2015 Tour de France preview: the sprinters and the green jersey

Giant-Alpecin announced Thursday that German sprinter Marcel Kittel, winner of eight Tour de France stages over the last two editions including both Champs-Élysées victories, will not be lining up next Saturday in Utrecht, the Netherlands for the start of the 102nd edition. Kittel has struggled with illness this season and just isn’t fit enough to contest the Tour.

This opens up many possibilities for the fast men of the peloton, and with the Tour’s new points classification systems, Tour of California champion Peter Sagan (Slovakia/Tinkoff-Saxo) won’t have an easy time taking his fourth consecutive green jersey.

Though the intermediate sprint points remain the same, the points for winning certain stages are quite different for 2015. On five flat to hilly stages–2, 5, 7, 15 and 21–the winner will be awarded 50 points, the runner-up 30 points, third place 20 points and then a sliding scale down to 15th spot. This is different from the system over the last four years in which the winner took 45, second grabbed 35 and so on down to 15th. Also for this edition stages 3, 4 and 8 will offer 25, 22 and 17 points for the top three.

This means that Sagan, who has relied on points from intermediate sprints and top five finishes to win his green jerseys while taking relatively few victories (four wins over the 2012 and 2013’s Tours) will find it tough against Mark Cavendish (Great Britain/Etixx-QuickStep), Andre Greipel (Germany/Lotto-Soudal), Nacer Bouhanni (France/Cofidis), Alexander Kristoff (Norway/Katusha) and John Degenkolb (Germany/Giant-Alpecin).

Cavendish has rolled up 13 of his 131 career wins in 2015, nabbing the points classifications of the Tour of California, the Tour of Turkey and the Dubai Tour, in which he took the overall victory. He’ll have a strong lead-out train to deliver him to the line.

The highlight of Degenkolb’s season so far has been the top honours of Milan-San Remo. If there’s a fellow who can win the green via the Sagan method, it’s the mustached Degenkolb.

The Gorilla, Andre Greipel, has chalked up nine triumphs in 2015, his recent-most being three stage wins in this month’s Ster ZLM Toer GP Jan van Heeswijk to take the overall title. He’s popped the champagne six times in the Tour de France.

Kristoff must be considered among the elite sprinters of the peloton now, along with one of the most versatile riders. His spring campaign was very successful, as he won the Scheldeprijs and Tour of Flanders in the same week, came runner-up in Milan-San Remo and posted top tens in Paris-Roubaix, E3 Harelbeke and Gent-Wevelgem. With 18-wins spread evenly over five months, the Norwegian is on a roll.

Bouhanni will be the home-crowd favourite. Two stage wins and the points classification in the Critérium du Dauphiné, along with top honours in Wednesday’s Halle Ingooigem in Belgium will bolster his confidence going into la Grande Boucle.