The 101st Tour de France begins in Yorkshire today (start: 14:00, UAE time) with Britain’s Mark Cavendish bidding for the yellow jersey at the end of day one and Chris Froome aiming to be in possession of it three weeks later in Paris.
The 21-stage, 3,664-kilometres route starts in Leeds, with the first stage finishing in Harrogate, the second running from York to Sheffield and the third from Cambridge to London before 18 more stages culminate in the French capital on July 27.
It is the fourth time the Tour has crossed La Manche.
In 1974 and 1994 there were fleeting visits and in 2007, London hosted the Grand Depart, which is now in Yorkshire where two million people are expected to line the roadside.
Cavendish, whose mother Adele is from Harrogate, has attempted to play down his focus on taking the yellow jersey for the first time in his career, but there is no doubt it is his major goal.
The former self-styled ‘fat banker’ from the Isle of Man was once accustomed to visiting his grandparents in the spa town, and probably visited Betty’s, where he may have enjoyed an afternoon tea.
By the time Cavendish reaches Betty’s this afternoon, his sprint will have launched, and by the time he reaches the renamed Cvndsh and Horses (usually the Coach and Horses) he will either have won a 26th Tour stage of his distinguished career, or lost.
Such is the expectation with Cavendish, both internal and external, that winning is the only thing that matters.
Much depends on Alessandro Petacchi and Mark Renshaw, his leadout men on the Belgian Omega Pharma-QuickStep team, which will be prominent on the front of the peloton for much of the day as they pursue the inevitable breakaway.
Froome will merely bid to stay in his saddle, having fallen in the neutralised zone in Corsica 12 months ago.
The 29-year-old Kenya-bornBriton will face sterner tests after a relatively troubled build-up in comparison to 2013.
Froome was all-conquering last year, but has won only the Tour of Oman and April’s Tour de Romandie and crashed during June’s Criterium du Dauphine, a race in which he won the first two stages before finishing 12th.
Froome acknowledges Alberto Contador as his main rival but claims several other riders, such as last year’s Giro d’Italia winner Vincenzo Nibali, Fleche Wallonne winner Alejandro Valverde, Dauphine winner Andrew Talansky or 2012 white jersey winner Tejay Van Garderen, could also cause problems.
“I think Alberto has shown he’s definitely in a much more competitive position this year than he was last year,” said Froome.
“His run-up to the Tour de France has certainly been a lot smoother, he’s managed to get a lot more results in early season than he did last year.
"As with a lot of my main rivals and the main contenders here, everyone seems to have upped their game and again we’re going to be looking forward to a really exciting Tour this year, and it’s going to be a battle all the way to the end.”
The 2014 course has been widely praised for offering a more complete test of a rider’s ability.
There are five mountain-top finishes and one long 54km time trial.
But it is the challenging, undulating stages and one flat route that tackles 15.4km of cobblestones – usually reserved for the prestigious Paris-Roubaix race – that could provide several more unexpected opportunities to gain time.
Crosswinds could also be an issue on two flat, exposed stages in northern France, which visit the scene of some of the most important World War I battles.
As Froome himself says, it promises to be an exciting battle right to the end.
