Less than a week has passed since the start of this edition and the Tour is already putting on the gear of big climbs with a second stage in the Pyrenees and the first finish in high mountains, at the Cauterets station, where the favorites for the general classification will not be able to hide your cards.
After the great movement yesterday, with important changes in the general classification, we will see if the situation consolidates or everything turns around like a sock.
First, the peloton, which will have started filming in Tarbes, will overcome Aspin and the mythical Tourmalet, whose summit is located 50 kilometers from the finish line of a stage of 144.9, short but extremely intense, with 3,750 meters of unevenness
Added to the difficulties of the road are those of the high mountains, with changes in temperature, possible rains, scarce oxygen when the organisms cross the top of the Tourmalet above 2,000 meters of altitude, before descending to barely 500, a demanding adaptation effort.
The thermometer will have the same ups and downs as the road and if the weather seems capricious it can have an essential influence on the day.
Without this factor, the route of the stage itself offers enough terrain for all types of scenarios, from a long getaway that adventure can attempt, to attacks by the favorites on the ramps of Tourmalet, with its 17.1 kilometers at 7.3 % average gradient, which the Tour will ascend for the eighty-fifth time in its history.
Although your goal is far away, it could be a good launching pad, better than the climb to Cauterets, with 16 kilometers at 5.4% unevenness, although very stretched in the first part and with the real difficulty concentrated in the last three , which will only allow you to scratch a few seconds.
The sixth stage is followed by another two flats in which the candidates for the general will be able to recover energy.
