Early thread as I'm on my way to work!
The peloton will be glad to see the back of Clermont-Ferrand; it's the town at the base of the Puy de Dome that they rode through en route to the summit finish on Sunday, where they spent their rest day on Monday beofre starting from here on Tuesday and at the end of that stage...they returned here for another night!
This time they head north, over some more 4th Cat climbs on a lumpy start before a dog leg east, a tailwind and a flat run in to the finish in Moulins.
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This is likely to be one for the sprint teams and far and away the dominant sprinter in this year's Tour has been Jasper Philipsen. Jayco-Alula could have a chance with Dylan Groenewegen, who has been in the mix in the previous sprint stages. So could Bahrain-Victorious with Phil Bauhaus, who came close to a stage win on stage three, sandwiched between Philipsen and Ewan.
Also WvA is still in the race - his post-race interview yesterday quashed the rumour that he'd be leaving, apparently his wife is not due until just after the Tour!
Early scenery for this massive mineral quarry
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and some impressive chateaux and castles as always
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The Tour doesn't come here very often - partly because the area is the least populated in France although of note is that Julian Alaphilippe grew up around here.
Highlights on TV only for me today as I'm in the office so I'm relying on this thread and the letour.fr live feed today!
enjoy your work day nd thanks for the thread
Talking of it being a sprint stage....
Fabio Jakobsen hasn't had a good Tour so far.
Head say Jasper, he's the obvious choice, with Wout battling for a plucky second place - but heart says Biniam. Wouldn't that be awesome?
Fred in the top 10, too.
alaphillipe giving it the beans yesterday still no cigar :/
not so tense today so we get some startline cheese
that's embarrassing 😀
Roadie helmets really are hideous aren’t they
Jens is brilliant.
the only fun so far has come from mischievous arabs
https://twitter.com/LeTour/status/1679114252018233345
Not a popular stage then?!
<p style="text-align: left;">I finished work early so caught the final 30kms......you can't argue with the job that Philipsen is doing, looking very dominant.</p>
alaphillipe giving it the beans yesterday still no cigar :/
He's just there to ride himself into form for an attack on Montrose St in August.
Even ITV4 are struggling to come up with any highlights; looks like I picked the right day to go into the office!
Matt Rendell's little segment about the region was very good.
I don't like this Skoda dark green shade green jersey. I don't like it at all