Color me Green! The contenders for the maillot verde

I will take one of each color, please?

Perhaps the most coveted Tour jersey after the maillot jaune, the maillot verde (the green jersey) is awarded to the rider who amasses the highest number of "points" over the course of the grand tour*. Theoretically, this jersey rewards the rider who has put in the most consistent performance in all the stages, a veritable all-rounder. In practice, however, the points system leans heavily in favour of the sprinters and rouleurs, riders with a big engine to fire up on the intermediate sprints as well as have enough gas at the finish. The rise of Peter "Wheelie" Sagan a.k.a. The Tourminator suggests the success of this philosophy after a virtual sweep of points by sprinters (or rather, ONE particular one) in the recent past. This has lead to a fairly ambiguous, but open competition, as predicting the winner of the green jersey has marginally better chance of success of predicting how many fingers of your hand will be chomped off by a lazy alligator as you are inspecting its dental furniture. (And you thought being a gator-vet was a dull job?) So without further ado, here is the list of my favorite contenders for the mailllloooooot verdeeeeeeeeee ..... 

1. The Tourminator, Peter Sagan, Cannondale Cycling

In the green corner, we have -- Peter Sagan, The Tourminatorrrrrr!

With his dominating performances in the past two editions of the Tour, Sagan is the favorite for this year's race too (he was up 97 points from the second place rider, Cav in 2013 and a whopping 141 points ahead of Greipel in 2012.) What he lacks in pure sprinting, he more than makes up for in stamina and consistency. He is often compared to Eddy Merckx, the most winningest cyclist ever; but has yet to deliver the goods in the wholesale fashion as the Cannibal (Ever notice how the sprinters and big riders end up getting the most wicked nicknames in biking?) The indicators are all in the right place. Sagan has been lapping up regular victories with stage wins in Tour of Oman, Tirreno-Adriatico, Tour of California and recently, Tour de Suisse. Sagan career trajectory from sprinter to classics rider to probable future tour winner seems like a foregone conclusion if you extrapolate his improved climbing abilities from the past few years to the next 20. It will be very difficult to keep the green off his shoulders if he starts firing in the first week.

2. The Giant, Marcel Kittel, Team Giant-Shimano

Marcel Kittel is the new kid on the block, the upstart with the audacity to challenge Sagan and Cav and Griepel and win! One of the most outspoken riders against doping, he is representative of the new crop of riders who do not revere the Lance-era riders, and for whom the whole omerta thing is just a load of BS. He is rumored to push out a couple of thousand watts or more during his sprints, which also suggests that he moonlight as the UN Ambassador to third-world countries in the next training season, literally lighting up towns as he passes through! He has been consistent, but largely invisible this year, with a shorter-than-expected Giro. He should be in good shape for the Tour to repeat his success from last year.

3. The Manx-Missile, Mark Cavendish, Omega-Pharma Quick-Step

From the team that is sponsored by a healthcare conglomerate and a laminate flooring manufacturer comes the superhuman man-missile hybrid who regularly swept the floor clean in this competition not so long ago. Mark Cavendish, dubbed the Manx Missile by fans and commentators, and the "Mozart of the Eleven-toothed Sprocket" by L'Equipe, is undoubtably the fastest man on two wheels - but the bigger question is whether he can sustain his speed to outgun Kittel in the sprint finishes? The odds are 50-50 currently, an oddity in itself when speaking about Cav and sprinting. Although he is not as dominant as he was a few years ago, he is hungry for more stages and has his best mate (and fastest lead-out man in the business) Mark Renshaw back in the fold to lead him out to victory. It will be interesting to see if he can work the record of most Tour wins this year.

4. The Gorilla, Andre Greipel, Lotto-Belisol

A teammate of Cav on the erstwhile HTC-Highroad setup, Andre Greipel is the real giant among the riders. Six feet tall and bulky, he is not your usual diminutive sprinter type. One of the most-loved guys in the peloton, he is a fierce competitor on the bike! His pre-Tour season has included a couple of World Tour races and a handful of HCs, and he looks to be peaking at the right time come July. Though he favors a flat finish, he has demonstrated his ability to catch up with the main bunch on uphill finishes in previous years Tours. 

It is very difficult to bet against any of Cav/Kittel/Greipel in a pure bunch finish and the winner is simply the rider who pushes the most watts on that particular day. In addition to the riders above, we have the following contenders who are not exactly sprinters, and may not win any stages, but can be right there when the accumulated points are taken into account.

5. John Degenkolb, Team Giant-Shimano

Degenkolb burst into the scene in 2012 as an all-rounder who could hold up his own against the big guns in the hills and the sprints. After a quite start to 2012, he switched gears with victories (and podium finish) in 4 Jours de Dunkerque, Tour de Picardie, Paris Tours (#1 in 2012 and 2013) to announce his intentions loud and clear. He has also built up a decent Spring classics palmares over the last few years, and is a good foil to the pure sprinter Kittel. He looks like the best of the rest to challenge Peter Sagan over longer stages for intermediate sprint points.

6. Michael Matthews, Orica Greenedge

If there were a nomination for the "revelation of the year," I would nominate Matthews in a heartbeat. After relative obscurity in the now-defunct Rabobank team, Matthews found firm footing in OGE team, transforming into a solid tour-de-force for the coming future. If his successful Giro this year is any indication, Peter Sagan should be feeling a wee bit uneasy about the future!


Do you have a rider that you think I may have overlooked? Add to this discussion using the comments below.


Next time - we separate the boys from the men in our look at the contenders of maillot blanc, the only jersey that is also the color of a talcum powder for babies!

* The Inner Ring has just put out a very detailed article about the maillot verde competition and its rules. (Dang, he beat me to it :) ). I enjoy reading the blog immensely, and it is one of the few places in the Interweb where you can read insightful, unbiased writing about biking.