Tour de France

You have to go all the way back to 2015, and then to 1992 for the previous event, which was already after a Grand Départ from Spain, to find any trace of a Tour de France without a bunch sprint until the fifth day of the race. A course with no real rough edges has therefore been mapped out to allow the go-getters to express themselves on the Place de Verdun. The teams of the main contenders, impatient for battle, will certainly do their utmost to control the day’s breakaways.

The most selective stage of the Pyrenees tour combines the classic and the unusual. A battle between the Tour’s big favourites could well take place on the climb to the Col d’Aspin and then on the Col du Tourmalet. Provided they choose to launch the big manoeuvres before the final forty kilometres of the stage. If not, the decision will come down to the best climbers in a breakaway in the sumptuous setting of the cirque de Gavarnie, reached after a long but rolling climb: 18.7km with an average gradient of 4%.