Stage 2: Bruxelles - Spa

The route - Sunday 5 July
Bruxelles - Spa  201 km

The race gets down to the nitty-gritty a bit more with this stage of rolling valleys and a nod to the “Ardennes Classics” as it follows a part of the routes for the Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège… There are no very hard slopes, but it may be sufficient to eliminate the major sprinters, like Cavendish, whereas Freire could have more joy. In my opinion, at the finishing line there will be a pack of around fifty riders. But it’s a rugged route on which all sorts of things could happen. In 1995, it was on a stage similar to this one that Miguel Indurain attacked on the ‘bumps’ of Liège-Bastogne-Liège and broke away with Johan Bruyneel.