As an Australian, it looks like one of the more exciting years. No Spanish drug cheats, no German drug cheats, and no US drug cheats in the top tier, lots of varied stages, and a friendly route for our best rider, as well as the first tour for the new Australian GreenEdge team, which will hopefully get a top 5 team finish.
This year will be all about the stage wins, I think, which makes for more interesting viewing unless you have the opportunity to watch the vast majority of the days, which is hard to do in Australia where most stages start at 11pm-ish our time.
The Schlecks are still in the hunt, I think; there are quite a few exciting young riders who'll go for stage wins; and the sprinters and climbers jerseys should both be very good contests. As far as the yellow goes, Evans is certainly not a guaranteed winner, and I think he's a wonderful representative of the sport. Not only because he's Australian, but because he has been at the top level for years, never had even the tiniest smidgeon of doping allegations surrounding him (I truly believe he is clean), and is a genuinely nice guy and not the kind of arrogant prick who usually end up at the top of road cycling.
Like Wiggins. (And Cavendish, although there's a rumour he may skip the tour to focus on the Olympics)
Most continental Europeans would prefer an entertaining, arrogant drug cheating attacker any day.
