Tour de France: Penpix of the four race favourites

The Tour de France embarks from Florence on Saturday, a 21-day race billed as a four-way battle for the title.

Here AFP sports takes a brief look at the men expected to challenge for the title in Nice on July 21.

Tadej Pogacar (Team UAE/Slovenia)

Cycling's closest thing to a rock star, the 25-year-old was head-and-shoulders above his rivals winning six stages and the overall title at May's Giro d'Italia. Despite contracting Covid just 11 days ago rivals believe the Slovenian remains "unbeatable" as he targets the first Giro-Tour double since Marco Pantani in 1998. Confident, affable and polite this self-described "good boy from a good family taking no short cuts in life" won the 2020 and 2021 Tour de France. His racing instincts however got the better of him in the past two editions, where a more prudent approach might have delivered the title rather than runners-up spot. This instinct to "race every stage" combined with a dislike for heat and a potential wobble downhill are his weak spots. He appears to have the strongest team, if he can avoid a clash of egos.

Jonas Vingegaard (Visma/Denmark)

The wiry climber with nerves of steel targets a third straight Tour de France on the back foot after a bad fall and 12 days in hospital in March. On a real climb day, with four mountains rather than one, the man from a remote fishing village has proven he can punish the best of the rest. His hair-raising descending skills are just as remarkable. Vingegaard, 27, can also stick to a long-range plan, and so it seems can his Visma teammates, including his right-hand man Wout van Aert, considered by Vingegaard himself as possibly the best rider in the world. Vingegaard's team Visma were described by Dave Brailsford, mastermind of seven Tour de France wins, as the "most expansive thinkers in cycling". His weakness is that he is race-rusty, but conventional wisdom says a rider must race into form in week three.

Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora/Slovenia)

Easily the most relaxed looking rider ahead of the race Roglic seems to have been given wings by a new six million euros ($6.4 million) a year contract with Red Bull. "I changed team to try and win the Tour de France," said the 34-year-old, almost unrecognisable as he cracked jokes in Florence this week. Roglic will forever be remembered as the man who lost the 2020 Tour de France on the final day time-trial. The former ski-jumper can change that plotline here on the 2024 Tour, which also culminates with a potentially game changing time trial. This strong all-rounder with four Grand Tour wins to his name has a tendency for bad luck, or falls, but at Red-Bull Bora he arrives with a solid team as the clear leader.

Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step/Belgium)

Billed as the new Eddy Merckx when winning a rare junior world championship double in 2019, Evenepoel has taken his time to arrive at the top, mainly due to the fact he plunged over a bridge and into a ravine aged 21 on the Tour of Lombardy. But a world title at Woolongong, Australia, coupled with the Vuelta a Espana title in 2022 also delivered him the 'Velo d'Or' that year. His strengths are his time-trialling meaning he may just produce a last day turn around. The 24-year-old is also capable of a masterclass of endurance and producing long range breakaways. His target is to wear the yellow jersey at some stage, possibly after the gravel run at Troyes, and the best young rider jersey. His weakness might be his tendency to get discouraged at altitude, but with three class climbers alongside him at Quick-Step, the sky's the limit for the Belgian.

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