Betancur to first Tour; with bravour?

Games of words will be far from the young Colombian’s mind as he is set to make his first entrance in the 2014 Tour de France. Especially as he will be a main contender for the white jersey, the puncheurs stages, as well as a top ten contestant for the overall classification.

"For the moment, Carlos Betancur wants to do the Tour and I think that the route should suit him, although I still have to talk to him about it," Vincent Lavenu, team manager of Ag2r-La Mondiale, told Cyclingnews.

"There are a few big mountain stages but there are also some semi-mountain stages with finales designed for puncheurs, and that should suit him," Lavenu said. "There are two nice moyenne montagne stages in the Vosges, and we could already start to see the general classification take shape there. The Alps are avoided a bit this year, although there is still a nice stage over the Izoard to Risoul."

Even with Pozzovivo racing the Giro, Betancur will probably not end up as Ag2r-La Mondiale’s sole leader. Christophe Riblion, winner of July’s Alpe d’Huez will be there, along with the French talent Romain Bardet, who wounded up as the Tour's best placed Frenchman.

Nonetheless, the 2014 route of the Tour de France will suit Betancur, and a predominant mountainous terrain will help him achieve his goals. Although the pavés might constitute a terrain alien to his Colombian heritage Betancur is poised to make an impact, and if he arrives in the same shape as in the recent Giro he is certainly a rider to watch.

"We've seen Iban Mayo lose the Tour on the pavé, we've seen Fränk Schleck break his collarbone on the pavé. It's going to be a day of enormous tension and there'll be a lot of work to be done by teams in protecting their leaders and then leading them onto the cobbles," Lavenu said.

The penultimate stage between Bergerac and Périgueux, consisting of 54km of individual time trialing, will undoubtedly be the biggest obstacle on Betancur’s road to success. If he wants to distance Froome it is therefore in the mountains that the debutant will need to make the decisive gaps.

Might we see a Colombian alliance producing fireworks in the French mountains?