Vittel / La planche des belles filles

Stage 5 - Wednesday, July 5th - 160.5 km

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The Stage

Today's stage will have the first mountain finish but the stage itself is short and relatively easy, no one should need rescuing yet. We are bound to see the yellow jersey on someone new today but who will win? The GC contenders have a habit of taking things relatively easy the first week so we might get to see an unexpected winner. Maybe someone from a team with no GC ambitions? Robert Gesink finally won a grand tour stage in the Vuelta last year, breaking his duck. Hopefully that will open the floodgates but he's usually better in the later weeks of a tour.

Nairo Quintana definitely wants to win the Tour but he's had a hard Giro just two months ago, he might be thinking that a win here will show the competition he's got what it takes (and there will be a number of days to recuperate after). You could also argue that certain GC riders won't want to win here as they don't want all the hassle that comes with wearing the yellow jersey. Hassle that saps energy badly needed for the weeks to come.

All in all, this one is hard to predict.

Trivia: According to legend the summit gets its name from young women throwing themselves off the cliff into the lake below to escape the attentions of invading Swedish soldiers.

Winner: Fabio Aru

Tour Touristique

Luxeuil (sometimes rendered Luxeu in older texts) was the Roman Luxovium and contained many fine buildings at the time of its destruction by the Huns under Attila in 451. In 590, St Columban here founded the Abbey of Luxeuil, afterwards one of the most famous in Franche-Comté. In the 8th century, it was destroyed by the Saracens; afterwards rebuilt, monastery and town were devastated by the Normans, Magyars, and Muslims in the 9th century and pillaged on several occasions afterwards. The burning of the monastery and ravaging of the town are commonly used to illustrate the point that no place in Europe was safe during the invasions.

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