This year's Tour de France is the most open in years - but it's Enric Mas for me

It's Tour de France time, folks. My favourite three weeks of the year.

Those three weeks are fast followed on my list by the three weeks of the Giro D'Italia and the three weeks of the Vuelta a Espana. But the Tour is still my favourite, as it attracts the biggest names in cycling, the most hype and the most fans on the roadside. It also has the best scenery.

'The Tour de France champion should always be the best rider in the race and thus the victories of Team Sky riders Geraint Thomas and Bradley Wiggins have probably been undeserved. You could even make a case for four-time champion Chris Froome not becoming the top rider of his generation had he not joined Sky.'

For a spell of about 10 years, which ended in 2005, I travelled out almost every year to watch the Tour. It is the world's biggest free sporting event, which welcomes anyone who wants to line up on the roadside.

To be honest I'm not too keen on the first week as it features mostly flat stages, which more often than not will result in a sprint finish. The real picture – who the true race leaders are – will begin to emerge this Thursday when the race hits the Vosges mountains.

This first true mountain test of the race will end the phoney war that until then will have thrown up a variety of unlikely pretenders to win the Yellow Jersey (or Maillot Jaune), the most coveted prize in world cycling.

No true contender for the overall race victory will want to play their hand until at least the first mountain stage or time trial as carrying the Yellow Jersey from stage one to the finale in Paris has proved a burden beyond even the greatest champions in the past.

For one thing the Yellow Jersey wearer will have the heaviest post-race media commitments in the race, while it falls to the team in yellow to dictate the pace of the peloton – main pack – on the majority of stages.

Thursday's 160.5km stage takes in five significant climbs, finishing at La Planche Des Belles-Filles, a ski station that despite only being introduced to the race in 2012 is fast becoming one of the race's iconic climbs.

Although it only rises to 1,140km its steepness ensures the best climbers will finally show their colours in the race to reach Paris first.

This year's race began with two stages in Belgium in honour of the great Belgian cyclist Eddy Merckx, who won the first of his five Tour de France titles exactly 50 years ago. Saturday's opening stage was a 192km, relatively flat procession that began and ended in Brussels and finished with a bunch sprint won by an unknown Dutchman.

It was briefly enlivened by the King of the Mountains battle on the Mur de Grammont, which was won by Belgium's reigning Olympic road race champion Greg van Avermaet. Having been the most energetic rider to form the four-man breakaway at the start of the stage it was disappointing to see him sit up and slip back into the bunch once he had gained his target for the day of bagging the Polkadot Jersey.

The rest of the race was notable mainly for the series of crashes that threatened to take some of the leading names out of this year's race, including Astana's Dane Jacob Fuglsang and Team Ineos's reigning Tour champion Geraint Thomas from Wales.

Yesterday's stage was the always controversial and visually spectacular team time trial (TTT). It provides a great opportunity for photographers to get some wonderful photos of the teams riding in echelon but also has the effect of distorting the overall general classification (GC) battle. Some will argue that the Tour is a team sport and therefore having a team time trial is no less important than an individual time trial in deciding who will make this year's podium.

But my own view – for what it's worth – is that the Tour de France champion should always be the best rider in the race and thus the recent victories for Team Sky rider Geraint Thomas and Bradley Wiggins have probably been undeserved.

I don't think either of those riders would have made the top step of the podium were it not for the fact that they rode for the best team in the peloton. You could even make a case for four-time champion Chris Froome not being the top rider of his generation had he not joined Sky.

In his early days he suffered from Bilharzia, a rare parasitic disease, which limited his achievements and may never have been diagnosed without the intervention of Sky's vigilant doctors.

Team Sky's 'marginal gains' philosophy was what eventually turned many cycling fans against them, possibly causing their sponsor to withdraw from the sport.

No keen cycling fan will be fooled by their new incarnation as Team Ineos, so expect more roadside booing as they ride past.

