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2011 Tour de France yellow jersey preview

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2011 Tour de France yellow jersey preview
The route for the 2011 Tour de France was unveiled at a presentation in Paris on Tuesday, with most of the top riders from this year’s edition in attendance. Race organiser Christian
Prudhomme has since received almost unanimously positive reactions to the design of the race, which looks to combine the best of the last five years of the Tour.
"The route is interesting and tough with a spectacular start,” said 2008 Tour winner Carlos Sastre. “There is no doubt that it will be nervous and very hard until the Pyrenees.
Then, anything can happen, you know?"
French climber Thomas Voeckler, who won the 15th stage of this year’s Tour, expects are very interesting race, with the first week posing some serious problems to the
general classification contenders. He pointed out the fourth and fifth stages, the latter of which includes a finish line on the Cap Fréhel peninsula where the wind is expected to shake up the finale.
“I think the teams who are thinking about the overall classification will arrive the Tuesday or Wednesday before the race and go to Brittany to reconnoitre the stages there,” said Voeckler. “They’re very
exposed to the wind and could be dangerous.”
Voeckler wore the yellow jersey for half of the 2004 edition of the race but expects to be a marked man in 2011 after several stage wins in recent years. He has taken his name off the bid for the yellow
jersey.
“Looking at the profile, I think Andy Schleck is the favourite for the overall classification. I think it’s a good Tour for Andy because there are fewer time trials.”
Schleck and his team manager Bryan Nygaard have agreed with that assessment. The favourite was runner-up to three-time winner Alberto Contador in 2009 and 2010 and won the best-young-rider’s jersey both
years. Contador was not in attendance at the presentation on Tuesday because he is currently being investigation for possible doping during the Tour. If he is found guilty, Andy will officially become the defending champion for next year’s race.
“I would be [lying] if I said this wasn’t the perfect parcours for him,” said Nygaard of the newly-unveiled route. “It’s still nine months to go and a lot can happen in that time, but if you look at the
parcours he as an athlete couldn’t ask for more. We have to be satisfied. We won’t downplay his role as a favourite.”
Schleck rode for Saxo Bank in his two runner-up finished in the Tour but has left the team along with his brother Frank to form a new Luxembourg-based team run by Nygaard and former Saxo Bank staff member
Kim Anderson. The full line-up has been a closely-guarded secret, but the announcement is expected this week.
“The cobblestones made the 2010 Tour de France special but that will be replaced by the wind in Vendée and Brittany,” said Schleck of the 2011 route. “We have to remember that some riders have lost the
Tour at the team time trial. I’m not afraid of the traps of the first week though. When I go to the Tour de France, it’s for winning.”
In the absence of Contador, 2011 might also be a good year for Carlos Sastre to replicate his 2008 victory in the Tour. Contador’s team was not invited to the race that year despite
the Spaniard’s victory in the 2007 Tour, but his return in 2009 stopped Sastre from getting a streak going. The 2008 champion has five other Grand Tour podium finishes on his record and two king-of-the-mountain jerseys.
"With a Tour like this, I want to go for victory,” said Sastre. “The route is similar to that of 2008 when I won the Tour. I have good memories from this type of Tour where it gets really hard at the end."
Sastre will be 36 years old when he rides next year’s race with the new Italian team Geox, likely sharing the team leadership with 2010 Tour podium finisher Denis Menchov.

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