The race will be too fast to notice today, but if you ride the route of today’s stage and get caught Lausanne’s traffic with about six kilometres to go, you might notice the sign beside for the Court of Arbitration for Sport and its anti-doping division. For many years the outcome of plenty of bike races was decided by this body rather than by riders. It all feels like a distant memory.
A trip across the Jura mountains, this is a good day for the breakaway with a tricky uphill city finish in Lausanne.
The first summit finish of the Tour de France. Sure it’s not high altitude but the climb’s usually very revealing of form.
The longest stage of the race with a lively uphill finish. There will be a tailwind that’ll turn into a gusting crosswind later on.
The cobbled stage, the pavé of Paris-Roubaix meets the Tour de France and this time the defining feature is the severity of the sections. There are two races today, one for the stage win and the other against disaster for the GC contenders.
The Tour de France is back in France although it’s kept the Danish weather. Today’s course isn’t easy with several sharp climbs to sap the legs of the pure sprinters.
No sooner has the Tour de France started, there’s a break today so that the caravan can make the 900km journey from Denmark to Northern France. There’s still racing on TV and a few more things to chew over…
A pure stage for the sprinters on paper, and the forecast says there won’t be enough wind to blow the paper plans away either.
A trip along the Danish coast, today’s stage will be a nervous one because the wind could get up. This creates a self-fulfilling prophecy of danger because everyone wants to be at the front to avoid trouble so the pressure is on to fight for position which increases the danger and so on. There’s also the spectacular Great Belt Bridge across the sea just before the finish.
