After a wet ‘n’ wild Stage 1, which sadly took Valverde and Izagirre as its main victims, things should be drier for Stage 2 – the first of many sprinter-friendly stages in this year’s race.

We say goodbye to Dusseldorf and Germany, and head towards Belgium with the stage finishing in Liege, but don’t expect any La Doyenne like terrain today. Do expect a raft of riders to try and get in the morning break to try and grab the sole KOM point on offer at 6.5km. After that, there should be little else to mention until the roads start to roll as the race enters Belgium. The weather could still play a factor though, with some firm winds forecast as the riders navigate the flat German farmlands in the first half of the race. It’s unlikely that echelons will appear, and if they did they will be likely shut down before the race hits Liege, but you never know!

The run into the finish isn’t the most technical, there are two sharp corners at 6km and 3km to go and after that its a relatively straight race to the line. It will be a battle of the sprint trains and any remaining breakaway will have been swept up long before.

The first sprint stage of the Tour is always a tough one to try and call, as we (and the teams) won’t have a true idea of what the main contender’s form is. We know what one man’s form is though and unfortunately, it doesn’t look good for Mark Cavendish to add to 30 Tour stage wins. He has missed most of this season with glandular fever and has publicly stated that he wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t win a single stage at this year’s race. Now, what Cavendish says and what he really thinks are sometimes not one and the same, but it would be a huge result for him to take the win here. We’d expect him to treat this first opportunity as a chance to measure himself against his big rivals and to then reevaluate his chances for the rest of the race.

The favourite is Marcel Kittel. His Quick-Step team are almost entirely made up of his lead out train. He has 8 wins spread across the first half of this year, and he looked very strong in the Stage 1 time trial, it will be hard to see him not making it 9 in Liege.

His two countrymen Andre Greipel and John Degenkolb will also be gunning for a win, in a stage that starts on home soil. Greipel has had a mixed year, and looks to be missing Greg Henderson big time. Degenkolb has looked to have regained his 2015 form, following a year of recovery from his 2016 training camp accident, but hasn’t won since Dubai in February.

Arnaud Démare has had a great year so far, picking up wins at Paris-Nice and Criterium de Dauphine (where he also took the point jersey) and the recent French National championships. Can he match the pace of the top sprinters? Yes, on his day and if the weather is gloomy, even more so.

The man that they will all want to beat (and also beat out of the top point scoring places) is Peter Sagan. What can you say about the current double world champion and five time green jersey winner, that hasn’t been said many times on this blog and many others? He’s taken stage wins and points jerseys at the Tour de Suisse, Tour of California and Tirreno-Adriatic. His form isn’t in question, the only question is if he can beat the raw sprint power of Kittel.

Whith it being the first sprint stage, its worth looking out for a few surprise names to appear in the top placings. Riders like Alexander Kristoff, Micheal Matthews, Dylan Groenewegen, Nacer Bouhanni, Greg Van Avermaet, Sonny Colbrali, Nikias Arndt and Dan Mclay should all be challenging for a top 10 spot.

Podium Prediction: