Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne > Saint Vulbas 177km Chance number 2 for the fast men. Monday’s sprint was a mess, when will organisers learn that wide roads and no corners is a recipe for disaster. Thankfully, this sprint is much more like normal and should be safer for all.

Pinerolo > Valloire 139km A huge day for the sport, Girmay takes an incredible win and Carapaz moves into yellow. Tomorrow is the first big test for the GC men. It’s only day 4 of the race, but the peloton head to the mountains and we’re all set to see how Vingegaard responds to the incoming Pogačar attack. The Dane was up to the challenge on Sunday, which will have caused a bit of panic in the UAE team, now we get to see how he responds on a big mountain. 

Piacenza > Torino 230km A 230km sprint stage in the first week of the race, it feels like we’ve gone back in time. First, we’ll get to see who the breakaway warriors are in this race, the guys who go up the road with basically no chance of taking the win. Which of the peloton will be willing to go in a small break for close to 200km, into a headwind? My bet would be Alexis Renard and Thomas Gachignard. Everyone knows, this is going to be a sprint, much respect to the breakaway riders in this stage.

Cesenatico > Bologna 198km Allez, Romain! Fortune favours the brave, and there was no one braver than Romain Bardet. Saying that, there was no one stronger than Frank van den Broek. DSM are in yellow, now time for stage 2. The riders head towards Bologna, for a finish that includes two ascents of the beautiful, San Luca, climb. Made famous by Giro dell’Emilia, it’s a hill that most of the GC contenders know well. In that race, they usually do 5 ascents of the climb, there’s just the 2 in this stage. 

Firenze > Rimini 207km Welcome to the opening stage of the 2024 Tour de France and what a treat we have. No gentle stage to ease the riders into the race, this day punches you in the face, then kicks you in the balls on the way down. 3727m of climbing, with 7 categorised climbs, this is a hugely demanding opening stage, one of the hardest I can remember. We’re in Florence, but will we see an Italian in yellow at the end of the day?

In this preview I’ll give an overview of the road races in Great Britain, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Denmark, France and Belgium. Enjoy the races, it’s going to be a busy Sunday.

The biggest race of the year, and it could be a very special edition of the Tour de France. Pogačar’s going for the Giro/Tour double, Vingegaard’s looking for three in a row, Roglič is looking to get one over on his old bosses, Cav’s going for 35 and then there’s Remco. Three weeks of passion, excitement, tension and controversy awaits, I can’t wait for it to start. 

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Aigle > Villars-sur-Ollon 15.6km ITT The battle for the 87th Tour de Suisse comes down to the final ITT. Yates goes into the stage with a 31s advantage over his teammate, João Almeida, but will he still be in yellow at the end of the day? The stage is 5km of flat, then the climb to Villars-sur-Ollon, yes, the same one they did today. The riders approach from a slightly different direction, but it’s basically the same climb they did twice today.

Villars-sur-Ollon > Villars-sur-Ollon 118km A big day in the fight for the yellow jersey. Villars-sur-Ollon is a well-known finish, it’s been used regularly in both this race and Tour de Romandie in recent years. They start not far from the finishing line and head up Col de la Croix. Then the bunch head out on a loop and then it’s up the finishing climb for the first time, and straight on up Col de la Croix for the second time. After that, they loop back round and take on the climb to the line for the second time. Special mention...