Can any of his big rivals put a spoke in Pogacar's wheel?

The Slovenian's form is irresistible but that doesn't mean others don't fancy their chances in today's Tour de France

- LAWRENCE OSTLERE SPORTS WRITER

The weird and wonderful Tour de France circus begins with the Grand Depart in Lille today, and this year's route is notable for its simplicity: the Tour will be held exclusively in France for the first time in five years, finishing in Paris on 27 July. It ends with a twist on stage 21 after organisers threw in a triple loop of the steep cobbles of Montmartre on the 50th anniversary of the race’s first finish on the Champs-Elysees, once a wacky idea but now such an integral part of the canvas.

The Tour loves an anniversary and you may notice tributes to Bernard Hinault sprinkled through the route, 40 years after his fifth and final yellow jersey in 1985, a nice touch even if it serves to underline the long, long French wait for another home winner. You can bet Hinault would not have predicted Slovenia would be the dominant nation in the Alps and Pyrenees 40 years on, not least because it didn’t yet exist.

Tadej Pogacar and his fellow Slovenian Primoz Roglic make up two of the “big four”, along with Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel and the Dane Jonas Vingegaard, who all start the Tour de France for the second year in a row. Last year’s mouthwatering four-way contest was scuppered by a crash in the opening week, which killed off Roglic’s challenge and damaged Evenepoel’s, and much of the talk among them this week has been simply of survival.

“The first week of the Tour is one of the most intense, nervous weeks,” Pogacar said. “You can quite easily lose the Tour de France in the first 10 days until the first rest day. I don’t think my goal should be to aim to gain time for the first week, you just need to take care and not screw up the whole Tour.”