William Hill Championship

Christian Prudhomme waves the flag and the shortest – but most eagerly anticipated – stage of this year’s Tour has begun.

The road goes uphill out of Gap from the outset with UAE coming to the front with Nils Politt to keep a lid on any early attacks.

The remaining 162 riders are edging out of Gap ahead of this key day in the 113th edition of the Tour. It’s 26 degrees and the sun is, once again, shining down from a cloudless blue sky. It’s almost showtime…

The current record ascent of Alpe d’Huez is 36:40 and was set by Marco Pantani in 1995. Given the advances in technology and nutrition, many think that this record could be broken by the top finishers today.

A lot will depend on how Tadej Pogacar feels. If he’s not ill, he will want to win today’s stage in style – and the record will be toppled accordingly. But if Pogi is suffering from sickness, we could witness a pretty tepid two days of the man in yellow simply following Evenepoel and Seixas, rather than going for the kind of victories that would see his advantage stretch to over 10 minutes on his nearest challengers on GC.

Many are speculating that the Slovenian is wearing black shorts to cover the stomach issues that his team have been battling. Usually head-to-toe in yellow, Pogacar has, for the past few days, opted for black shorts because – well, let’s just say they might show up any issues less than yellow shorts…

Of course, it could be less gastric mishap and more aesthetics...