Stage 7

The flattest stage of the Tour (outside of Time Trials) will not be an easy one with 218km in the legs by the end of the day. That will make a grand total distance for the first seven stages of 1,194.5km, which no doubt could lead to a few mistakes and the inevitable crashes that happen within the last 3km of the finish. Let’s hope I’m wrong but I feel I’ve had a very good month when I’ve ridden 1000km- let alone riding over that in the first week! The nominated Sprinters won’t touch the wind much at all today, along with the GC leaders on each team. The GC guys will be looking for a safe passage and a text book day of ticking off the kilometres before the real tasking days ahead in the Pyrenees.

Could this be another stage for Cavendish, or could we see a breakaway succeed? Looking at the map, a breakaway would have to go soon after the feed to maximise the lie of the land as the next 20km have enough turns there that the peloton could lose sight of a group. They would need a big time gap within the last 10km otherwise it’ll be full gas from the sprinters from what looks like a fairly straight run in over the last 20km.