Profile, final climb & map of stage 6 (Thursday, 7 July: Binche - Longwy - 219.9 kilometres)
Re-Live: This is how the 6th stage of the Tour de France went
Rolf Aldag's assessment: The puncheurs strike
This stage of the Tour de France starts in Belgium. There will be a lot going on along the roads right at the start. The route through the Ardennes is likely to start with attacks. But you have to manage your strength well, as this is the longest stage of the Tour de France. The finale is particularly demanding. It is even more difficult than five years ago in the same place, when Peter Sagan won the sprint in Longwy (see picture above).
The final kilometres promise to be a relentless battle, with four up and over crisp climbs. This is an area for puncheurs, the guys with the strength to conquer steep hills aggressively. The penultimate climb, the Cote de Pulventeux, with a gradient of 12.3 per cent at 800 metres, prevents a sprint train from building up before the finish.
Stressful journey to the stage destination
It may come as a surprise that some of the protagonists of yesterday's cobblestone ride will be among the favourites again today - as will offensive forces such as Michael Matthews.
The approach to the finish should also put the Tour favourites under stress, as they do not want to be left behind in the narrow zigzag through Longwy and risk time gaps. This stage could be relevant for the battle for the green jersey if a fast rider like Peter Sagan scores points against the pure sprinters at the finish.
As a professional cyclist, our expert Rolf Aldag rode the Tour de France ten times up to 2004; as a manager and sports director, he has led various top teams through France and this year, for the first time, he will represent the German team Bora-Hansgrohe as head of sport at the Tour de France. There are few people who can tell you so vividly what can happen on the stages of a grand tour and within the peloton.
VIDEO: 15 Tour de France terms explained
What weighting does the stage have for the individual rankings?
For TOUR the 53-year-old sports manager has once again carefully studied the elevation profiles and route tables for this year's Tour de France. In his predictions, he names the teams and riders he sees at the front on each day, assesses the difficulties of the routes and says where he expects attacks and from whom. Will there be a bunch sprint? Will a breakaway group make it to the finish?
Aldag also assesses for TOUR what role each stage plays for the classification jerseys (see above): The more coloured jerseys our expert assigns to a stage, the greater its significance for the respective classification. The yellow jersey symbolises the weight of the respective stage in the overall classification, the green jersey stands for the importance of the best sprinter in the points classification and the red dotted jersey for the mountain classification, i.e. for the best climber.
TV broadcast & live stream of stage 6 of the Tour de France 2022*
- ARD - Das Erste: 16:05 - 17:30
- Eurosport 1: 11:55 - 17:30
- More live pictures on ARD One, Sportschau.de and Eurosportplayer.com**
- You can also find all the important information here in our live ticker
The preview with Rolf Aldag of the stages of the 2022 Tour de France
*Broadcast times subject to change; please note updates in teletext and on the Internet
**The Eurosport internet live stream is subject to a charge.
