We won’t go into the details of the aftermath of Stage Four’s crash, there has been plenty of chat on Twitter and other news sources – judge for yourselves

Stage 5 brings us the first big GC test of the Tour. The race takes one last swig of mineral water and leaves Vittel. The first 100km are covered via rolling roads, a nice leg sapper before the main event of the day. With Sagan’s DQ, the intermediate sprint could be a big focus for the sprinters and their quest for points and the Green jersey. As a result, we don’t think the break will make it this far. After the sprint, the race takes the cat 3 Côte d’Esmoulières and a late burst from a plucky KOM hunter could steal the points. Then, oddly, the Col des Croix is ‘created’ on the descent – work that one out!

After this descent there are just over 30kms left in the stage and the race for positioning at the front will start to hot up. The road heads upwards for 10km and after short downhill sections the riders will greet ‘the Plank’. Put into context, the climb isn’t a monster Alpine ascent but its relentless gradients with no chance to recover (until the last few hundred metres) makes it incredibly tough. It’s short, at only 5.9km but peaks at 20% and averages 8.5%. It’s this final ramp of 20% which give the climb its harsh reputation and those shots of riders suddenly appearing behind the finish line.

Compared to the other times that this climb has been used (2012 & 2014), what precedes it is a lot easier so expect a large bunch to reach the bottom and judging by what we saw on stage 3 the majority of GC contenders are looking fit and frisky.

The friskiest was Richie Porte, who looked like he pushed the trigger a bit early and wasn’t really sure what he was doing at the front, has time to make up and although he won’t claw back tens of seconds he may be able to make a gap and the bonus seconds on the line will do the rest.

The other rider that went to the front was Dan Martin, this shorter climb with a final intense kicker should really suit him. He was close to the win on stage 3 and he’ll want to bag as much time before the Pyrenees and Alpes home into view.

Chris Froome has found history with this climb and could be about to take the Yellow Jersey off Thomas’ shoulders here, which won’t faze him. He started to prove the doubters wrong with his time trial performance on stage 1 and a win on the first summit finish will make it very clear that he’s arrived here in tip top form – which is a worry for everyone.

This is the likely podium for us. But the likes of Fabio Aru, who will also want to show the rest he’s here to really challenge for yellow and Simon Yates, who lost time on stage 3. Quintana will man mark his rivals, but don’t expect him to launch an explosive attack on a climb like this, the same can be said for Bardet. Contador just doesn’t look like he can keep any big attack up, but admittedly that is only based on what we saw on stage 3 and he’s another rider who will want to lay down a marker.

Podium Prediction