Today's 214km third stage from Binche to Epernay sees the race move into France for the first time. It is a mostly flat 'transitional' stage, which looks to have a sting in the tail with a succession of small hills near the finish which could bring the overall race favourites out to play for the first time. Although in reality

I think the stage best suits the 'puncheurs' such as Peter Sagan and Van Avermaet. Quick-Step's Julien Alaphilippe has the class to be a factor on this stage but don't be surprised if Jumbo-Visma's Belgian wonder kid Wout van Aert steals the stage.

It would have been a perfect stage for Froome to toy with his GC rivals on but a bad crash at the Criuterium du Dauphine meant he didn't even reach the startline.

Froome's no-show and that of time trial exponent Tom Dumoulin has led to many people saying this year's field is under par compared to previous years, but the strength in depth of this year's riders means it is still a race worth watching, and winning.

Those who lined up as pre-race favourites include reigning TdF champion Thomas and his Colombian teammate Egan Bernal, Movistar's Nairo Quintana and Mikel Landa, Fuglsang, Mitchelton-Scott's Adam Yates, Education First's Rigobert Uran, Jumbo's Steven Kruijswijk, Trek Segafredo's Richie Porte, UAE's Dan Martin, Bahrain-Merida's Vincenzo Nibali and Katusha's Inur Zakarin.

The race appears to have been designed with overall victory in mind for Ag2r's Romain Bardet. The French rider was sixth overall last year and second in the 2016 edition of the race. His two weaknesses are that he rides for a relatively weak French team and is poor at time trials. This year's race has only one individual time trial, stage 13 in Pau on July 19. At only 27km it is a short one at that and includes a couple of climbs, so should suit him.

It will suit two other of France's pretenders for the overall, Thibaut Pinot (Groupama) and Warren Barguil (Arkea-Samsic). Whether France can end its 34-year drought in their search for a Tour de France winner remains to be seen though.

My own outside bet for the overall victory is the Spanish climber Enric Mas of Quick-Step. The lack of time trials will suit him too. Still only 24 years old, he showed great form at the back end of last season winning the young rider classification in the Vuelta a Espana and putting in a great performance to win stage 20. He is also hihgly rated by the Spanish multi Tour de France winning rider Alberto Contador. I got odds of 45/1 when I placed my bet but those odds had more than halved to 22/1 the last time I checked.

The race is also lacking two of the Tour's past great sprinters – Mark Cavendish and Marcus Kittel – while a third, Andre Greipel, seems to be badly out of form, which means the sprints should be wide open.

Jumbo's Dutch sprinter Dylan Groenewegen, who crashed on stage 1 which allowed his teammate Mike Teunissen to win, should be among this year's favourites on any flat stages. Peter Sagan is bound to be up there again as are Lotto-Soudal's Caleb Ewan, Bahrain-Merida's Sonny Colbrelli and Elia Viviani of Quick-Step.

A possible threat to Sagan for the green points jersey could be Van Aert, the former world champion cyclo-cross rider who seems to have everything. Two wins in the Criterium du Dauphine show he can sprint and time trial. All that remains to be seen is if he can grow into a great rider in the high mountains. If he can he could even be a future Yellow Jersey winner.

If you are thinking of travelling out to watch a stage or two, my advice would be to seek a mountain stage, the time trial or the final stage in Paris. The flat stage's are a no-no unless you can get a position close to the finish. The peloton will whizz past a couple of minutes behind the breakaway and that will be it.

My preference is for the mountain stages, in particular the final mountain on the stage. By this time the terrain will have broken up the field and they will come past at a slower pace, which means you will get a decent close-up view of the riders. If nothing else, you will have a magical experience sharing a mountainside with thousands of other people, many of whom will go absolutely nuts when the riders arrive.

It is a never-to-be-forgotten experience that will make all the travelling worthwhile. And, as people who have accompanied me on my past visits will testify, you don't even have to be a cycling fan to have an enjoyable time.