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A Belgian, a Frenchman, a Maltese, a Canadian and a Finn (OR Four Brits and a Paddy - something for the British Isles fans to cheer about).

Bradley Wiggins - Team Sky

The Belgium-born former Paul Weller lookalikey is this year modeling the anorexia nervosa look (six-foot-three, seventy-three kilos and only four percent body fat - cwoor!) and carrying Britain's (high) hopes on his wiry shoulders.

England's World Cup soccerball debacle and Andy Murray's cruise through the early rounds of Wimbledon mean that the Tour will have begun before the media wakes up and really piles the pressure onto him by suggesting he's good enough to beat Lance Armstrong's record of seven Tour victories in a row, even though his professional victories to date have been few and far between, and mostly against the clock. Nor - excluding last year - has his Tour record been much to write home about: 124th, 131st, DNS. But then came last year and and that fourth place.

2010 will be Wiggns' first Tour that he won't be distracted by wondering what team he's going to do a moonlight flt to at the end of the season - Sky is the team of his dreams and he's the rider of their's. Whether that means he'll stay awake during those little moments of the race when it's all too easy to lose ten seconds today, twelve seconds tomorrow and eight seconds the day after, that's the big question this year. Certainly he wasn't paying attention during them last year.

The other real big question this year is how Team Sky will perform: will they be the super-well-drilled Team GB of track fame or will they be the puncture-afflicted chain-falling-off ANC-Halfords Mk III we've already seen several times this year?

And will all the chiefs and indians in the team car know which head-dress they're supposed to be wearing or will they be arguing over who's in control of the PS2 joystick?

Prediction: Top 10 and a bloody good excuse for not podiuming - probably something to do with a Uruguayan race commissaire.

Nicolas Roche - AG2R-La Mondiale

Despite claims that Pat McQuaid is the capo di tutti capi (or should that be ceann de na cinn?) of the Murphia, the French-born Roche-minor is the only Paddy riding the Tour this year, with the injury or illness prone Philip Deignan overlooked by the Cervélo selectors and Dan Martin resting after his début Giro exertions. Still, one out of three ain't bad.

Roche can't do the climbing like they climb on the TV. And he can't do a bunch sprint like the way that it's meant to be. But you know what? He holds his own, and if you want to do well in stage races, that's what matters. So why is it that Roche - who turns twenty-six on Saturday - hasn't really won anything worth writing home about in his six seasons in the pro peloton? Is he going to be the perpetual nearly man? Or will he, like his father before him, explode for one bright shining season and then disappear back into the general anonymity of the peloton?

Me, I think he lets himself down with his Time Trialling, losing too much time whenever the race goes mano a mano. He has tried to rectify this weakness this year, though if you ask me trying out something new during the Paris Nice TT isn't the sort of behaviour I expect of pros. Hopefully he's had time to think this one through during his three weeks off the bike.

Interviewed on Irish radio at the weekend, Roche has said that his target for 2010 is a top 15 GC finish (he aimed for top 20 last year and made 23rd) and hopefully bagging a stage along the way (the multiple 2nds, 3rds and 4ths last year were soon long since forgotten). As always, the guy sounds upbeat and positive, but if you listen closely you might notice a hint of reticence about his recent injury and the sound of fear that it mght recur during the Tour.

If his racing lets him down, you can always fall back on his Tour diary, which will again be appearing in the Indo.

Prediction: Top 20 and possibly a stage win.

David Millar - Garmin Transitions

The bad-boy-done-good of the pro peloton, Millar is the man some love to hate and others hate to love. The Maltese-born Scot's main duty this year will be to act as road captain for the less experienced Garmen, helping them to stage and GC success.

As the last Brit to wear the yellow jersey - and one of only four Britions ever to wear it - Millar will want to show the young turks that's he not quite over the hill. Queue epic - but ultimately futile - breakaway. But maybe gee-ed up by his Three Days of De Panne success earlier in the season this could be the year when he proves the Casandras wrong and stays away to steal the stage.

Keep an eye out for Garmin's spoiling tactics. Last year they helped rob big George Hincapie of yellow and this year they'll probably be aiming to spoil Team Sky's Tour. Millar's got a score to settle with Wiggns.

Prediction: Mid-table mediocrity and the probability that he'll be in an heroic breakaway that will falter short of the line.

Jeremy Hunt - Cervélo Test Team

The Canadian born Hunt is one of the oldest Brits in the Tour this year, aged thirty-six. Having started his pro road career with Big Mig's Banesto squad, 2010 will, remarkably, be his first Tour. His only duty will be to help Norway's sprint-king Thor Hushovd to stage and Green Jersey success.

If Cav somehow manages to wipe himself and Wiggin's out in a bunch sprint pile-up expect the British media to suddenly discover Hunt and his Cervélo teammate Danielle Lloyd Daniel Lloyd. Otherwise, it'll have to be a slow day in the Tour before the Brit journos realise they're there.

Prediction: Survival.

Charles Wegelius - Omega Pharma - Lotto

Shunned by Team GB since 2005 when he apparently gave his services in that year's World Champs to his Italian pro team-mates, the Finland-born Charly Wegelius has spent most of his pro career riding for Italian outfits.

A competent time trialist and capable climber, Wegelius could be worth keeping half an eye on when the race goes against the clock or into the mountains, though most of the time he'll just be breaking wind and passing water for his team leader.

Predictions: Survival.