[UCI World Tour] Tour de France 2017

tl;dr Yes, there are giveaways further down the page.

Tour de France 2017

No surprise I'm doing a prediction event for this one. :)
Due to me running out of time once again there aren't many Wikipedia links (might add these later) and the Tour Touristique was copied right off the official Tour site in a few cases.

How it works

Predict who is going to win each stage of the Tour. Anyone with at least one correct predicition will be eligible to enter the (50+ games) winners' event that I will organise at the end of the cycling season.

• Leave your prediction for each stage on the giveaway for that stage (they all include maps and profiles and link to the official site).
• Do not edit your predictions if you want to change but delete and create a new one.
• Below you can see a table with all of them but you can just go the first one and use the next stage link on there to go through all of them.
• We're not going to make it too easy so anyone who just spams the same rider for all stages will be disqualified.

Preview

Even though there are no prizes for predicting the winners of the jerseys I can't resist doing a little preview on these.

Sites
Official Site
Wikipedia
A better list of riders than the official site, with thanks to bartwu

General Classification (abbreviated as GC)
This is the one it's all about, who will bring the maillot jaune (jellow jersey) to Paris this year?

• We start with last year's winner Chris Froome who hasn't had a great year so far. He's won three editions in the past though; there's no rider with four wins but there are four people with five wins, a rather august group that I'm sure he would love to join. There are few time trial kilometres this Tour and Chris has already pushed himself in the underdog role for this year. But are you really going to bet against him? He certainly has the strongest (and scientifically most advanced) team behind him (without Wout Poels unfortunately). However, it was interesting how Froome was the only Team Sky rider who did not publically come to the defense of Dave Brailsford over the whole Bradley Wiggins hullabaloo. So there are rumors he is not happy at Sky and wants to leave, apparently BMC is offering him 4 million a year to come ride for them. Even if all of this is true I'd think Sky would still want a win with Froome this year. Update: it's official; he extended his contract at Sky till 2021.
• Richie Porte is seen by many as the biggest competition for Froome this year. Porte had a great year so far, winning quite a bit already. In the Critérium du Dauphiné he got beat on the last day by Jakob Füglsang but showed great form. The biggest question is if his team (BMC) is strong enough to support him in the mountains. Hopefully his string of bad luck will break this year.
• France's big hope for a French victor since Bernard Hinault in 1985 is Romain Bardet, he managed to come in second last year, an incredibly impressive performance. The start of his season wasn't great but then it wasn't either last year. I can definitely see him winning a stage this year but not the GC. He's one to watch for the future though.
• Trek is betting on Alberto Contador having another Tour victory in him. His last dates from 2009; he also won in 2010 but was then found to have tested positive for the prohibited substance Clenbuterol. He sure has the experience though; having won seven grand tours in total. Trek is bringing Bauke Mollema as a lieutenant; someone who used to fight for the GC himself and a top ten finisher in three Tours.
• Nairo Quintana (third last year) declared he was going to try and win both the Giro and the Tour this year, a feat not seen since Marco Pantani did it in 1998 (likely doped to the gills). He failed in the Giro and now has to ride the Tour with legs that must still burn from his effort in Italy. He does have a great lieutenant in Alejandro Valverde who has said he will ride this Tour in total support of his captain (though I really hope to see Valverde attack on stages 3 and 14).
• Team Astana is bringing both Fabio Aru and Jakob Füglsang, with Aru likely being the captain even though he had a knee injury this year and Füglsang won the Dauphiné last month. Aru has returned quite strong though and should not be discounted.
• Thibaut Pinot is France's other hope and he's had a pretty good season so far. He rode the Giro though and publically proclaimed that he was focused on winning that one and the Tour was not his primary focus this year. I can't see him finishing top five this year but he'll be very keen on a stage win.
• Team Orica-Scott is bringing Esteban Chaves and Simon Yates. Chaves is a big unknown and hasn't done much this season due to a knee injury, he is definitely the dark horse this Tour. Simon's twin brother Adam won the white jersey (best cyclists less than 26 years of age) last year and Simon who's been having a good season so far will be looking to win it this year, and most likely will.

King of the Mountain (often abbreviated as KoM)
The maillot a pois (polka dot jersey) goes to the best climber; who will it be this year? The good news is that the ASO has changed the rules and is now awarding more points for the 'real' climbs so we'll get an actual climber as a winner unlike some other years. Obviously the GC riders will all feature in this classification but there are some others...

