Tour de France - Route, stats, weather, schedule: everything you need to know about Stage 7

Point of departure: Millau
Point of arrival: Lavaur
Distance: 168km
Departure time: 12:35pm
Arrival time: 16:29pm (average calculated at 43km/h)
Type: Flat

Stage 7 of the 2020 Tour de France offers a chance for the sprinters ahead of a week in the Pyrenees, but it’s far from certain that this will end in a bunch sprint.

The first half of the stage is extremely lumpy, with a climb of 14.5km at 3.9% one to sap the legs and the ramp at Cote de Paulhe offering a chance for an attack.

The final 60km of the profile is largely flat, and sprinting teams will be extremely keen to take advantage of that chance ahead of a tricky week.

9km: Côte de Luzençon (3.1 km at 6.1%) - Category 3
73.5km: Col de Peyronnenc (14.5 km at 3.9%) - Category 3
97.5km: Côte de Paulhe (1.1 km at 7%) - Category 4

The region is renowned for high winds, so the added element of crosswinds is a distinct possibility. But it will be a warm stage for the peloton with temperatures between 29 and 32 degrees expected.

This is the third time that a stage of the Tour de France will conclude in Lavaur. The last time was in 2011 when Mark Cavendish picked up his third stage of that year's Tour to move into the green jersey. Cav took his revenge on Andre Greipel, who had beaten him in the previous day's sprint. A downpour greeted the peloton that day, something which should be avoided today.

Peter Sagan is still waiting for his first stage win on the 2020 Tour de France. After losing his green jersey to Sam Bennett, Sagan will try again on Friday in Lavaur. If he fails again it will mark the first time he has gone a week without a stage win since 2015.

Ther were conspiracy theories over whether he lost the maillot jaune deliberately but he sent a message on Stage 6 yesterday with a burst of pace at the end to gap his GC rivals. Okay, it only shaved a second off but this moment showed that Alaphilippe is fighting for every edge he can get. Will he have any opportunities to do so again today?

The Tour de France will be available to watch live and in full on Eurosport 1 and online as a live stream on the Eurosport Player streaming platform and eurosport.co.uk.

The coverage will feature Bradley Wiggins as an expert analyst throughout the Tour de France, and a new addition to Eurosport’s cycling coverage will be interviews and analysis from Bernie Eisel.

The Breakaway, a post-stage review show will be available to watch online after each Tour de France stage on the Eurosport Player streaming platform and the GCN App.

The Bradley Wiggins Show podcast will continue throughout the Tour, with 10 full episodes released across the three weeks.

Next: Everything you need to know about Stage 8

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