The riders don’t get time to breathe after yesterday’s dazzling cobblestone ride. The sixth Tour stage is the longest of all and promises to be anything but boring. The starting signal in Belgium is at 12.05 pm and the finish in France around 5.15 pm. In Longwy we get a successor from Peter Sagan. The Slovak won there in 2017, despite his foot shooting out of the pedal in full sprint.
Where tomorrow the first serious arrival uphill is planned, today a starter is served with a three-stage rocket of climbs in the last 15 kilometers. The middle one of this trio is a mean one, because the Côte de Pulventeux rises over 800 meters at no less than 12.3 percent. Immediately after the descent, the finish starts uphill over 1.6 kilometers at 5.8 percent.
Sprinters like Fabio Jakobsen and Dylan Groenewegen will not have put their cards on this ride, and Mathieu van der Poel also does not seem to have the legs for miracles yet. Perhaps Taco van der Hoorn is already looking for revenge and again opts for the early flight. Of course there is also peeping at the troubled Jumbo-Visma. After all, the Tour offers no time to lick wounds.