I know we still have the Tour De Suisse going on and the Dauphine only just completed but its time to start making discussing the Tour de France this year.

So - who is going to win it this year? Is Froome nailed on or is Bad Berty playing possum?

Can Rodriguez hit form and challenge? Is Valverde the one to look out for this year?

Or is this the year when France will finally claim another win through home favourites Rolland or Pinot?

Can Andy Schleck pull himself out of his current predicament and show us once more what he is capable of?

Or - is this the year where we get a surprise winner like Quintana to top off the current Columbian revival?

Is Sagan nailed on for Green or can OPQS with their colours firmly nailed to the Cav mast deliver him enough stage wins/sprints?

Froome and Berty will rightly be the two favourites and I'm struggling to see too much further than those two. I'd be very disappointed if Valverde is anywhere near.

For green, I think it's Sagan purely because he's more likely to pick up points in the hillier stages, but you can see Cav taking five or six stage wins with a team dedicated to him, especially now they finally seem to have worked out what they're all supposed to be doing.

How good does that fan park in London look by the way? Gutted that there's nothing like that up north (I'd have thought that something similar in Yorkshire would have made perfect sense).

Like John I find it hard to see past Froome & Contador, haven't seen anything from Valverde at the Dauphine and Romandie that would suggest he can sustain a challenge for this one. I'd love to see Rodriguez sustain a challenge but also can't see anything to suggest he will.

Really looking forward to this now, it can't come round soon enough, the Giro ended up being all too straightforward for Nibali after all the pre-race hype and I'm now hoping for a classic TdF where the yellow changes hands regularly & we're all kept guessing who the final winner will be right up to the final stages. I've been re-watching the 1989 Tour on You Tube over the last week, a repeat of that race would be a fitting 100th edition.

My podium prediction 1). Froome 2). Contador 3). Porte

Agreed - what with the Tdf hitting my home parish next year why not get as much interest generated as possible this year....although to be fair I can't see any part of the course being empty in 2014.

Cast your mind back to the 2012 Vuelta when Froome went as the team leader and got bashed by the Spanish alliance of Berty, J Rod & Valverde. That is the only chance that this trio have of beating Froome this year.

The only potential flys in the ointment being as follows:

1. Who is the Froome for Froome? Without Froome last year Wiggins would have struggled. Generally speaking when the high mountains arrived it was Froome who nursed him through it. Porte is not as good a climber as Froome and I can see him being alone surrounded by a Spanish/Columbian alliance.

2. Froome/Sky see their main competition as listed above. I can see the potential of a mid race breakaway potentially being decisive and giving us a surprise winner (to be honest - I'm hoping for this as it could make the racing very tasty).

3. Sky have no plan B. If Froome has an early mechanical or crash and loses time they will not throw their weight behind anyone else even though a supported Porte could potentially podium. It'd be nice to have the worlds best sprinter in the team for this issue.....oh wait, he's gone.

Can't wait for the race to start - to be honest I'm just thinking up issues for Sky because a race they control from start to finish will be boring as chuff.

Prices for Voeckler going on a berko solo attempt on Mont Ventoux on Bastille Day? Slim to none, I'd expect.

The world expects it, even demands it.

That Sky team much as expected. Froome, Porte, Siutsou, Eddie Benson and Hedges, Kennaugh, Kiriyenka, Lopez, Stannard, Thomas.

We presume the Colombians for the Vuelta then, do we?

Happy 100th tour everyone.

Sat in work at the moment with ITV4 streaming, all ready for the off. I'm extremely confident that we'll see Brit number 6 to wear the yellow jersey later today, anyone seeing past Cav for the stage?

A lively opening!
Hat to Bakelants yesterday. Jeez, he did that tough. Great to see David Millar finishing strongly in what was left of the sprint on Saturday. I just hope this fun continues.

What we've mainly learned from the opening couple of days is this: Corsica is bloody lovely.

Can't believe Geraint Thomas is still going. Fractured pelvis, had to be helped onto his bike at the start today after two abortive attempts to do it himself. Just had a lengthy spell at the medical car for a tablet and some spray, but he's back on the tail end of the peloton.