The peloton is longing for the second rest day, but first there are two spicy stages ahead. Today, the riders are going from Mende to Valence, a stage of 183 kilometres. The first 18.5 kilometres are false flat, followed by 55 sloped kilometres. After a long descent, the peloton has to climb an ascent of 2nd category, the summit is at 57 kilometres of the finish line in Valence. The guys who have ambitions to be in the early breakaway have to be in the front at the start. Lars Bak is one of them.

“I like this stage the most from those that are yet to come,"he said. "It will be very difficult to be in the breakaway, especially because the road is going up and there are a lot of riders who have the ambition to be in that breakaway, despite the fatigue. Also Jens Debusschere or Adam Hansen can handle this.

"I think that the breakaway will consist out of 10 or 20 men, like yesterday. And therefore it will last until the end. The climb of 2nd category is heavy, but after that it’s still more than 50 kilometres towards the finish. Only when three or four riders are in front, some teams can try to control everything to sprint in Valence. In that case we have André Greipel.”