After two foreign Grand Départs – Bilbao and Florence – the Tour starts in France once again. It’s also the first time in give editions that a sprinter is expected to take the first yellow jersey. In 2020, it was Alexander Kristoff who won the sprint in Nice at the end of a rain soaked race.
Hopefully, the Lille-Lille is played out in better circumstances. Although the route is not enirely flat, the elevation of 997 metres is unlikely to thwart a bunch sprint. Followng the start, the riders head southwest towards the Côte de Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, a climb of 1.1 kilometres with an average gradient of 7.8%. After changing direction and riding north for almost 50 kilometres, they’ll reach the Côte de Cassel, a hill of 2.3 kilometres at 3.7%. For the next 25 kilometres, the route continues rolling eastwards, just south of the French-Belgian border. The Mont Noir throws in 1.3-kilometre at 5.8% with roughly 45 kilometres to go.
And that’s it in terms of elevation gain. The remainder of the route is flat.
The finish line is situated on the Boulevard Vauban in Lille. The final kilometre is as straight as a die.
The last Tour de France stage winner in Lille is Marcel Kittel. The German won the sprint in 2014 ahead of Alexander Kristoff and Arnaud Démare.
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