After Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) once again demolished his rivals to take a fourth stage win on Saturday, he has another opportunity on stage 15.
Pogačar himself seemed evasive when asked about it after Saturday's victory, saying, "I don't want to explain it too much, but tomorrow will be a hard day for us, I think, but we will be ready to fight and to see what's going to happen tomorrow. It's a lot of options."
However, it's another day of climbing, the race heading to the Jura Mountains of eastern France and tackling 183.9km from Champagnole, heading south into the Alps to finish at Plateau de Solaison.
There are four classified climbs along the way, including the final, hors categorie ascent to the finish, which has never been used by the Tour before, though it has featured in the Tour de l'Avenir and the 2022 Critérium du Dauphiné, Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) tasting success that day.
The climb is 11.9km at 9%, and whether the breakaway is allowed to go for the stage win or not, at least some GC action seems inevitable. Whoever competes for the stage, it is on the climb that the winning move is certain to be made.
Points at finish: 20-17-15-13-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
Like Saturday's stage 14, the day's intermediate sprint comes early in the day, with only 17.3km of the day ridden. This time though, most of the opening few kilometres are uphill, the sprint itself coming after 500m at 4% gradient, siting green jersey Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) much better. Whatever, expect a fight for the points between the main protagonists in the points classification.
Expect the breakaway to go before the third category Côte des Rousses, the race then heading for the first category Col de la Croissette, with the third category Côte du Mont the hors d'oeuvre before the final climb.
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Mountains
Côte des Rousses (cat. 3, 6.6km at 5.1%), km. 36.8
2-1 pts
Le Salève - Col de la Croisette (cat. 1, 4.6km at 11.2%), km. 136
10-8-6-4-2-1 pts
Côte du Mont (cat. 3, 2.1km at 8.3%), km. 146
2-1 pts
Plateau de Solaison (cat. HC, 11.3km at 9%), km. 183.9
Lyne has been involved in professional cycling for more than 15 years in both news reporting and sports marketing. She founded Podium Insight in 2008, quickly becoming a trusted source for news of the North American professional cycling world. She was the first to successfully use social media to consistently provide timely and live race updates for all fans. She is proud to have covered men's and women's news equally during her tenure at the helm of the site. Her writing has appeared on Cyclingnews and other news sites.
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