The Tour de France is about to kick off in Mont-Saint-Michel on July 2, and the opening stage will be one for the faster men of the peloton. Not only is it an opportunity to take stage glory but also a chance to wear the event's first maillot jaune -- The race from Mont-Saint-Michel to Utah Beach - Sainte-Marie-Du-Mont promises to be an exciting one.
In all, there are roughly nine stages that the sprinters will mark. After the opener, stage 2 from Saint Lô to Cherbourg-Octeville could be one for the puncheurs. But stage 3's race from Grandville to Angers will be back in the hands of the sprint teams. If a breakaway doesn't stick on stage 4's race from Saumur to Limoges, look for the sprinters to be front-and-centre in the closing kilometre.
Following a jaunt through the Andorran mountains, the sprinters will be pleased with the flatter stage 11 from Carcassonne to Montpelier, where they can resume what they do best. Stage 14 from Montélimar to Villars-les-Dombes Parc des Oiseaux also looks like it could end in a bunch sprint. And the second week of the Tour will close out with a day for the sprinters on stage 16 from Moirans-en-Montagne to Bern.
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As per tradition, the Tour de France will end with stage 21's celebratory race from Chantilly to Paris along the Champs-Élysées, where the general classification will have already been sewn up, but the sprinters will have one last chance at glory.
Marcel Kittel (Etixx-QuickStep):
The cycling world is waiting in suspense to watch the Grand Depart of the Tour de France from Mont-Saint-Michel to Utah Beach - Sainte-Marie-Du-Mont. The stage is flat from start to finish and almost certain to be a bunch sprint. All eyes will be on German sprinter Marcel Kittel to see if he can once again win the opening stage at the Tour and don the yellow jersey as he did in Bastia in 2013, Harrogate in 2014.
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