Today the Tour heads into the Pyrenees. It’s a relatively flat stage with the climb to La Pierre-Saint-Martin (hors catégorie) of 15.3 kilometres, with an average gradient of 7.4%, at the end. A first test for the climbers. Lotto Soudal manager Marc Sergeant says the Tour really begins today.

“The first week was really attractive to watch, but the riders haven’t climbed a mountain yet. As of today a new set of riders will come to the forefront. In our team that should be Gallopin, Wellens and De Gendt, although we have to see how Thomas his rib injury heals. We are already happy that he could do so much work for the team before the rest day.

"Tim has a free role, but he shouldn’t aim too high. Some aim really low so they reach their goals easily, but Tim puts a lot of pressure on himself. It’s his first Tour, he’s here to learn. We’ll make an evaluation afterwards, about the preparation and the Tour itself, but now there are still two weeks to race.

"Tony Gallopin is in a good condition. He’ll definitely be in front in certain stages.

"It’s fantastic that we already won two stages, everything we add now is a bonus, but we don’t want to be anonymous the rest of this Tour. We’ll also keep battling for the intermediate sprints, even though Sagan is a very strong rider.”