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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How Remco Evenepoel's missed chance at landing a statement performance on brutal UAE Tour climb makes the next races more essential in his Tour de France build-up – Analysis
Belgian loses big time and momentum from early-season victories after getting dropped on the first mountain test of the stage race -
Four French ProTeams among selection of 21 squads set to race fifth edition of Tour de France Femmes
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
