Lance Armstrong: The real Tour starts Sunday
The hilly seventh stage on Saturday is a 165.5km ride from Tournus that finishes with an easy 14km climb to Les Rousses ski station. But it is the eighth stage that most of the contenders appear to have pinpointed.
Armstrong finished the sixth stage Friday in the safety of the peloton as HTC-Columbia’s Mark Cavendish took his second sprint win in as many days to claim his 12th career victory on the race.
And with a time deficit to rivals Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team), Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank) and Alberto Contador (Astana) after a setback on the cobbles of stage three the 38-year-old American is expected to put his RadioShack team to work this weekend.
“We might have had that bad luck on the pavé, but the classification starts tomorrow, though it really starts on Sunday,” said the American. “I would look for more animation and attacks on Sunday. These are days that we can’t necessarily win the Tour, but we can certainly lose it.”