Video: Boardman analyses opening Tour de France stages

Former yellow jersey and multiple Tour de France stage winner Chris Boardman is television analyst for the ITV television network at this year’s race and he talked to Cyclingnews about the first three stages of this year’s Tour.

With three exciting days of racing in the bag the overall battle for yellow has already taken shape with Andy Schleck, Cadel Evans and Bradley Wiggins sitting in ideal positions, while defending champion Alberto Contador is struggling almost two minutes down.

While Boardman believes that Contador is still the man to beat he has been impressed with how Schleck has navigated his way through the opening stages. The Leopard Trek leader has avoided crashes while his team put in a strong ride on the stage 2 time trial to consolidate his lead.

In this video interview Boardman also points out that Contador has lost the buffer of time he had on Schleck from last year’s opening prologue in Rotterdam and highlighted that the Spaniard must now go on the offensive once the race hits the mountains.

Yesterday’s stage was won by Tyler Farrar but the talking point surrounded Mark Cavendish’s and Thor Hushovd’s disqualification from the intermediate sprint. Boardman called the commissars ‘incomprehensible’

Finally, Boardman also highlighted the strength in depth from the British contingent at this year’s race.