Christian Vande Velde (the 92nd starter) has 50km to go in the stage. We've just seen a shot of his chain position up high on the cluster. He's in the time trial tuck but the opening stanza is slightly uphill so he's spinning a higher cadence than he will once he reaches the 7km mark when the road goes downhill a little.

"On the whole," Baden Cooke recently told LeTour.fr, "it's a fast course. It's not terribly technical and the best guys are going to be super fast. The wind isn't too strong at the moment," concluded the Australian, "but it might pick up a little at the end of the day."