PREVIEW | Tour de la Provence 2025 stage 1 - Roller-coaster queen stage can decide race winner
Cycling
From the 14th of the 16th of February the racing in France continues with another prestigious stage-race. In the south of the country, the Tour de la Provence will provide good opportunities for the sprinters and classics riders to work on their form and fight for stage wins. We preview stage 1.
The first day of the race is coincidentally the hardest and one that is very difficult to control. The riders begin to tackle climbs right from kilometer 0 and until the finish it's a constant roller-coaster of a day.
There will be 2600 meters of climbing and the first half of the stage mainly is very hard. Without a race leader at the same time, it is expected that there will be a big fight to be in the breakaway and this will include some of the strongest riders in the race. This is because there will be a downhill trend to the final half of the day, with several small climbs... Putting on a chase will be hard and bringing back attackers will be a very difficult task.
Prediction Tour de la Provence 2025 stage 1:
*** Mads Pedersen
** Toms Skujins, Bauke Mollema, Matej Mohoric, Samuele Battistella
* Fred Wright, Dorian Godon, Pierre Gautherat, Marijn van den Berg, Darren Rafferty, Ewen Costiou, Pascal Ackermann, Sandy Dujardin, Mathieu Burgaudeau, Lukas Kubis
Pick: Toms Skujins
How: Lidl-Trek will have good numbers, and Skujins will either win solo or in a small group from a long-distance attack.
Original: Rúben Silva
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