Chris Froome (Team Sky)

Froome will roll out wearing dossard number one in Dusseldorf on Saturday (July 1), having won the last two Tours in very contrasting ways.

In 2015, it was all about Team Sky’s metronomic rhythm and dominance in the mountains, whereas last year Froome seized his opportunities on all terrain – descending to victory on the Peyresourde, claiming bonus seconds in a breakaway on a flat stage, winning against the clock and even, iconically, running part the way up Mont Ventoux after a crash.

He is favourite again this time out, but his rivals appear to have stepped it up so far this season – the Dauphine, where Froome finished fourth overall, being a case in point.

The only other time he has not won the Dauphine since 2013, is also the only year Froome did not win the Tour de France, in 2014.

Climbing, and then descending, the Mont de Chat, Froome looked back to his best but he lost ground on Alpe d’Huez and again on the Plateau de Solaison in the following days.

It is no reason to panic that he has not won a race so far this year – after all, to win the Tour and Vuelta a Espana he needs to start peaking between now and mid-September, not a fortnight ago.

But it has been proved he can be beaten – now the only question remaining is if anybody can do it at the Tour de France…

Form guide

2017 highlights: Herald Sun Tour (sixth overall), Criterium du Dauphine (fourth overall)
Tour de France starts: six
Best results: winner (2013, 2015, 2016); seven stage wins (2012-2016); King of the Mountains (2015)

Form guide

2017 highlights:  Tour Down Under (two stage wins, winner overall), Paris-Nice (stage win), Tour de Romandie (winner overall), Criterium Dauphine (stage win, second overall)
Tour de France starts: six
Best results: fifth (2016)

Nairo Quintana (Movistar)

Nairo Quintana has already failed in his primary objective for the 2017 season – the Giro-Tour double – but that does not mean the Colombian can be written off just yet.

Quintana ultimately finished second at the Giro, losing the race lead on the final day to Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb), having failed to open up a big enough lead in the mountains.

It was a similar story in many years to last year’s Tour de France, where Quintana simply could not make his superior climbing ability tell when the roads pointed up.

Much will now depend on how much his efforts to win the maglia rosa have taken out of him – when Alberto Contador attempted the double in 2015, and won the Giro, he lacked the legs at the Tour.

Quintana will be supported at the Tour by Alejandro Valverde – who has pledged himself solely to his team leader, rather than target the GC himself – but the 27-year-old will need to be in top shape if he is to add the yellow jersey to his 2014 Giro and 2016 Vuelta successes.

Form guide

2017 highlights:  Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana (stage win, winner overall), Tirreno-Adriatico (stage win, winner overall), Vuelta Asturias (stage win, second overall), Giro d’Italia (stage win, second overall)
Tour de France starts: three
Best results: second (2013, 2015), third (2016); youth classification winner (2013, 2015); King of the Mountains (2013); one stage win (2013)

Form guide

2017 highlights:  Ruta del Sol (second overall), Paris-Nice (second overall), Volta a Catalunya (second overall), Tour of the Basque Country (second overall)
Tour de France starts: nine
Best results: winner (2007, 2009, 2010); three stage wins (2007-2009), youth classification winner (2007)

Jakob Fuglsang/Fabio Aru (Astana)

Criterium du Dauphine winner Jakob Fuglsang will share the Astana team leadership with newly-crowned Italian champion Fabio Aru for the Tour de France.

The Dane proved his form by winning the Dauphine, winning stages six and eight to claim overall victory by just ten seconds.

It was a victory which propelled Fuglsang into the limelight, having spent so much of his Astana career in the shadow of Vincenzo Nibali.

When Nibali moved to Bahrain-Merida, it was expected that Aru – the 2015 Vuelta a Espana champion – would take over his limelight but things have not worked out that way so far.

Injury cost Aru a place at the 100^th Giro d’Italia, prompting a reshuffled calendar for the Sardinian.

He has responded well, however, recovering to help Fuglsang to victory and finish fifth himself at the Dauphine, before his win at the Italian nationals.

He was off the pace at least year’s Tour de France, ultimately finishing 13^th, but he has proved already he is a better Grand Tour contender than that.

Fuglsang, meanwhile, was seventh in 2013 but is yet to kick on from his performance that year – though he was 12^th as team-mate Nibali won last year’s Giro d’Italia.

Both are outsiders, but a two-pronged attack – when applied correctly – can be a deadly weapon for a GC team. That rang true at the Dauphine, and it remains to be seen if the Astana duo can carry their form to the Tour.

Form guide

2017 highlights:  Fuglsang – Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana (sixth overall), Criterium du Dauphine (two stage wins, winner overall); Aru – Tour of Oman (third overall), Criterium du Dauphine (fifth overall), Italian national road race (winner)
Tour de France starts: Fuglsang – six, Aru – one
Best results: Fuglsang – seventh (2013), Aru – 13^th (2016)

Form guide

2017 highlights:  Tour of Oman (sixth overall), Volta a Catalunya (tenth overall), Liege-Bastogne-Liege (sixth), Criterium du Dauphine (sixth overall)
Tour de France starts: four
Best results: second (2016); two stage wins (2015-2016)