This is what race organizers call a transitional stage, one linking two days of climbing. The sprinters will be hoping that this one could go their way, but it contains a lot of nagging uphills, four of them categorized, on a winding course between Figeac (population 10,500) and Toulouse, a city of 440,000. The hills are non-stop through the southern foothills of the Massif Central as the route skips across the Lot, Aveyron, Viaur, Ceret and Tarn valleys in the opening 115km. There are some rollers in the final 20km, but the run-in to the center of Toulouse is mostly on wide, straight roads favorable to a mass-sprint finish.