Welcome to Slovakia!
The Profesional Cycling finaly enters Slovakia and its mountains. And what a great place it is Strbske Pleso, a bit of history, it held nordic skiing world championships in 70s where crowds of 200 000 visited ski jumping events, IOC members were thrilled and nearly assured organisers that if they bid for 1984 Winter Olympics they would most probably get it, unfortunately Sarajevo in former Yugoslavia got it, because Prague pulled the plug last minute and withdrew from the project, appartently Czech part coldn't cope with the fact games would have to be held in Slovak part as it was Czechoslovakia at the time. Anyway.
The climb it self is quite steady and presume it will not select the group that much, hoping for entertaining stage and plenty of great helicopter views of our wonderfull Tatra Mountains.
Next year they should try Martinske Hole finish or Kralova Hola - 1946mts, climb is 12km and nearly 1200mts altitute gain, looks similar to Mount Ventoux in France.