Greig Leach

The sprinters have had a couple of days to show their stuff, today is the day for the climbers of the sport. For the fast men like Arnaud Demare (FDJ) it is more a question of surviving the stage. The roulers, sprinters and the riding wounded will ban together in a large group at the back of the race striving to arrive inside of the time limit. Demare is slipping away from the peloton on the sixth climb of the stage along with Mario Costa (Lampre) and, surprisingly, Bradley Wiggins (Sky). One usually expects to see Wiggins at the pointy end of the peloton whenever the road points up. However, he is carrying extra weight in preparation for the cobbled Classics and his return to track racing.