Tour de France 2017 stage 3: Verviers - Longwy 212,5 km

[Simurgh]

Profile:

Christian Prudhomme's thoughts about the stage:

A coincidence or destiny, the Tour will take off from Verviers just two days before the 35th birthday of the city's native, Philippe Gilbert. And the day's course could well inspire the Wallonian. Indeed the climb going up to the Longwy Citadel looks a lot like the Mont des Alouettes where he had conquered his only stage win on the Tour in 2011. Whatever the outcome, the punchers will be on attacking soil, and the Yellow Jersey will be up for grabs.

The stage starts in Verviers, known as the "Water Capital" of Wallonia, because of the important role of water in the town's economy, helping the textile industry, that once thrived in the town. Verviers' economical situation declined after WW2, but is slowly recovering. The peloton will wave goodbye to Belgium and enter Luxembourg after Cote de Eschdorf (2,3 km at 9,3%). The stage continues to be mostly flat, even after crossing the border and entering Moselle in France. It gets really interesting at the finish, where the riders have to climb this...

Uphill finish in detail:

Which there exists a video about:

Video and description of Cote de Religieuses (in French):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4abvQAQpFb4

Weather forecast, Longwy tomorrow afternoon:

Who will come out victorious tomorrow? A puncheur finish it is, but can the light sprinters possibly hang on, will we see the GC men streching their legs a tiny bit, or will a breakaway escape the destiny of today's Taylor Phinney and Yoann Offredo?

General Classification standings after stage 2:

1. Geraint THOMAS
2. Stefan KÜNG + 5''
3. Marcel KITTEL + 6''
4. Vasil KIRIYENKA + 7''
5. Matteo TRENTIN + 10''
6. Christopher FROOME + 12''
7. Jos van EMDEN + 15''
8. Michal KWIATKOWSKI + 15''
9. Edvald BOASSON HAGEN + 16''
10. Nikias ARNDT + 16''

Top 5 Points Classification after stage 2:

1. Marcel KITTEL 63
2. Arnaud DEMARE 38
3. André GREIPEL 25
4. Sonny COLBRELLI 24
5. Mark CAVENDISH 22

DNF's today:
Luke DURBRIDGE

 

[Alexandre B.]

My quartet: Gilbert, Sagan, Colbrelli, Matthews.

 

[Anderis]

Bettiol FTW!

 

[Tank Engine]

1. Sagan
2. Gilbert
3. GvA

Not very imaginative, I know. G to keep yellow.

Colbrelli and Matthews should also show themselves here.

 

[infeXio]

Too hard for Demare, I assume? Albasini, Ulissi as long shots

 

[Bavarianrider]

Kittel will win, this board will explode. Should be a fun day.

 

[Samamba]

Overrated finish, not gonna be as hard as some think.

 

[jsem94]

Re:

Overrated finish, not gonna be as hard as some think.

It's not just about the finish. It will be a hard day in the saddle, up and down for most of the day, it's not just the categorized climbs that matter.

 

[Squire]

Got Matthews written all over it.

 

[Brullnux]

Recently these finishes (in 2015 at least) have ended up with a late attack winning. Could be the same here.

Otherwise, Matthews, Sagan and Colbrelli favourites. Degenkolb could feature, otherwise Felline will be up there instead.

 

[swissfr]

Arnaud Démare

 

[Max Rockatansky]

2. Sagan

That's all I can say.

Kittel ftw + Yellow Jersey.

 

[swissfr]

too easy for Gilbert or Van Avermaet

 

[Arredondo]

Sagan was really flat in today's sprint. But he should be fine for tomorrow's finish.

But i"ll go with a 'surprise' winner: Ben Swift after a surprise late attack! His form is great atm!

 

[Bavarianrider]

Is the new 3 seconds rule in Play tomorrow or does this count as a mountain finish?

 

[Tonton]

Not too steep for Demare. He'll be there on top and smoke everyone.

 

[Tonton]

Or Pinot to pull a Valverde...

 

[Vasilis]

Is the new 3 seconds rule in Play tomorrow or does this count as a mountain finish?

I think it's just for flat stages, and tomorrow isn't that. So I don't think it will apply tomorrow.

 

[Red Rick]

Sagan vs GvA vs Gilbert.

Given this is the Tour, add Froome and Thomas to that.

 

[yaco]

Demare won a similar stage at PN. He should handle the finish.

 

[The_Beach]

Re:

Demare won a similar stage at PN. He should handle the finish.

Much different circumstances in PN, and both the competition and the finish is way tougher tomorrow

 

[Hugo Koblet]

I'm backing Matthews here.

 

[DFA123]

I think this might be more one suited for Stybar than Gilbert. Looks a bit too easy (stage as a whole and the final climb) for a proper puncheur, and may be a bit more suited to the sprinter types. Surely Sagan is the big favourite.

 

[Kazistuta]

Re:

Got Matthews written all over it.

I agree, but I guess you haven't voted, since my vote on Bling was the first one....

 

[Beech Mtn]

Great. We're back to putting polls on every stage thread so we can scroll and scroll. Wish CN would fix it so poll only shows on page 1.