Tour de France 2022: Tadej Pogacar bids to join select group

Tadej Pogacar will be the man to beat as he targets his third consecutive Tour de France title when the race sets off on Friday, with the 23-year-old Slovenian looking to become one of the sport's all-time great riders.

Dubbed the "Baby Cannibal" for his similarities to former five-time winner Eddy "The Cannibal" Merckx, Pogacar has already won the UAE Tour, the Tirreno-Adriatico and Tour of Slovenia stage races this season as well as the Strade Bianche one-day classic.

Only the Jumbo-Visma team armada seem able to dent Pogacar's armour. The Dutch outfit has two leaders - Slovenia's Primoz Roglic and last year's runner-up Jonas Vingegaard of Denmark - in a team that also boasts the formidable Wout van Aert.

They will be trying to control the race and isolate Pogacar, who has already shown that he fears no-one on any terrain. He will need to show that fearlessness again in the first few days when the winds in Denmark and the cobbles of northern France may prove treacherous.

He could even gain time on his main rivals on these stages before the race reaches the mountains, where he proved almost unbeatable last year.

"It will be definitely be an exciting battle between him and the Jumbo Visma team," said Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme.

The Tour returns to La Planche des Belles Filles, where Pogacar snatched the overall lead from Roglic in dramatic fashion in a time trial on the penultimate day of the 2020 race, while the punishing Col du Granon and L'Alpe d'Huez and its famous 21 hairpins also await.

The two time trials, the inaugural 13.2-km effort in Copenhagen and the final 40.7-km test in Rocamadour before the final day's procession to Paris, are not expected to unsettle Pogacar either.

Ineos-Grenadiers, who won