road.cc Fantasy Cycling: Tour de France stage 20 preview

The last-chance saloon for anyone looking to pick up seconds over their rivals in the GC, but for time trial specialists not targeting a GC place, this will be the date they circled in red when the route was first announced last autumn. The course suits strong riders and includes a tricky descent down into Grenoble plus plenty of street furniture to keep the contenders on their toes.

Thought for the Day

This year’s Criterium du Dauphine provides an up-to-date form guide to the stage, having been raced over exactly the same course. Some big GC names and against-the-clock specialists were missing, but it’s worth looking back at the results to see who went well.

GT’s tips

We rode this course in the Dauphine and while it¹s definitely good to know it, it's even better to race over it, much more so than training over it. It will give Bradley Wiggins a bit of an advantage over the rest, it's quite technical as well so he'll know how to ride it and could get time over people like the Schlecks. It depends how your legs are on the day, it's a tough circuit. It should be an interesting one, but I can't see many people beating Cancellara, unlike the GC guys he'll have been able to take it fairly easy the last couple of days.