- The world's greatest race, the Tour de France, starts Saturday. One hundred and seventy-six riders on 22 teams will take the start of the three-week, 3,351-kilometer/2,082-mile event.
- One of the most critical days of racing could be the team time trial on Monday.
- Three of the teams are registered in the US, with EF Education–Drapac p/b Cannondale arguably its most colorful.
- Business Insider got a behind-the-scenes ride in an EF-Drapac team car while the riders got to work reconning the TTT course with race-pace efforts.
LES HERBIERS, France -- Though the Tour de France starts Saturday with an opening flat stage suited to the sprinters, many cycling insiders are already talking about the day that could help decide the race, or at least meaningfully influence its outcome: the stage-three team time trial of 35.5 kilometers/22 miles around Cholet.
Unlike on typical days at the Tour — as on Saturday when the 176 riders will take the start en masse — the TTT is a unique discipline that pits team against team to see which is the strongest. Each of the 22 squads' eight riders will race together in concert to try to set the fastest time over the course and position their general-classification leader strategically for the coming two and a half weeks of racing.
Britain's Team Sky is expected to win the day, with the US-registered BMC squad of Australian Richie Porte another top candidate for glory. If Sky wins, its leader, Chris Froome, the embattled defending Tour champion, could put massive time into his rivals after just three of 21 stages — possibly a minute or two. That'd be a tough pill to swallow for his competitors, but as they like to say in racing, anything can happen.
Other teams will look to simply limit their losses and hope to stay within striking distance of the leader. Among them is another US-registered team, the EF Education First–Drapac p/b Cannondale outfit that counts Colorado and Texas natives Taylor Phinney and Lawson Craddock among its fast men. Both are strong time-trial riders, and along with their other teammates they'll be aiming to deliver their leader and last year's race runner-up, Rigoberto Urán, quickly and safely to the line.
EF-Drapac has no illusions of winning the TTT, but with a great ride it could finish in the top five and, more important, keep "Rigo" close to Froome on GC.
Business Insider got the opportunity to see the team in action as it reconned the TTT course on Thursday, two days before the Tour's start. Here's what we saw:
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It all started at the team hotel where the eight riders and more than 20 staff are staying in the run-up to the Tour. For the recon there were three cars with Cannondale SuperSlice time-trial bikes packed on top. (I rode back seat in one of these cars.)
Up front the riders rode in the team bus, which we just followed it to the course's start, a half hour away here in western France ...
On the way there was lots of signage letting people know that roads would be closed over the weekend for race ...
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