After the dramas of the Alps, the longest stage of the 2017 Tour might be in danger of being almost an afterthought. But on the day before the final time-trial in Marseilles, this rolling route through the Provencal Alps, the lavender fields of the Vaucluse and finally, into the flatlands of the Bouches-du-Rhône, could spring a few surprises.
The largely flat finale, descending from the Luberon into the Rhône Valley, may well be buffeted by the Mistral wind. And the Col du Pointu, around 45 kilometres from the finish but with some eight per cent gradients, saw splits in the peloton when spring stage race, Paris-Nice, passed this way in March 2016.
On paper it looks like a sprint finish and with Michael Matthews of Australia, now seemingly assured of victory in the green jersey competition of the points classification, it’s a chance for the empty-handed André Greipel, of Germany, and rival sprinter Nacer Bouhanni, of France, to put their teams to work in pursuit of a stage win.
But with the Tour de France overall still at stake, and a last tilt at stage wins also on offer, it may also be a stage that throws up a lot more action than originally expected.
Ben Swift: It’s the last 50km of the stage where teams will be looking to get rid of any tired sprinters. It’ll be a sprint of some sort but there won’t be as many leadout trains. By this point a hierarchy will have been sorted out.
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The dominant sprinter will have his leadout train and everyone else will be fighting for the wheels. There is definitely a bit more of a pecking order in the peloton by this point.