Some opinions on how the racing will unfold.

GC Favourites:

		FLT	MO	HIL	TT	PRL	COB	SP	ACC	DH	FTR	STA	RES	REC	Cost
SwissLife	K De Weert	67	74	73	70	68	60	60	66	65	68	73	70	73	1,000,000
T-Mobile	S Paulinho	68	72	73	71	71	60	60	62	65	73	70	70	72	100,000
Borussia	K Koren	67	72	71	72	71	65	68	69	66	68	69	66	70	100,000
Aer Lingus	J Tschopp	66	75	74	68	67	52	64	69	69	68	71	65	73	2,300,000
T-Mobile	A Hansen	73	66	72	71	70	69	60	68	74	66	69	67	74	100,000
Borussia	M Perget	66	72	71	62	61	67	60	60	60	74	68	63	70	N/A

De Weert has been given the no.1 shirt and I concur that he has a great chance of GC victory. He is the best amongst the mountains and hills, he has an okay TT, great recovery and is not likely to be counted out on the cobbles. The guy with the no.1 shirt often goes on to victory in TOTC, just ask Adam Hansen, but surely this tradition is bound to be broken......

The shrewd Atlantius would like to break this tradition. He brings with him Paulinho, as his best bet for GC glory. He is a great all rounder and is unlikely to flail when the cobbles come round.

TOTC4 GC winner, Hansen, is also here. With mountains early on and the steep Mount Washington in this edition he may lose plenty of time which may prevent him winning again but he may well end up in the top 10 helped by great recovery.

Tschopp (2,300,000) went for the most of anyone. I put this down to a straight out bidding war between Ollfardh and The Hobbit. For, barring an extraordinary amount of luck, it is difficult to see him challenging for the top step of the podium with De Weert also here. Neverthless Tschopp may well be in the GC lead with mountains early on and will be a prime candidate for the KOM jersey.

Borussia Dortmund bring with them Koren, who like Paulinho went unnoticed in the transfer period. Koren is the top cobbler of the bunch and with a bit of luck may finish highly, a top 10 looks very likely. The same could be said for this teammate Perget. Perget was really unnoticed. If he doesn't suffer too much due to poor recovery he could be the surprise package of this TOTC.

Serpa, Atapuma, Szymd and a host of others may well challenge, but are likely to lose plenty on the cobbles to the all rounders.

Green Jersey Favourites:

		FLT	MO	HIL	TT	PRL	COB	SP	ACC	DH	FTR	STA	RES	REC	Cost
Dortmund	A Petacchi	76	64	67	65	68	67	77	76	73	65	73	70	75	1,500,000
Aviva	M Renshaw	76	52	67	61	68	62	76	78	73	54	68	68	74	2,000,000
Petro China	B Bozic	74	61	70	64	69	72	76	76	75	70	73	69	76	2,150,000
T-Mobile	S Hinault	73	61	66	60	60	72	76	74	70	65	73	70	74	100,000
Belgacom	G Henderson	76	60	65	68	72	65	75	77	76	63	70	68	78	600,000

With plenty of flat stages and an abundance of quality sprinters present, all of my green jersey favourites are sprinters.

We start off with Borussia Dortmund. They have fast man Davis leading out the fastest man here, Petacchi. With more than 6 nailed on sprinter stages it is very very likely we will see Petacchi victorius in multiple stages. In each of the previous TOTC's the fastest sprinter has always won at least one stage (more than one in 3/4 cases). and with Petacchi having a competent sprint train he looks certain of success.

Not too far behind are Bozic and Renshaw. They are both very fast and accompanied by sprint trains which will go all out to ensure victory. These sprints are going to be some spectacle, I tell you!

Goodness knows how Atlantius got Hinault so cheap! He won multiple stages in TOTC1 and may well score big UC points here if not win one or two stages.

Henderson, Feillu, Impey, Matthews, Veelers, Napolitano, Modolo... the list goes on. What a sprint fest we will have!

The Aggressors:

		FLT	MO	HIL	TT	PRL	COB	SP	ACC	DH	FTR	STA	RES	REC	Cost
SmarTone	S O'Grady	76	66	69	70	71	72	66	70	75	77	73	70	72	600,000
Petro China	G Mizbani	67	70	70	65	63	55	62	74	76	78	69	67	74	N/A
Koenigsegg	A Saramotins	71	62	71	69	70	73	70	73	74	77	73	68	67	100,000
Nokia	S Schierlinckx	75	66	72	64	64	74	65	66	65	75	74	71	65	1,950,000
Cartoon	C Lemoine	70	68	70	69	67	68	71	70	76	65	69	67	63	N/A

SmarTone have no outright leader. That may well give O'Grady the go ahead to put in attack after attack here. O'Grady may well end up in a decent GC position, but you can be sure to see him putting in late attacks on the flat or the hilly terrain.

Mizbani was super aggressive in TOTC4 and as a result made the team of the tournament and enable him to finish on the podium multiple times. Petro China have no one for GC which should enable him to go on the attack.

Saramotins could very well be the Ghyselinck of TOTC5. He will no doubt feature on the hard cobble stages with late attacks leading to annihilation of the favourites.

Nokia Ekspla are a team of mercenaries. You can bet your house that we will see Schierlinckx putting in some big attacks, being egged on by his brother and the German Martens.

Cartoon Network bring a star of TOTC4 here in Lemoine. The all rounder made the GC top 10 last time around. He may well be on the attack again. But it is less likely as his poor recovery may lead to immense suffering with 28 stages and the support role for Serpa being needed.

Sahin Sucuklari, Nespresso and Semen Indonesia have aggressive riders in abundance and we are sure to see plenty of them in the late breaks.

UC rankings:

1. Borussia Dortmund
- With the fastest sprinter on paper and realistic GC hopes, I will be gobsmacked if Borussia Dortmund don't end up on the podium, at least, in the UC rankings here.

2. T-Mobile
- A decent sprinter and good riders for the GC and TTs mean Atlantius has a superb chance of winning back to back TOTCs.

3. SwissLife
- The team with the GC winner often win the TOTC UC rankings which is why I back duxili for a high UC place. However, even with De Weert I have a feeling he won't be topping the UC rankings.