The Tour De France

Now personally i think Radioshack are the team to beat after the season so far (see pot: '2011 continued...') but lets take a look at who might just do it:

Contador is the obvious answer. His preperations seemed to have been marred by the ongoing doping trial that made him hide out in Spanish races alone. However all doubts were shattered when he ripped the entire peloton apart in the first grantour of the year, the Giro d'Italia. Best in the mountains, on top in the time trials...if his recovery program goes well enough its hard to see who can stop him winning another yellow jersey this year.

The Schleck brothers are again the favourites, along with Berty, to dominate this year. Frank has, admittedly, had the better start with a victory at the Críterium International and a fairly good performance at the Tour de Suisse; but the brothers did manage to work over the entire peloton bar Phillipe Gilbert at Liége-Bastógne-Liége and they lit up the Tour of the Basque Country on several occasions. While Andy's Tour of California was less than brilliant and his Tour de Suisse team duties and mechanical mishaps perhaps making a high GC finish attempt futile, Leopard-Trek insist that both brothers are on track and ready to attack Contador in the mountains. It will have to be there as everybody knows their time trialing is STILL not up to scratch and the fact that Andy Schleck skipped the teams home race to scout out some of the mountain-top finishes backs this up.

So those are the bookies picks but who else could be the contenders for at least a podium finish?

We have Cadel Evans who will be very hungry to finally wear that yellow jersey in Paris after twice coming second best. He has had by far the best build up so far with overall victories at the Tirreno-Adriatico and Tour of Romandie so far. This year has been dubbed his last realistic chance to win it so we'll see if the forever-battling Aussie can be the popular winner this year.

Bradley Wiggins is another who's recent win at the Criterium du Dauphiné suprised a few but impressed much more. Overnight his odds were slashed and he will now be one to watch he he battles to get onto that roster which he so nearly did 2 years ago. He will have to just hang onto the strong men in the mountains and rely on his formidable time trial pedigree to make up any lost time. That seems difficult but this is the man who has beaten Fabian Cancellara already and who took well over a minute out of Evans and Vino on the very same course that will be in the Tour this year.

Alexandre Vinoukerov has at last been given the chance to be a GC leader at the Tour de France and in probably his last year before retirement. The question is can he handle the long gruelling grand tour mountains as well as he could in his youth, and can he find the kind of form that won him the Vuelta á Espana?

Ivan Basso has had a difficult season so far after crashing while descending Mt Etna and various other injuries, all of which led to poor showings in Romandie and the Dauphiné but Luiquigas has said that he should be right up with the best come July.

Others such as Robert Gesik and Jurgen Van Den Broek have had very good seasons so far, both showed their faces a lot in the Dauphiné and they could be the dark horses for that podium spot. Gesink certainly has some increddible names behind him, Luis Léon Sanchez, Tjallingi, Tan Dem to name a few!

Roman Kreuziger could also be the main man for Astana giving them a couple of options although he may well be tires from winning the young riders classifications at the Giro.

Don't count out the Olympic Road Race champion Samuel Sanchez either after narrowly missing out on 3rd last year due to a bad time trial, and expect to see the flamboyant Thomas Vockler putting in attacks left, right and centre to show the tricolour he'll hope to be wearing again.

Only time will tell and personally I can't wait!