• I would be very surprised if Rafał Majka won't bring the polka dot jersey to Paris this year. He's shown it in previous years; he's just a great climber. This year he's already done the Giro which might not help but in his favor is that he has no captain to support in the mountains (unless his team wants Emanuel Buchmann to do well) so he can focus purely on stage wins.
• Thibaut Pinot won't be going for the GC after his Giro this year but will try for stage wins and the KoM classification.
• If Nairo Quintana loses big in the GC early on then he might see this as a consolation price though I personally doubt it.
• Thomas de Gendt is always up in the KoM classification and this year won't be any different. Don't bet against him for a stage win either.
• Cannondale-Drapac are bringing Rigoberto Uran, Andrew Talansky, and Pierre Rolland. All three will be looking for stage wins but Uran who didn't do the Giro is best position to battle for the KoM.
• Will Warren Barguil be going for a good GC classification or not? That is the question. His lieutenants have already done so much work in helping Tom Dumoulin win the Giro, will they have the energy to do that much work again? (Though I am really happy my favorite rider, Laurens ten Dam, will be here again this year.) If not going for the GC, he will be looking for stage wins and the KoM.
• The same could be said of Ion Izagirre; he could either try for a good GC (hard without much support) or go for stage wins and KoM.

Sprinters
This year a huge amount of sprinters will be appearing in the Tour and there is no one clear favorite making the sprints quite interesting (hopefully).

• When he came to the Tour last year, no one expected much of Mark Cavendish; he had said his focus was on the Olympics and his season hadn't been great. Then he won four stages, surprising everyone. This year his preparation has been even worse as he has been suffering with Epstein-Barr for months, until this week it wasn't even sure if he would participate. Now that he is here, does anyone dare to discount him? He's won thirty stages in the Tour so far, only four less than Eddy Merckx, the The Cannibal himself. Cav will really want to equal or beat that record even though he publically always denies it.
• Marcel Kittel has had he most wins this season so he'll be coming to the Tour with confidence. A tour that starts in his home country no less; he'll likely do well in the individual time trial on the opening day to get as close to the yellow as possible. His teammate Fernando Gaviria won four stages in the Giro this year, a feat that Marcel will want to equal but that's going to be quite hard and will he be as well supported as Gaviria was?
• The other German sprinter is André Greipel, who has won a stage in every Tour since 2011. He brings the experience but does he bring the power this year?
• France has at least two aces this year; Arnaud Démare and Nacer Bouhanni. Démare won the French national championship last week and looks to be in fine form. Bouhanni will finally appearing in the Tour; last year he was out due to a hand injury sustained in a fight (yes, really). Will one of them give France the first sprint victory since Jimmy Casper in 2006?
• Peter Sagan; so much more than a sprinter. He has won the green jersey for the past five years and were he to win it this year (which he will), he would equal the record held by Erik Zabel, who won green every year from 1996 to 2001.
• Michael Matthews broke his Tour de France drought last year and will be hoping to add to that victory in 2017.
• Dylan Groenewegen did his first Tour last year and got close in one of the stages. He's stronger now and his team is showing they believe in him, bringing a four man sprint train just for him.
• Alexander Kristoff has publicly acknowledged that he’s not particularly happy at Katusha-Alpecin at the moment, and his performance seems to have suffered a little. He’s had a solid six wins for the year, but hasn’t looked at his world-beating best.
• John Degenkolb needs to be in this list as well. :)

Feel free to leave your predictions for jersey winners and other speculations in the comments below.

Man of the Tour
We can say it before the start already; Peter Sagan will be the man this year yet again. After yet another green jersey and three stage wins last year what will he bring us this year? Here's hoping he will be telling "Froomey" to lighten up and how they are artists here to entertain the masses. He recently announced he's going to be a father, will that change anything? I am really looking forward to his wins and his post race interviews. Technically there are 11 stages this year that he is capable of winning but that would just be silly...

Update: Well, he certainly is the Man of the Tour today (04/07) but not in the way I had hoped. Exit Peter. :(

Tour Trivia
Sylvain Chavanel will start his 17th Tour this year, equalling the record held by Stuart O'Grady and Jens Voigt. He finished the Tour 14 times but the record of most Tour finishes stands at 16 and is held by none other than Joop Zoetemelk. O'Grady has 15 finishes and Voigt 14.

Adam Hansen will be competing his 18th consecutive grand tour; an amazing record.

Stages

This table/chart is RaChart™ compatible and was created with Giveaways Table/Chart Creator

View attached image.