Pogacar starts as the favourite

TOUR DE FRANCE: VINGEGAARD IS HOT ON HIS HEELS

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The Tour de France embarks tomorrow with superstar Tadej Pogacar's hunger for wins sharing top billing with the magnificent 3,338-kilometer route in the first edition since 2020 not to venture abroad.

After starts in Florence, Bilbao and Copenhagen, cycling's most prestigious race returns to its roots with an old school itinerary favouring climbers.

"We decided to bring the Tour home, it was high time after all the foreign starts," said race director Christian Prudhomme.

Every inch of this year's 21-day course is on French soil, for the first time since the pandemic-delayed edition, with most of the country placed on a heatwave alert this week.