The name of finishing town Belleville-en-Beaujolais, for the first time a hosting site of the Tour de France, rings the bell for wine lovers. The Beaujolais area in the north of Lyon produces some of France’s most popular bottles. People equally love cycling there. For years, Régnié-Durette, the location of the intermediate sprint, organised an end of season gathering of former cycling champions. The surroundings make it an excellent terrain for riding bikes and racing as well. It’s up and down all day, so most probably the sprinters will give up as Jasper Philipsen got enough with a fourth stage win at Moulins and a comfortable lead in the points classification. His direct opponents seem tired. Stage 12 is very suitable for a breakaway of strong men. Like stage 10 won by Pello Bilbao, the candidates will try to avoid the presence of stage 8 winner Mads Pedersen and another GC rider might make a move to the top 10 overall like the Spaniard did at Issoire. Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar will mark each other and, who knows, they might fight again at some stage…
