Key events
Preamble
Stage five is classified as hilly, and you can say that again. There are eight categorised ascents and lots of uncategorised ones on what promises to be a draining 140km journey from Mâcon to Belleville-en-Beaujolais.
With 2,900m climbing in total, it’s not the most punishing day on paper, but there is potential for this to be a horribly demanding stage for all concerned. Some will fancy their chances in a breakaway but the GC teams will naturally be looking to control: if an overall contender such as Demi Vollering is feeling good, she might try and attack on the final couple of climbs.
It’s not beyond the bounds of possibility that a breakaway is allowed up the road to fight for the stage amid a ceasefire in GC: but the riders will suspect today is going to be far more hectic than that, and a fierce fight from the start is likely.
Neutralised start: 13.45 CET/12.45 BST
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