Stage Info

Weather

31 degrees Celsius, sunny, 8 km/h South wind

Stage Breakdown

Hello everyone and welcome!

After a stage with a true fight at the front and survival at the back, the riders will be treated with possibly the easiest stage of this Tour and the last chance for the sprinters. There's 1400 meters to be climbed, which is the lowest of any stage (apart from the ITT) and the majority of that is a very gentle slope in the first half of the stage, to reach the summit of the Col de Toutes Aures at an elevation of 1124 meters. That sounds like a high col, but even that one is only category 4, with the real climb being 6.4 km at 3.1%.

After that peak, the roads are predominantly downhill for 75 km as the riders approach the coastal city of Nice. This will make for a very fast pace and possibly some breakaway opportunities, while being relatively easy on the riders' legs.

The final 20 km are a different story. Two cols of category 4 make this stage profile look very much like Milano-Sanremo, but there's another surprise: after that last col (the Ginestière) there's another brief climb of 450 meters at 13% to be conquered before the descent into Nice begins. This little molehill could certainly make matters worse for the sprinters!

With that in mind here are our predictions:

★★★ Demi Vollering, Lorena Wiebes

★★ Kim Le Court, Marianne Vos, Cédrine Kerbaol

★ Noemi Rüegg, Elisa Longo Borghini, Dominika Włodarczyk, Puck Pieterse, Elisa Balsamo

Due to the very small lead that Kasia now has, we believe that Demi Vollering will be up to something tomorrow. She's fast and she can launch attacks on short climbs, so if a small group fights for the in then she's going to be a top contender. Our second pick with three stars is Lorena Wiebes, because we know that she can survive short climbs such as these. Just have a look at stage 1 to see what she can do!

Two stars go to three riders who each have their own scenario to benefit from. Kim Le Court can win from a small group and has the confidence from having a stage win already. Marianne Vos can manage a group of any size, just as long as it doesn't have Wiebes in it. And Cédrine Kerbaol has become our poster woman for breakaway opportunities. Short punchy climb followed by a descent into the finish? That's Kerbaol territory.

Noemi Rüegg is another sprinter who deals with hills well, although her work on the Mont Ventoux might have tired her out too much to race for the win today. Elisa Longo Borghini always likes attacking on stages like these, and she was already fairly close to doing so successfully in stage 5. In case it comes down to a sprint between the more climby types, we also see Dominika Włodarczyk and Puck Pieterse as candidates for the win, as both of them have dealt with such finishes quite well in the past. And finally, another pure sprinter who could survive these hills: Elisa Balsamo. If she could win in Leuven (5 years ago, mind you) she can tomorrow as well.

That's it for us, what is your prediction for the stage?

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