The polka dot jersey, or maillot a pois, is awarded to the King of The Mountains, the best climber in each edition of the Tour de France. Recently the jersey has been the domain of the drug lords with both Riccardo Ricco and Bernhard Kohl testing positive to EPO when leading the jersey competition last year. Generally the jersey is won by a rider who makes a long breakaway in one of the early mountain stages so it can be very difficult to pick a winner. Here are my top hopes for 2009:
3 - Franco Pellizzoti (30/1) - Third in the GC at this years Giro and 5th in the mountains classification, Pellizzoti is on a team that does not really have one of the top GC threats at this years Tour. This should allow him the freedom to chase the polka-dot jersey, so long as the top contenders for the overall classification are happy to let him roam a little.
2 - Andy Schleck (n/a) - Usually the winner of the GC will end up in the top three in the KOM competition so Andy is here on that basis alone. Given he is a better climber than he is a time trialler he will have to earn his yellow jersey on the cols. For that reason, he is likely to finish high up in the standings for this jersey.
1 - Frank Schleck (20/1) - Lost the jersey on a count back to Carlos Sastre last year after Kohl's disqualification, so there is no reason why he can't go one better this year. Is likely to forfeit team leadership to brother Andy and this may allow him the freedom to chase the jersey. Even if he is just working for Andy he should be at the top end over enough of the high climbs to garner plenty of points in the competition.
Outsider - Michael Rogers (n/a) - May as well use a dartboard to pick an outsider for this competition so why not the 'Dodger'. Coming off a top 10 performance in the Giro and has showed he can breakaway on a mountain stage as he did before crashing out on the way to Le-Grand Bornard in 2007.
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