5. Momentum
Simply put, Bradley Wiggins has been on fire in small stage races this season. His narrow Paris-Nice victory made him the first Brit to prevail in the race since Tom Simpson's 1967 triumph and he then continued to improve throughout the season, taking two stages and the overall at the Tour of Romandy in April and defeating a number of his fellow Tour De France contenders at the Dauphine Libere earlier in the month. The most encouraging scalp on that particular race was that on the 53.5 KM Time Trial Stage which acted as a type of mock exam for the real deal in the Tour De France, Wiggins managed to put 1 minute and 42 seconds into Cadel Evans, nearly catching him in the process and providing the type of champion performance that has now made him the outright favourite for the Tour ahead of his Australian rival. There are still two key concerns concerning Wiggins form however. One is that he may have peaked too soon and could find myself burned out midway through the race and the other is that Brad has nearly always suffered in the third week of a Grand Tour on the days where the body can simply give up on the cyclists who lack the supreme ability to be able to recover to ride strongly for such a sustained period of time. Evans is guaranteed to have saved something in reserve for the defence of his title so Wiggins will have to hope that he is still able to operate at his current level and be willing to suffer through the unique type of pain required to win the toughest race in the world. The 2012 Tour De France kicks off in the Belgian city of Liege on June 30th and finishes in Paris on 22nd July. It is likely to be Bradley Wiggins' one and only chance to win the Tour and the men likeliest to tread on his dreams include last year's tenacious Australian victor Cadel Evans, the unpredictable, three time Grand Tour winning Russian Dennis Menchov, the demon Italian descender Vincenzo Nibali, the classy, attack minded Spaniard Samuel Sanchez and the emerging Belgian Grand Tour hope Jurgen Van Den Broeck. For UK viewers, the race will be broadcast as usual on ITV 4 and British Eurosport.