before attacking, two days later, with the pbades of the Alps.
Meanwhile, it is the sprinters who are aiming for the first yellow jersey at the end of the 750-meter straight that is waiting for competitors at Fontenay-le-Comte, after the 201-kilometer stage.
Colombian Fernando Gaviria makes his debut in the Tour. Germany's Marcel Kittel, a five-time winner last year, is less successful this season after his change of team. Dutchman Dylan Groenewegen is the last stage winner since he was fastest on the Champs-Elysees last July.
Others (Greipel, Cavendish, Sagan) share the same hopes. And why not Arnaud Démare, the Frenchman who opened his charts last year in the Tour?
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