"Even though it's short, it will make a difference" - Alberto Contador anticipates Tour de France's stage 10

Usually the riders at the Tour de France find a rest day on Mondays but there is an exception this year due to Bastille Day. Coincidentally, this will match with the race's sole day on the Massif Central where a lot of chaos is expected in a day with 4500 meters of climbing that's a result of a plentitude of climbs throughout the day. Alberto Contador analyzes what may be to come.

Although there is lots of talking about a potential GC raid by Team Visma | Lease a Bike and what may happen early in the day - specially taking into consideration a fragile UAE that has just lost João Almeida - 'El Pistolero' has fully put his focus on the finale to Le Mont-Dore and the kilometers that come before it.

"The key moment of the stage for me is the descent of the last second category pass before the decisive climb. We're talking about a pretty twisty descent, quite fast, in which it will be very important to go down very well placed because once it's finished immediately those final 3 kilometers where the stage will be raced," Contador said to Eurosport.

"It will be essential to be well positioned because the start of the climb is just when the descent ends." Teams will be aware of this, and there will certainly be a big battle for positioning at the top of the penultimate climb of the day in order to enter the descent in front.

The former Tour winner believes that due to the nature of this first week and this Monday's stage as a whole, the final climb can still make some important differences even though it doesn't compare to the terrain that will be faced in the second half of the race.

"We're talking about a pass, Le Mont Dore, a little more than 3 kilometers long, at around 8% almost all the time and in some parts at almost 9%. Surely with all the passes that the riders will have to face during the day, even though it's short, it will make a difference," he concluded.