Video: Van den Broeck looks to the first mountain stage

Image 1 of 3

Lotto Belisol has enjoyed a successful opening week in this year's Tour de France with two stage wins courtesy of Andre Greipel while Jurgen van den Broeck, their overall prospect for the race, remains in contention for the general classification.

After a week of almost completely flat terrain the Tour turns to the first mountain test on stage 7 from Tomblaine to La Planche des Belles Filles. The final climb may only be 6 kilometres in length but Van den Broeck is predicting two battles, the first simply to arrive at the bottom of the climb at the front of the bunch, followed by a round of attacks towards the finish.

The climb will signify the first genuine uphill battle between the GC contenders at this year's  Tour and in the video Van den Broeck discusses how he and his fellow climbers will approach the stage.

Marc Sergeant, the team's manager, is tasked with prioritising the squad's energies and with Greipel looking strong in the sprints ,the team may well look to compete for the green jersey as well as yellow. For now though Lotto will concentrate on stages wins for Greipel, sacrificing the intermediate sprints until such a moment in the race when winning green becomes a more tangible aim.