The Champs-Elysées await, the prestige sprint finish that has encouraged several sprinters to stay in the race. It’s a day of triumph and melancholy, joy for the winner but a wistful air as the race comes to an end, but now there’s no time for the post-Tour blues as the Tour de France Femmes starts this afternoon and we’ve got an extra week of racing to savour.
A time trial to settle the top-10 overall. Only a feverish imagination could see the podium changing but places among the top-10 can be won and lost. Plus there’s the battle for the stage, a chance for the specialists who have been hauling themselves over the Alps and Pyrenees.
A lazy route, the kind that could be enjoyed at 15km/h as much as at 50km/h. A sprint stage to reward the riders who’ve hauled themselves over the mountains, or the last chance for everyone else to get a prestigious stage win?
The last day in the Pyrenees and the last mountain stage. Can Jonas Vingegaard get a stage win in the yellow jersey, can Simon Geschke take points to keep the Dane at bay in the mountains competition?
A sprint of a mountain stage but with four sharp climbs before the steep finish on the Peyragudes airstrip.
With the Tour de France racing through a heatwave, water’s more important than ever. It’s used both for drinking, cooling… and to help stop the road melting in some places.
It’s into the Pyrenees with two short but hard climbs, especially the second one and then a tactical descent into Foix.
If you want to annoy a rider, ask them how the transition stage went. Once upon a time as the race rode between the Alps and Pyrenees a breakaway could slip away and everyone else was left to complete the course stress-free. Not any more.
Another day, another tricky route. On paper this route looked like 60-40 for the breakaway vs. the sprint but given the tough racing so far and the struggles of several sprinters it suits the breakaway more, which in turn will encourage more to try their luck, and so increasing the chance of a strong move staying away.
