Question Marks. Today is a long, lumpy stage with a kicker in the final 2km. It’s not hard enough for the GC boys to do more than snipe a few seconds on each other here or there, but maybe too hard for the pure sprinters to be a part of the finale.
And therein lies the question mark. For Garmin and now HTC, the first few days have been successful, and so the two teams most likely to cover any breakaway and make things a bunch kick will be wondering if it is worth their while to burn their boys up in ensuring it is a sprint when their two sprinters are not 100% guaranteed to be in a position to sprint for the line anyway.
One would think that Garmin would be happy to let the right sort of break get away with a couple of blokes well down on GC in it, and then just control the day and keep Thor safely in the jersey without risking getting him gapped by Cadel in the finale.
Because as brilliant as his ride was the other day on the Mur de Bretagne, there’s no guarantee that he’ll be able to produce such top-end stuff again.
So I reckon it’ll be a day for the break to stay away. The question is to be answered in a few hours time!