Tyler Farrar ready for his second Tour de France

For all of its famous century-old tales, eccentric competitors and jagged mountains, the Tour de France is as much about short bursts of speed as it is long treks into the Alps and Pyrenees.

The 97th edition of cycling's biggest event begins Saturday in Rotterdam, and nine of its 21 days could be won by sprinting specialists like Tyler Farrar.

In the midst of his eighth pro season, the rider from Wenatchee — who has lived in Belgium in recent years — will be one of eight participating Americans.

Lance Armstrong will try to win his eighth title and veteran George Hincapie will be competing in the event for the 15th time. But it's Farrar who's expected to be near the front of the pack during several early stages and toward the end of the race when it approaches its July 25 finale in Paris.

In his Tour debut last year, Farrar challenged but never defeated Mark Cavendish, the British sprinter who won six stages. Farrar, 26 and competing in his fifth Grand Tour (three-week race), had two seconds, two thirds and a fourth in the eight sprinters stages.

Following an opening day prologue (a short individual time trial), the Tour de France progresses clockwise from the Netherlands into Belgium (near Farrar's residence) and then into France.

"As a cyclist you don't really peak physically until you're in your late 20s, so I'm really working my way toward that still," said Farrar, who won 12 races last year and will begin the Tour de France with five victories this season.

"And then also having done races a few times, it helps you know what to expect and how the race will play out, and that helps you anticipate things tactically and that's been a huge thing."

Farrar is in his third season with Garmin-Transitions, his fourth pro team. The squad's sponsors have changed, but the Colorado-based outfit will likely have a strong daily presence at the Tour de France. Its roster includes American Christian Vande Velde, who has finished fourth (2008) and eighth (2009) in the past two Tours.

Farrar will ride in support of Vande Velde when he can. But the squad also features Julian Dean of New Zealand, David Millar of Great Britain and newcomer Robbie Hunter of South Africa.

The veteran trio will stay with Vande Velde in open terrain and in the mountains. But they also will attempt to position Farrar at the front of the field just before the finish of sprint stages. The process is called the "lead-out train."

"If you look at who we hired on our lead-out train, you'll notice they're all English-speaking," said Jonathan Vaughters, the Garmin-Transitions team director. "It's not because I'm xenophobic. I just think sprinters need to speak the same language. If the short verbal cues are slowed down by a difference of language, you're never going to be able to figure it out.

"It's impossible to plan it out precisely, but David Millar tends to be our 2-kilometer to 1-kilometer guy, then Julian Dean is there as the 1-kilometer to 500-meter guy, Robbie (Hunter) tends to be the 500- to 200-meter guy and then Tyler. But if there's not an inherent trust between any lead-out guy and a sprinter, it never works."

Dean and Millar have ridden with Farrar in many of his races this season. Farrar won a stage of the Tour of Spain last year. This year in the Giro d'Italia, cycling's second most important stage race, he won two stages.

"It would be really easy to do it if we were the only team trying to do it," Farrar said of the team getting its designated sprinter to the front of the field at the last minute. "But there are quite a few other teams that have the same idea and are trying to do the same thing, so it can get pretty hectic and chaotic."

Like other sprinting specialists, Farrar's most difficult task is enduring mountain stages. The Tour de France this year will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the race's first trek into the Pyrenees in 1910.

In addition to the usual selection of mountain ascents, race organizers have included a double ascent of the Col du Tourmalet, the nearly 7,000-foot peak that honors race founder Henri Desgrange in stages 16 and 17. There's a rest day between the stages, but the effort could shatter the field.

Last year, Farrar struggled several times in mountain stages, and he often finished at the back of the pack in what's known as the "gruppetto." It's the collection of riders whose goal in the mountains is simply to finish within the time cutoff, so they can continue the race.

Farrar has withdrawn from other Grand Tours, a common practice among sprinters. But he was the 151st among 158 finishers in the 2009 Tour de France, nearly four hours behind winner Alberto Contador of Spain.

"For sure," said Farrar of his quest to finish again this year. "The Tour is a special race. Very, very rarely does anyone go into the Tour planning to quit. It's one of those races everyone wants to finish.

"Obviously, the No. 1 goal for the Tour is to try to win a stage. But definitely, I will be doing everything I can to ride through to Paris."