Chris Froome’s injury leaves the Tour de France wide open

During a practice run for the time trial in last week’s Criterium Dauphine, 4x TdF champion Chris lost control of his Pinarello and broke his femur, his elbow and his ribs.

While Froome’s rivals will never say in public that they are happy that the Kenyan-born Brit is out, all will be salivating at this golden opportunity to wear the yellow jersey. Th cat is away so the let the games begin.

Here are the top GC contenders, not in any particular order.

VINCENZO NIBALI. This Italian can’t be taken for granted. At 34 years old, the Shark of Messina can still bite. He can’t only climb mountains but he is an attacking rider that he can upset the plans of hiss rivals even if he is not contending. He’s not a good time trial list though.

GERAINT THOMAS. H may be the defending champion but he had poor preparation of the Tour. He crashed during the Tour du Suisse two weeks ago, and that could have been a gauge on where he is in terms of fitness. I always believed that his win last yearwould have been impossible if he wasn’t riding for team INEOS (nee SKY). His teammate is by far better than Thomas at this time.

EGAN BERNAL. He is my favorite to win the Tour this year. This 22yo Colombian is probably the best climber in the peloton today. HIs weakness is his time-trialling and inexperience. Back in the days, He would have been prevented from riding the Tour until he is 25 but the deep experience of team INEOS can make up for that.

The Movistar Trio of ALEJANDRO VALVERDE, MIKEL LANDA and NAIRO QUINTANA. There its a saying in cycling that it would be difficult to win the Tour with two leaders. Well, Movistar has three. Quintana is probably the better of the three but he’ll never be as good as Bernal. He races too defensively and won’t work in a break. He’s getting slower now than the years previously win I don’t know how he can win this year. As for Valverde, I realized now that he is not a man for the Grand Tours, even if he won one. Landa, on the other hand, is better off as a super-domestique or a leader in a smaller team. he doesn’t have the consistency to be a GT contender.

JACOB FUGLSANG. This Danish rider has been tearing the peloton since March and hasn’t been this good for a long time but then again, I don’t think he has the stamina for a three week war.

RIGOBERTO URAN. This Colombian has placed 2nd a few years ago but I don’t think he has a team that could help him against INEOS. I think he has a good chance to podium, though.

RICHIE PORTE. This Aussie has never finished a Grand Tour. Prone to crashing, he also has poor team support from TREK. With Nibali expected to move to TREK next season, Port has greater pressure on his hands to do well to be at the top the pecking order on the team.

SIMON YATES. British winner of the Vuelta a Espana last year, he is the sleeper of this Tour. How he performs on the time trials will determine his destiny on the Tour.

So there. I’d say with 99% certainty that the winner can come from this list.