ABERAERON GREAT ORME

The longest stage of the race – and yet more hills. They don’t come as thick and fast today, with some prolonged sections of flat along the west Wales coastline, and the race may not start in earnest until Eidda’s Well, a climb that summits at 144.3km, in the heart of Snowdonia.

As spectacular as the television pictures will look, the meaningful action will be saved for the very end. The last time the race came to the Great Orme, the magnificent limestone headland to the north of Llandudno, the race finished in town. Today, Hawes has plotted something more fiendish by sending the peloton up to the very top of the Great Orme. After a scenic counterclockwise pass of the headland, the race turns back in on itself and takes the direct route to the top, up the perilous Ty-Gwyn Road. “It’s an epic gradient to finish. Take a look on Streetview,” suggests Hawes. He’s not wrong. It’s always hard to gauge gradients on Streetview, but this road made our legs hurt just looking at it. All in, the 1.9km road averages 9.8 per cent. Hawes first started plotting summit finishes at the 2013 Tour of Britain, where a young Simon Yates won on Haytor in Dartmoor, but this, he thinks, will be the toughest one yet.

“It’s going to be a battle royale. There’s a chance the race will come to it together, because the Great Orme road itself is nothing special in terms of difficulty. But then Ty-Gwyn rises to 20 per cent in the first 100m. It’s going to look stunning on TV. A lot of time is going to be won or lost on this stage, but at halfway through, there’s still more than enough opportunity to steal back time.”