The focus of this stage will be the legendary Col d'Aubisque, which represents the final hors categorie climb of the Tour - the mountains aren't finished yet, but Aubisque represents the end of some 'extreme' climbing for riders. Armstrong took the yellow jersey on the back of this climb in 2002 - this occurred earlier in the race, and he went on to dominate the remainder of the Tour after hitting his competition hard in these opening mountain exchanges. In 2005 the situation may well be different, or we could find Armstrong placing a stranglehold on the overall lead leading to a seventh victory - who knows? Either way it's going to be a fight amongst the main GC contenders with a couple of strongmen thrown in; the German has been quiet since his early season success and is primed for a strong Tour performance.
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Best triathlon watches: One-stop recording of your race
The best triathlon watches will give you easy transitions between legs as well as multisport tracking -
Tour de Suisse Women: Long solo attack lands Amber Kraak victory on stage 2
Marta Lach second, Elise Chabbey third while Marlen Reusser sixth and retains GC lead -
Critérium du Dauphiné stage 6 live - Tadej Pogačar decimates field on stage 6 win to take overall race lead
Double Cat.2 ascent finale and mid-stage Cat.1 climb biggest challenges of this year's Dauphiné so far -
Critérium du Dauphiné: Tadej Pogačar decimates field on stage 6 to take overall race lead
Jonas Vingegaard distances Remco Evenepoel on summit finish
