Tour De France / Tobias Gourlay / 17 July 2009 / Leave a comment

They are not the Pyrenees or the Alps, but the Vosges mountains make for tough stages, warns Tobias Gourlay.

Mark Cavendish won yet another bunch sprint yesterday, extending his lead over Thor Hushovd in the points classification (the Manxman also won an intermediate sprint, signalling a serious intent to win the competition for which he is now a [1.59] favourite). Unfortunately for this column, seven riders had successfully escaped the peloton's clutches, and the best of them, Saxo Bank's Nicki Sorensen, finished the best part of six minutes ahead of the pack. Cavendish was eighth.

Today's stage from Vittel to Colmar takes the riders into the wild Vosges mountains. The Col du Platzerwasel and the Col du Firstplan are a pair of Category One climbs that must be ascended in the second half of the stage. The pure sprinters will satisfy themselves with just getting up and down within the time limit; they won't be challenging for a stage win.

The major GC contenders might not want to go too hard before hitting the Alps on Sunday. Rinaldo Nocentini survived some Category One climbs and the Col du Tourmalet in the yellow jersey last weekend, so if Contador, Armstrong et al are marking rather than attacking each other, there might be a touch of value about the Italian's [2.52] price to retain the maillot jaune for another day.

The last winner in Colmar was sprinter-turned-baroudeur Laurent Jalabert in 2001. After yesterday's success, today could be another good opportunity for an escape artist. David Moncoutie has shown little of the form that took him to the King of the Mountains title in last year's Vuelta, but is the favourite at [16.5], ahead of Luis Leon Sanchez ([21.0]), already a stage-winner this year, Kim Kirchen ([25.0]) and Sylvain Chavanel ([25.0]).