Is any sporting event more brutal than the Tour de France?

That great Frenchman the Marquis de Sade would have been justly proud of the Tour de France had he lived to see the day. Should we deduce that sado-masochism is a French trait? No question. Has there ever been a more brutal event in world sport? This year’s race kicks off in Denmark (yes, really) at the weekend on its way to more than 3,500km of lung-busting effort.

The question is: can anyone stop Tadej Pogacar, the 23-year-old Slovenian prodigy and winner of the last two Tours? He is in staggering form this year, having minced his home Tour and a series of other races. A brilliant climber and time trialist, he is also a fearsome attacker: in other words, the complete Grand Tour cyclist.

His greatest rivals probably come from the Jumbo-Visma team, his fellow Slovenian Primoz Roglic, and the brilliant young Dane Jonas Vingegaard. Perfectly built for climbing, Vingegaard weighs in at a compact 60kg, light for his 5ft 9in. He was second in the Tour last year, and this could be his moment.

The torture showpiece will be the 12th stage, from Briançon to Alpe d’Huez, an almost mystical place of pilgrimage for cyclists, pro and amateur, via the Col du Galibier (over 2,600m) and the Croix de Fer (2,000m). But these are just the warm-up for the final leg-shredding climb up the 21 hairpins and 14km, at an average gradient of 8 per cent, to the finish at Alpe d’Huez. In total the competitors climb 4,750m, the equivalent of riding up Mont Blanc from sea level, and travel 165km. The record for the ascent, a little over 37 minutes, was set in 1997 by Marco Pantani, the Italian who died in a hotel room in Rimini in 2004.