The 101st edition of the Tour de France begins on July 5, 2014, in Leeds, opening with three days in England before crossing into France and eventually reaching Paris on July 27.
Yorkshire hosts the first two stages before a run from Cambridge to London, where the race finishes on The Mall. Once in France, the route adds an unusual early obstacle with nine sectors of cobblestones on the road to Arenberg, followed by mountain stages in the Vosges, Alps and Pyrenees. There is no time trial until the penultimate day, when a solitary 54 km individual test provides the race's only sustained opportunity against the clock.
Chris Froome returns as defending champion and the favorite to win a second consecutive Tour, again leading Team Sky after his commanding victory the previous year. His principal challenger is a resurgent Alberto Contador, whose results throughout the spring suggest a much closer contest than in 2013. Their rivalry intensifies at the Critérium du Dauphiné, where Froome wins the opening time trial and first summit finish before Contador takes the race lead late in the week, although neither ultimately wins the event. Vincenzo Nibali, winner of the 2013 Giro d'Italia, returns to the Tour as Astana's leader and the most prominent alternative to the two pre-race favorites.
The field is notably missing two riders central to recent Tours. Bradley Wiggins, the 2012 winner, is left out of Sky's team despite the race beginning in Britain, confirming Froome as the squad's sole leader after the tensions of their previous seasons together. Nairo Quintana, runner-up and best young rider in 2013, also skips the Tour after making the Giro d'Italia his principal objective and winning it in May. Alejandro Valverde instead leads Movistar, while Tejay van Garderen, Andrew Talansky and Joaquim Rodríguez are among the other established names entering with ambitions of their own.
The route through northern and eastern France also carries significance beyond the competition. One hundred years after the outbreak of the First World War, seven stages pass through areas associated with the Western Front, with the Tour deliberately visiting towns, battlefields and memorial sites connected to the conflict. The commemorative passage begins around Ypres before continuing through northern France and toward the Vosges, placing the centenary directly within the geography of the race.
