Monday, July 5, 2010

Tour de France - Stage 2

Stage 2 - Bruxelles to Spa 201 km




The race gets down to the nitty-gritty a bit more with this stage of rolling valleys and a nod to the “Ardennes Classics” as it follows a part of the routes for the Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège… There are no very hard slopes, but it may be sufficient to eliminate the pure sprinters, whereas as guys like Freire & Husovd and classics riders could have more joy .




This stage would be fantastic as a one day race.  Starts off flat but kicks up late, there will be break away attempts, the Belgians, especially those on Belgian team Quickstep will be out in force trying to win on home soil, Robbie McEwen lives close to the finish here  - then the teams of the pure sprinters Cavendish and Farrar will be desperately trying to keep their men in contention.  There are a few GC riders who would be well suited here, Cadel Evans, Alberto Contador, the Schlecks, but they are all unlikely to allowed leeway.  Guys like Hushovd, Freire, Boasson - Hagen, Burghardt, Chavanel, Vinokourov, Luis Leon Sanchez or Sammy Sanchez will be winning this if it goes to plan, chase the breakaway, fly up that final climb and descend looking for a stage win. But HTC and Garmin might be able to do the job. Tough to predict, but all the action will be on that final climb, the Col du Rosier, 6.4km at an average 4%.  




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