The fact that Colombian climbing legend Lucho Herrera won a very similar stage to this back in 1985 underlines the importance of this stage to the yellow jersey contenders. As the popular old adage goes, it’ll be one of those days they can’t win the Tour but can definitely lose it.
The main difficulty is the Ramaz, the first cat one ascent of the race and one only used once before, back in 2003 when Richard Virenque led the race over it and won in Morzine. The climb to Avoriaz is not super hard, but as a high summit finish it can be counted on to split the main contenders to some extent as those with the legs and those without are sorted out.
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Tour Down Under stage 1 - LIVE
Don't miss all the action from the opening stage from Prospect and heads to the finish in Gumeracha with 2,500 metres of climbing -
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Odette Lynch takes women's stage 3 win in bunch charge, as Davids moves into men's top slot after claiming sprint from break -
'Super talent' Albert Philipsen makes WorldTour debut at Tour Down Under
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