Foldable Bikes Party: Tour de France: Analysing the favourites and their seasons so far

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Most of the best stage racers in the world will line up alongside one another in Mont-Saint-Michel on the start line of the 2016 Tour de France, but the roads they've all taken to get there will have been diverse. With just 12 days to go until the Grand Départ, and with the preparatory racing mostly done and dusted, Cyclingnews plots the paths of each of the main favourites and analyses their performances along the way.

Chris Froome (Team Sky)

Race days: 27
Victories: 5

Herald Sun Tour (January, 2.1): 1st overall, 1 stage win
Volta a Catalunya (March, WorldTour): 8th overall
Liège-Bastogne-Liège (April, WT): 112th
Tour de Romandie (April/May, WT): 38th overall, 1 stage win
Critérium du Dauphiné (June, WT): 1st overall, 1 stage win

For the fourth season in a row, the two-time Tour de France champion kicked off his season with a February stage race victory but it has been a far from conventional start to proceedings. Getting underway in Australia for the first time in 6 years, he chose to remain in the southern hemisphere for a warm-weather, high-altitude training stint in South Africa.

His return to Europe raised some initial doubts over his progress as he was beaten at Catalunya by most of the names on this list before a surprise slump at Romandie saw him lose 17 minutes in a single stage. However, he swept those doubts away with a clinically taken third Dauphiné title – riding his rivals off his wheel on the stage 5 summit finish before defending his advantage on the final two mountain stages.

Chris Froome celebrates winning stage 5 at the Criterium du Dauphine