La Bridoire > Grand Colombier 134km Well, well, well, hats off to Luke Tuckwell. The young Aussie was brave, and it paid off, he’s in the yellow jersey and leads Armirail by 1:12, but his main threats are Jorgenson (2:34), Seixas (3:06), Ayuso (3:15) and Del Toro (3:22). Awaiting the riders is a huge day of climbing.

Roskilde > Copenhagen 157km The 2nd edition of the Copenhagen Sprint, last year it was Lorena Wiebes taking the win from Elisa Balsamo and Chiara Consonni. Wiebes is back to try and defend her title, hopefully her bike is the correct weight, you can bet they’ve triple checked it!

Saint-Vulbas > Crest-Voland 183km At last, we reach the weekend and the GC days. Thanks to the TTT and gaps in the opening stage, Vauquelin and Onley are basically in the virtual lead, apologises to Alex Baudin fans. The Ineos pair lead Jorgenson by 3 seconds, Ayuso and Skjelmose are at 35s, and Seixas is 48s behind. This isn’t the hardest finish in the world, big gaps are unlikely, but it will start to shape the GC going into Saturday and Sunday.

Saint-Chamond > Parc des Oiseaux Villars-les-Dombes 196km Stage 4 turned out to be one of those epic battles between the break and peloton, the number of riders at the front just got them home for the win. Stage 5 looks certain to go the way of the sprinters, especially as it’s their only chance left in the race.

Tournai > Mont-de-l’Enclus 196km The same lap which has been used over the last few years, basically, hill repeats up the Trieu. It’s a challenging circuit, but it can still end in a reduced sprint, normally it’s around 50/50.

Le Puy-en-Velay > Montrond-les-Bains 167km After two breakaway days and a TTT, it’s time for something to give the fast men a little bit of hope. 

Perreux > Perreux 28.4km TTT After two stages for the breakaway, it’s time for the “team” time trial. I’m calling it that as the team time is taken on the first rider across the line, the rest of the guys get their own individual time. I much prefer the usual rule where the team time is the 4th guy over the line, but who am I to argue. 

Saint-Martin-le-Vinoux > Le Put-en-Velay 233km 233km, 3725m of climbing, does anyone dare try to control this for a sprint? The opening stage went the way of the breakaway, Alex Baudin taking a brilliant win. It was clear that the big teams didn’t want the pressure of taking the yellow jersey right at the start of the race, none of them were keen on controlling this stage. In terms of teams wanting a sprint, does anyone believe their fast man can win a stage with over 3700m of climbing?

Etterbeek > Brussels 207km Very similar to last year with three ascents of the Muur/Bosberg combo, you would think making it a selective day, but last year ended in quite a big sprint. Basically, it’s as hard as the peloton would it to be, how hard do they want it to be this year?

Vizille > Saint-Ismier 146km This looks like the hardest opening stage I’ve seen for a long, long time. 146km long and almost 3200m of climbing, thanks to 6 classified climbs. Far too hard for sprinters, so the breakaway will have a chance, but this looks like a GC day to me.