One of the most impressive outfits ay the start of this Tour de France, Omega Pharma Quick Step now have to reinvent themselves after the unfortunate withdrawal of Mark Cavendish after his crash in the finale of stage 1 on Saturday.

“For us it changed everything for we had built the entire team around him,” said team manager Patrick Lefevere.

With Tony Martin, Matteo Trrentin, Jan Bakelants, Alessandro Petacchi and Mark Renshaw, the OPQS train looked unbeatable and it showed in the last stretch in Harrogate before their leader tumbled down to the tarmac. Unfortunately, Petacchi will not be in a position to take over sprinting duties from Cavendish as he suffers from an allergy after being stung by a bee.

“We still have a bunch of talented riders and we'll now be looking for a stage win”, Lefevere added.

Bakelants, winner of a stage in Corsica in the last Tour, but also Renshaw and Trentin can ply their own cards in a finale, while Tony Martin will be favourite in the only time-trial in this edition and Terpstra, the Paris-Roubaix winner, one of the men to watch on the cobbles of stage 5.

Finally, Poland's Michal Kwiatkowski, 11th last year, can have GC ambitions as he proved by finishing third in Sheffield's tough second stage.