The Tour de France 2012 moves into Stage 10, following an individual time trial and rest day.
The 194.5 km stage runs from Macon to Bellegarde-sur-Valserine and is the first stage in the high mountains.
The stage starts off relatively flat, until reaching the Category 2 Cote de Corlier, which summits at 104.5 km to go. The sprinters will likely keep with the peloton on that climb and compete for the intermediate sprint points at 64.5 km to go.
Next, the peloton will right into the first Hors category climb of this year's Tour, the famed Col du Grand Colombier, which summits at 43 km to go to the finish.
After the descent of the Colombier, the riders immediately go the final climb of the day, the Category 3 Col de Richemond, which summits at 20.5 km to go.
The final 20.5 km is a descent which levels off, and concludes with a short uphill finish.
With a long descent after only a Category 3 climb, today's stage is not for the GC contenders like Bradley Wiggins (Sky), Cadel Evans (BMC), or Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas), who will probably stay together in the peloton.
Instead, the stage is ripe for a breakaway to succeed, with breakaway survivors competing for the stage win.
It's possible for pre-Tour favorites who have lost major chunks of time like Chris Horner (RadioShack), Pierre Rolland (Europcar), or Michele Scarponi (Lampre), to try to get in the break in attempt to get back some of those time losses.
Also look for Liquigas to be driving the peloton towards the final in an attempt to drop other sprinters and catch the break. If so, this final short uphill finish is ripe for a fourth Peter Sagan win.
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*** Stage 10 has ended, please click here for the latest live coverage of the Tour de France: /world-others/
