By Rebecca Reza

With so many mountains in the Tour this year, it is easy to forget the suffering the sprinters will endure in pursuit of the green jersey.  The only true flat stages include stage 11 finishing in Poitiers, and the grand finale in Paris. 

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Missing from the sprints will be the Manx Missile, Mark Cavendish, who responded personally on Twitter. The 30-time Tour stage winner stated, “2020 is the hardest parcours I have seen in my entire career. I am a rider that requires a lot of racing to get going and we just haven’t had that this year with Covid-19.” 

Several pure sprinters will be on the line in Nice, including Alexander Kristoff and Andre Greipel, but we left them off our list for the exact reasons Cavendish stated. 

We have chosen riders instead who may not have a lot of experience going for green, but who are capable on climbs and comfortable in the chaos of a field sprint. 

Peter Sagan

Could the winning streak come to an end in 2020? Sagan has abandoned half the races he has started this season, including the Dauphiné and Strade Bianche. 

The 3-time World Champion has completely dominated the classification, winning seven times since 2012. It likely would have been eight if not for his disqualification in 2017 after a dodgy sprint with Cavendish. He has yet to garner a win this year, a first since he turned professional in 2010. 

He has proven time and time again that he is capable of overcoming climbs that would otherwise destroy sprinters, a trait that will come in handy in the coming weeks. Should he find himself in good form, we will expect to see him once again wearing green in Paris.  

Bob Jungels

Jungels is considered an all-arounder rather than a sprinter. The route in 2020 will likely favor such a rider for the classification. The Luxembourger could find himself in green during the Tour, despite his preference for the classics. He has plenty of grand tour experience, finishing 6th at the Giro d’Italia in 2016. 2020 will be his final season racing for Quickstep Deceuninck, announcing his signing with AG2R for 2021. Ending this chapter in green would be an incredible tribute to the team, after a couple of weeks in August that saw two of his teammates suffer serious injuries. 

Elia Viviani

2020 will be Viviani’s third participation at the Tour. He earned a stage win last season, finishing third in the points classification. The decorated Italian sprinter tends to find success in the early part of the season, favoring the Middle Eastern tours of Dubai and UAE along with the Giro. As a pure sprinter however, he may find the parcours too difficult to mount a strong challenge for green. 

John Degenkolb

A new arrival to Lotto-Soudal, Degenkolb will be racing in support of Caleb Ewan. The team lost their GC ambitions when Tim Wellens was ruled out this week due to injuries sustained in a training crash. Team ambitions have now shifted to fully support Ewan in the sprints, but Degenkolb remains a strong and interesting addition to the Belgian squad’s finishing talent. 

The German Paris-Roubaix winner was left off the Tour squad last season while riding for Trek-Segafredo, despite claiming his first stage victory in 2018. We hope to see a resurgence from Degenkolb at this year’s Tour.

Caleb Ewan

Ewan had a strong 2019 season, winning three stages in both the Tour and the Giro. In the Tour de France he finished runner-up for green behind Sagan, and in the Giro, he demonstrated his ability to contest challenging and hilly finishes as evidenced by his second place finish to Richard Carapaz in Frascati.  

His second place in the points classification at the Tour de Wallonie last week, shows he has maintained his fitness from spring. Ewan enters the Tour as a clear favorite to win any bunch finish, but will he be drawn out to battle Peter Sagan in the intermediate sprints that are key for claiming the green jersey? 

Sonny Colbrelli

Bahrain-McLaren omission of Mark Cavendish from their Tour de France roster opens the door for Sonny Colbrelli. The Italian is coming off a stage win La Route d’Occitanie, where he bested Elia Viviani, proving he is indeed on good form.  

Bahrain-McLaren enters the tour in support of Mikel Landa’s GC ambitions.  That said, if Colbrelli has a good showing in the challenging early days of the tour, his team should afford him some latitude to chase sprint points. The Italian may just be a very capable dark horse in the sprinter’s classification.