stages usually start around 1100 local time and are usually about 5 and a half hours long.
Stages that could be interesting….
3 – some kicks in the last 30kms that could encourage attacking breaks, one big kick in the last 5kms
4 – 30 kms of pave over 6 sections
8 – first summit finish (though not a massive climb) could see GC contenders make early claim
9 – TTT – only 30kms long but GC contenders could lose a fair bit of time here
10 – Bastille day, first big summit finish after a rest day…
11 – Col de Tourmalet
12 – 3 big cat 1 climbs pretty much equally spaced throughoput the day, nearly 200kms long too….
17 – Another big mountain stage after a rest day so expect fireworks
18 – Col de Glandon, anyone suffering from yesterday will pay for it today and I suspect a few GC hopefuls will fade today
19 – Straight into a big climb from the off so there will be a break, then they summit Col de CdF so if the break stays clear it could really be interesting as they then summit La Toussaire…
20 – Col de Telegraphie, Galibier then Alpe d’Huez….
Thos last four stages will be epic, I think its the best finishing week to a tour in decades, do you go big early on 17 or 18 and hope to put time into your rivals and make them attack on the latter stages or do you just stick with them and hope you have something left for the final day?… of course that all depends on the whehter you have lost any time in the preceding two weeks….
