3000 meters of climbing truly make it a tricky day to predict, as alongside the 206 kilometers in distance, this will weight a lot at the end of the day. A full-on GC day isn't to be expected, but the final climb will see all of them try to enter in front, and likely see some attacks - potentially from our protagonists. This will be 1.2 kilometers at 9.5%, ending with 18.5 kilometers to go.
There will be a long way to the finish still from that moment onwards, including a small plateau, a small descent and then a false-flat finale all the way up into Charantonnay. This will open up space for a tactical finale where there can be lots of attacks within a reduced peloton without clear favourites. It can certainly be a thrilling day of racing if we see attacks as in stage 1.
***
Axel Laurance,
Ben Healy,
Mathieu van der Poel** Tadej Pogacar,
Jonathan Milan, Remco Evenepoel
* Maxim van Gils, Jonas Vingegaard, Matteo Jorgenson, Santiago Buitrago, Magnus Cort Nielsen, Samuel Watson, Fred Wright, Bastien Tronchon, Simone Velasco, Jake Stewart, Matteo Trentin