Riders to Watch at the Tour de France Bradley Wiggins Age: 32 Country: Great Britain Team: Sky Last year's finish: Withdrew after breaking collarbone during Stage 7 Wiggins, long Britain's best yellow jersey hope, arrives at the Tour in the best form of his career. A former track cycling star - Wiggins was a gold medalist at the 2008 Olympic Games - he won three major stage races this spring, joining the cycling legends Eddy Merckx and Jacques Anquetil as the only riders in cycling history to win both the Paris-Nice race and the Critérium du Dauphiné, which Wiggins won last month. He'll have support from his loaded Team Sky squad, which helped him best his rival Cadel Evans in the Dauphiné. Though he rode to a fourth-place finish in 2009, Wiggins has seen many of his Tours end ingloriously. In 2007, his Cofidis team quit the race en masse after a positive drug test by one of its riders, Cristian Moreni. Last year, Wiggins broke his collarbone during Stage 7 and was forced to abandon the race. Cadel Evans Age: 35 Country: Australia Team: BMC Racing Last year's finish: Winner Evans, the defending champion, has had a quieter lead-up to this year's Tour than in seasons" past. Beset by a sinus infection in April, he missed many of the month's spring classics - a series of imposing one-day races held in Belgium and Holland - and had an undistinguished finish at the Tour de Romandie, which he won in 2011. Though he failed to win the Critérium du Dauphiné, Evans showed the pro circuit his form during a breakaway win in the race's first stage. Like Wiggins, Evans is a strong climber as well as a savvy time-trialer, which will be of utmost importance on a course that features more than 100 kilometers of racing against the clock. Fränk Schleck Age: 32 Country: Luxembourg Team: Radioshack-Nissan-Trek Last year's finish: Third Schleck won't have his teammate and younger brother Andy, out with a fractured pelvis, in his quest for a repeat podium finish. Schleck, who led the 2008 Tour for three stages, has had an uneven season: he pulled out of May's Giro d'Italia with a shoulder injury, then finished second in June's Tour de Suisse. But he seems to be peaking at the right time and will benefit mentally from the absence of the team director Johan Bruyneel, who, along with Lance Armstrong, has been charged with running a doping conspiracy by the United States Anti-Doping Agency. Bruyneel and the Schleck brothers have reportedly had a tense relationship since the beginning of this season; in May, Bruyneel publicly questioned Fränk Schleck's commitment to racing after the Giro abandon. Vincenzo Nibali Age: 27 Country: Italy Team: Liquigas-Cannondale Last year's finish: Did not ride Nibali has skipped the Tour in recent seasons to focus on the other two Grand Tours, the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España, which he won in 2010. With his sights set firmly on the Tour this season, he has shown good form early and often, including a win March's Tirreno-Adriatico, a stage race on his home soil. But this season's performance by his teammate Peter Sagan could hinder Nibali's chances in France, since he'll have to compete for team support with the emerging star sprinter. Ryder Hesjedal Age: 31 Country: Canada Team: Garmin-Sharp-Barracuda Last year's finish: 17th Hesjedal won May's Giro d'Italia, becoming Canada's first Grand Tour champion. The former world champion mountain biker will try to win a second at the Tour de France, but the double has proved elusive quarry in recent years. The last rider to win both the Giro and the Tour was Marco Pantani in 1998. Robert Gesink Age: 26 Country: Netherlands Team: Rabobank Last year's finish: 33rd After a breakout fifth-place finish in the 2010 Tour, the young Dutchman was hampered by injury in last year's race. Despite breaking his leg last September, Gesink showed great form in the latter half of this spring - winning May's Tour of California and grabbing a fourth-place finish at the Tour de Suisse. Mark Cavendish Age: 27 Country: Great Britain Team: Sky Last year's finish: 130th