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A historic Tour de France is set to get underway in Italy this weekend, with a genuine modern great hoping to achieve something that few have attempted, let alone achieved in the sport's illustrious history.
Tadej Pogačar, winner of this year's Giro d'Italia, is aiming to become the first man in 26 years to win the Giro-Tour double.
Standing in his way is the two-time defending champion Jonas Vingegaard Hansen, named in Visma-Lease a Bike squad despite the appalling injuries he suffered at the Tour of the Basque Country earlier this year.
But it's not just these two winners of the last four Tours de France who are expected to be in contention.
There's four-time grand tour winner Primož Roglič, who also claimed his second Critérium du Dauphiné victory earlier this month backed by new team Bora-Hansgrohe, while 2022 World Champion and Vuelta winner Remco Evenepoel is also in the mix, although he will have to hope to put some of his wretched recent fortune behind him to contest properly.
Then there's two-time grand tour winner Egan Bernal, who is on the return from life-threatening injuries suffered in 2022 and leads a strong Ineos-Grenadiers team.
The Pogačar double is on
The list of names to have achieved something approaching cycling's holy grail is a list of the sport's greatest names.
Fausto Coppi (twice). Jacques Anquetil. Eddie Merckx (three times). Bernard Hinault (twice). Stephen Roche. Miguel Indurain (twice) and Marco Pantani.
It is indisputable that Pogačar has the verve, panache and skill to join them — his insatiable appetite to win across grand tours and one day races alike has seen him referred to by Merckx's old nickname of "Cannibal", but with a twist, "Cannibale Gentile".
The parallels between Pog and Pantani were firmly established during this year's Giro d'Italia, a near-uncontested romp to victory in which Pogačar proved he was a cut above the rest of the opposition.
On stage 2, Pogačar repeated a feat achieved by Pantani on the infamous 1999 Giro by overcoming a puncture at the foot of the steep 11 kilometre climb to Santuario di Oropa before powering past the entire field to win the stage.
Pogačar went on to win the race by 9 minutes and 56 seconds, the largest winning margin at the Giro in 59 years.
"If I arrive at the Tour de France with these legs that I have now, I think it's going to be just fine," Pogačar said at the end of the Giro, ahead of taking a week off to "enjoy some coffee rides and good cake" before heading back to altitude.
He is backed by an extraordinary UAE Team Emirates squad, featuring a bevvy of stars all geared to assist him in the high mountains.
Riders have come close to the double in the years since Pantani managed it — Chris Froome won the Giro then finished third at the Tour in 2018 for one.
British rider Froome, incidentally, is the last rider to win two grand tours in the same year, when he won the Tour and the Vuelta in 2017.
What form does Vingegaard have?
Vingegaard Hansen was having a brilliant start to 2024 before disaster struck in the Basque Country in March.
The two-time Tour champion won both stage races he completed, O Gran Camiño and Tirreno-Adriatico, including the mountain classification.
But then, on the slippery, dangerous roads of the Itzulia Basque Country, disaster struck.
Vingegaard Hansen, Roglič, Evenepoel and Australian Jay Vine all went down on the fourth stage from Etxarri Aranatz to Legutio, suffering an assortment of injuries.
Vingegaard Hansen broke his ribs, collarbone and punctured his lung in the incident that saw Vine fracture a cervical vertebra and suffer two additional fractures in his thoracic spine.
Loading...The Danish star has not raced since and, up until the Visma-Lease a Bike team was named, was no certainty to race at the Tour.
The situation is an intriguing reversal of the situation the pair faced last year when it was Pogačar who was injured leading into the France showdown after be broke his wrist at Liege-Bastogne-Liege.
Pogačar seemed to be OK until the 17th stage, when he dramatically imploded on the slopes of the Col de la Loze.
"I'm gone. I'm dead," he said over the team radio before limping home over five minutes behind Vingegaard Hansen.
Can Vingegaard Hansen use his team to maintain the pressure on Pogačar? If he does he'll have to do it without chief lieutenant and Vuelta a España winner Sepp Kuss, who is out of the race with COVID.
(By the way, if you're confused by the addition of Hansen to Vingegaard's name, don't be. Vingegaard, who was officially Vingegaard Rasmussen, officially took the last name of his wife, Trine Marie Hansen, last year, but will likely still be called Vingegaard as Danes typically drop their second family name.)
Mark Cavendish going for the record. Again
After last year's crushing disappointment, when the Manx missile crashed out on the eighth stage of the Tour.
The bunch sprint specialist was aiming for a record 35th stage win at the race, bettering the record of 34 that he currently shares with Merckx.
When he clambered into the back of an ambulance last year, it appeared that his quest would be over.
Having battled debilitating illnesses, loss of form and multiple crashes over a road career that has extended almost two decades, Cavendish appeared done.
However, the now 39-year-old, newly knighted sprint star is back for one more attempt at the record.
He'll be up against a full cast of challengers, including four-time stage winner at last year's Tour Jasper Philipsen and the ultra-aggressive, take-no-prisoners approach from his Alpecin-Deceuninck team.
How will the Aussies go?
Australia's best chance of success at this year's race may well be vicariously through their teammates.
Former Giro winner Jai Hindley will ride fully in support of Roglič at Bora-Hansgrohe, while Jack Haig will work for Santiago Buitrago at Team Bahrain Victorious.
The main focus for Australia's hopes will be at Team Jayco AlUla.
Dutch sprinter Dylan Groenewegen will be the main source of investment in stage wins, but one-time green jersey winner Michael Matthews will also likely be a factor in the tougher sprints.
How do I watch the Tour de France?
The Tour de France will be available to watch on SBS from June 29.
The coverage will be available via the television channel and online through SBS On Demand.
When does the Tour de France start?
The Tour starts in Florence, Italy on Saturday, July 29.
Coverage of the race in Australia will start at 7:50pm (AEST) on SBS On Demand, with TV coverage starting at 8:30pm AEST.
It is the first of 21 stages, with the race concluding on July 21 with an individual time trial in Nice.
It's the first time the race will ever finish outside of Paris and the first time since 1989 when the race will finish with a time trial.
The last time the race did so, American Greg LeMond beat Frenchman Laurent Fignon by just eight seconds, the smallest winning margin in Tour de France history.
Is there a Tour de France Femmes this year?
There is, but unlike last year, where the Tour de France Femmes followed on immediately after the men's race, this year the women will have to wait until after the Olympics.
That means the Tour de France Femmes will not start until August 12, getting underway in Rotterdam before finishing on Alpe d'Huez.
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