Ah, bike racing across the roads of southern France. How could this possibly be wrong? Today's ride from Avignon to Privas is just under 200km and has a pretty gnarly-looking profile, with an uphill finish of some sort... though only one rated climb (cat-4). I'd be a little surprised if this drew out the overall contenders right away, with so many more hills to climb over the next week, but I would expect some gaps at the end, as well as Astana marking guys pretty intently. Oh, and a good fight to the finish by whomever wants the stage win. Not a bad way to start a so-called training race. Enjoy!