Eyes On The Prize

As well as the Yellow Jersey for best overall rider, riders will be competing for a number of other prizes over the three weeks of the Tour – those prizes are previewed here.

Green Jersey – Points Classification (Best Sprinter)

The rules of the green jersey competition, for the winner of the points competition, have been changed this year – and so they should have. In the past two Tours Mark Cavendish has won 5 and 6 stages respectively, and yet has only finished second in the race for the sprinters prize because of the vagaries of the competition. This year there are more points awarded for winning stages, and only one intermediate sprint per stage, worth 20 points instead of 6, and paying all the way down to 15th. This should allow Cavendish to finally take his first Green Jersey in Paris. His main dangers are his two rivals from last year, Allessandro Pettachi and World Champion Thor Hushovd. I think the new rules suit Pettachi better as he is more explosive than Hushovd these days - the God of Thunder stayed competitive last year by finishing top 5 in a number of stages without ever threatening to win one. An outsider for the jersey may be Australia’s Matt Goss. While he will be riding as lead out man for Mark Cavendish, if something were to happen to the Manx man than Goss, winner at Milan-San Remo earlier this year, is more than good enough to take over as High Road-HTC’s main sprinter.

Polka Dot Jersey - Mountains Classification (Best Climber)

The mountains classification is generally an absolute lottery, as evidenced by the fact that Anthony Charteau took the prize out last year. I have just looked through the history of the race and he is easily the worst winner of the award this millennium (and possibly ever!). As was the case with the green jersey this competition has had a revamp, with the big points now more heavily weighted towards the major mountain passes. With double points now only available on the four big summit finishes, we could see a GC contender take the prize (rare in recent times). However, my tip for the jersey this year is Frenchman David Moncoutie, a three time winner of this prize in the Vuleta. He is never going to be a GC contender, so should get more than enough leeway to go hunting for points in the major mountain stages. His major challengers are likely to be the GC leaders in Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck, who are sure to finish high enough up on the major summit finishes to rack up a fair amount of points in this competition. A complete bolter may be Saxo Bank’s Chris Anker Sorensen. Although he will be riding in support of Contador there is a bit of talk around that he may be eyeing off this competition himself, and he certainly has the ability to feature if given his head.

White Jersey - Youth Classification (Best Young Rider)

This competition has been the domain of Andy Schleck for the last three years but he is no longer eligible for this age-restricted category. That is likely to see the title pass to the great Dutch hope Robert Gesink, who is being tipped by some as an overall podium finisher. That should be more than enough for him to take out the youth classification with relative ease. To be honest, picking any rivals for Gesink is clutching at straws, but one may be the latest French hope Jerome Coppel (see Yellow Jersey preview). Outside of him American Tejay Van Garderen is a chance if HTC allow him to ride for an overall position. It is hard to find a genuine bolter that would be any chance of taking this prize away from the favourites.