Mark Cavendish has identified between four and seven stages that will be his targets during the Tour de France but Saturday's is not one of them. The hilltop finish here is probably too long and hard, even though the Manxman is starting the Tour at a lighter weight than last year. Instead, his HTC-High Road team will probably back the Australian Matt Goss.
Cavendish is, however, optimistic about the rest of the opening phase of the Tour, which will take the riders north into Brittany and into the Massif Central next Saturday. "It's not that different to 2008 and I won a couple of stages in the first week then," he said.
Indeed, on Friday the Tour returns to Châteauroux, where Cavendish rocketed up the little drag to the finish to take his first Tour stage win.
The Manxman, like Lance Armstrong, always seems to be gunning for someone or other, and on Friday he turned his sights on fans and media who, he says, expect too much of him. "The ignorance of some people amazes me. If I don't win four or five stages that will be seen as failure, but winning four or five is incredible. You have to be happy with one stage win." Such is the price of making the extraordinary seem routine, as he has done with 15 stage wins in three Tours.
On Saturday, as in 2008, the Grand Boucle opens with a road-race stage with an uphill finish, replacing the usual prologue time trial.
With both the yellow jersey and mountains jersey on offer to the stage winner – the Mont des Alouettes is the first rated climb of the Tour – there will be an intense battle for position at the front of the bunch in the lead-up to the hill. On the first weekend of the French school holidays, massive crowds will add to the intensity.
Cavendish may feel under pressure this week but that is probably as nothing compared with how the Belgian Philippe Gilbert will feel on Saturday morning. He is being widely predicted as the likely winner for the 191.5km loop through the Vendée, ending up on the Alouettes, a climb of a mile and a half above the town that has hosted the Tour caravan since Wednesday evening.
Gilbert is, however, ably suited to the task, even though he has not started the Tour since 2008, when he came second on the equivalent stage.
In April he pulled off an extraordinary hat-trick of one-day Classic victories, winning the Amstel Gold Race, Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège in the space of eight days, all uphill finishes of varying steepness.
He is not merely a man who can turn on the power on any kind of ascent, but he can clearly deal with expectation.
Cavendish is, however, optimistic about the rest of the opening phase of the Tour, which will take the riders north into Brittany and into the Massif Central next Saturday. "It's not that different to 2008 and I won a couple of stages in the first week then," he said.
Indeed, on Friday the Tour returns to Châteauroux, where Cavendish rocketed up the little drag to the finish to take his first Tour stage win.
The Manxman, like Lance Armstrong, always seems to be gunning for someone or other, and on Friday he turned his sights on fans and media who, he says, expect too much of him. "The ignorance of some people amazes me. If I don't win four or five stages that will be seen as failure, but winning four or five is incredible. You have to be happy with one stage win." Such is the price of making the extraordinary seem routine, as he has done with 15 stage wins in three Tours.
On Saturday, as in 2008, the Grand Boucle opens with a road-race stage with an uphill finish, replacing the usual prologue time trial.
Cavendish may feel under pressure this week but that is probably as nothing compared with how the Belgian Philippe Gilbert will feel on Saturday morning. He is being widely predicted as the likely winner for the 191.5km loop through the Vendée, ending up on the Alouettes, a climb of a mile and a half above the town that has hosted the Tour caravan since Wednesday evening.
Gilbert is, however, ably suited to the task, even though he has not started the Tour since 2008, when he came second on the equivalent stage.
In April he pulled off an extraordinary hat-trick of one-day Classic victories, winning the Amstel Gold Race, Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège in the space of eight days, all uphill finishes of varying steepness.
He is not merely a man who can turn on the power on any kind of ascent, but he can clearly deal with expectation.
