It doesn't come much tougher than this - one Hors Categorie, four cat 1 cols and one cat 2 climb that adds up to 54km of climbing and an average gradient of 7.96% - that also adds up to plenty of pain! Riders will pass the monument to Fabio Casartelli, killed on the Col du Portet d'Aspet in 1995, where the peloton will most likely slow down to pay its respects as it rides past. It's then on to the Col de Mente, Portillon, Peyresourde, Val-Louron Azet before finishing up Lat-d'Adet in St-Lary - Soulan. The climbs are evenly spaced out, and it's pretty clear to see what everyone is in for - plenty of mountains that don't necessarily reach great heights, but do so very quickly.
Stage 15 will probably serve as the ultimate selection day, and look for Armstrong, Ullrich, Basso, and maybe Rasmussen to fight it out for the stage and GC honours.
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Belgian loses big time and momentum from early-season victories after getting dropped on the first mountain test of the stage race -
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Field includes all 14 WorldTour and seven second-tier squads for August 1-9 competition -
As it happened: opening stage of the Volta ao Algarve decided by messy bunch sprint
The peloton race 185.6km from Vila Real de Santo António to Tavira -
Volta ao Algarve: Paul Magnier rockets to stage 1 victory as Soudal-QuickStep control final kilometre
Jordi Meeus and Pavel Bittner outsprint Jasper Philipsen in bunch finish to complete podium
