Tour De France, 2007, Stage 10 Preview: Pedaling Toward the Mediterranean Sea

After three straight mountain stages in the Alps, the Tour de France now heads toward the southern tip of France where warm weather and inviting blue water of the Mediterranean Sea await.

The remaining field of 174 cyclists from a starting field of 189 in London on July 7 will pedal 229.5 kilometers (142.5 miles) from Tallard to Marseille in the 10th stage Wednesday.

With the Alps now in the background, the top-10 riders are all within 5 minutes and six seconds of leader Michael Rasmussen (Rabobank) of Denmark. The 20th-place rider in the overall standing is 7:45 behind Rasmussen.
Rasmussen will likely retain his two-day race lead for a few more days.

But with less than eight minutes between the first and 20th-place rider, the race remains wide open. More specifically, with three mountain stages left in the Pyrenees as well as two long individual time trials, the 94th Tour de France has just begun.

The 10th stage will be the first of three rolling and flat stages before the three-week race's first individual time trial Saturday. And will there won't be any severe climbs to negotiate, the 10th stage, like the 11th and 12th, are stages in which sprinters will try to again get to the front while team riders will pedal strategically for their respective overall title contender leaders.

The 10th stage includes four climbs, all either category 3 or 4. Here's the particulars, with distance in the stage in kilometers, the name of the climb, its length, gradient and classification:

57 km: Côte de Châteauneuf-Val-Saint Donat, 3.3 kilometers, 3.1 percent grade, category 4.
93 km: Côte de Villedieu, 1.1 kilometers, 5.2 percent grade, category 4.
201.5 km, Côte des Bastides, 7.5 kilometers, 2.9 percent, grade, category 3.
219.5 kilometer, Col de la Gineste, 7.5 kilometer, 3.2 percent grade, category 3.

Marseille, like Briancon (the ninth stage finishing city) has a long history as Tour de France host. Through the years, the port city has hosted a stage finish 32 times, most recently 10 years apart in 1993 and 2003.

In the former year, a monstrous 178-mile effort from Isola, Italian Fabio Roscioli capitalized on a long solo breakaway and won the stage by seven minutes.

Four years ago, Denmark's Jakob Piil outsprinted Fabio Sacchi of Italy to claim the stage among a nine-rider group that finished 20 minutes ahead of the main field.

In the Wednesday's stage, a rider or riders far down the overall standing may try for one-day glory. And it's also likely the riders who spent the last three stages showcasing their climbing abilities will try to remain safely in the main field.