Stage 8

Last stage. Basically, the riders will simply ride up the valley of the Maurienne (or valley of the Arc) and, from time to time, wander on its slopes to generate a climb. The final climb is about 10 km long, with a 7% gradient. The finish line is then laid after 5 km of a slightly bumpy plateau, which is in fact a part of the road around the Mont-Cenis reservoir.

Will Pogatchar allow other riders to win the green and dotted jerseys? At the moment, he leads the points classification (with the same number of points as Van der Poel) and the mountain classification (with the same number of points as Buitrago and Higuita)...

Stage 7

Moutain episode #2 out of 3. The big one. Starting directly with 2 very long climbs with no flat at all before or in between: Col de la Madeleine and Col de la Croix de Fer, each of them climbing for more than 20 kilometres. Then come a more relaxed part before the final climb to a ski resort above St-Michel de Maurienne, this climb embedding 75% of the Col du Télégraphe climb before diverging.

Let's see if Vingegaard can be better on this type of climbs than the shorter ones we had on Stage #6 (on the other hand, he seemed better on the shortest and steepest one of the two...).

Stage 6

The last 3 stages are mountain stages, with final climbs. On Friday, we have 2 steep but relatively short climbs in the second half of the course; however, they are separated by 25 of flat valley, so we can suppose that the serious things will wait for the final climb. It presents 3 thirds: the 1^st^ one is rather steep (> 9%), the middle one softer probably around 5%, and the last one of your normal 7-8% grade.

Stage 5

The time trial is past, we go back to the scheme of the first stage, cranking the difficulty a bit up again, and also packing those climbs in the second half of the stage. Despite what I just said, there is just a tiny bump in the last 30 kilometres, so everything is actually packed in the 3^rd^ quarter of the race, which won't offer much rest.

Stage 4

The time trial. The length and profile are of very common types these days: 17 km flat, with a climb (about 2 km at 8%) in the middle.

Stage 3

A rather similar profile again, but with more 3^rd^ category climbs. The last one is located about 15 km from the finish line: short but rather steep, it may be enough to eliminate sprinters like Milan. That is if, unlike yesterday, a team attempts to eliminate him...

Stage 1

The organiser has placed no less than 7 4^th^ category climbs over this 1^st^ stage, all of them in the second half of the route, which includes a long circuit ridden a bit more than 2 times. Each climb only grants a single mountain point to the first rider.

I'm going to have to insist you change Vingegaard's flag from a Norwegian one to a proper Danish one, mate 😂 🇩🇰

Stage 2

A stage pretty similar to the first one, with another 6 small climbs to provide a bit of animation for the mountain jersey: two 4^th^ cat and two 3^rd^ cat. (2 & 1 pts) in the beginning of the course, then one 2^nd^ cat. (5, 3, 2 & 1 pts) much later and one last 4^th^ cat. near the end.

As on many (all?) French races, the amount of points offered is meagre, so there is not much point in fighting if you cannot be first. Same goes for the points classification, as there is a single intermediate sprint per day and it only gives points for the first 3 riders: therefore, there cannot be even a small sprint from the peloton after a small breakaway has already gone through the sprint line.

That's a big difference from the Giro d'Italia which just ended, where points were given to many more riders.