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Since its inception in 2016, the Tour de la Provence has gradually established itself as one of the top races at the start of the season, its growing prestige attracting many of the best teams in the international peloton. In addition, the race was upgraded to the ProSeries in 2020, reaffirming its status as the ideal showcase for several world cycling stars to make it their inaugural race of the year, as will be the case with the World champion Julian Alaphilippe (1200).

Route

As usual in recent years, the Tour de la Provence route is made up of 4 competition days. On this occasion, the race begins with an ITT prologue of 7 km, where big differences cannot be made but which will decide the first wearer of the leader’s jersey. The second stage is flat and will be the only opportunity that the sprinter teams will have to test their trains, since the weekend is made up of a medium-mountain stage on Saturday and a mountain stage on Sunday, where the final ascent to Montagne de Lure (14.9 km at 6.4%) will decide the final outcome of the race.

Favorites

For the time trial on the first day, the main favorite is undoubtedly Kasper Asgreen (600). Patrick Bevin (200) and Maciej Bodnar (200) are also ITT specialists. Among the sprinters for the second stage stand out Davide Ballerini (600), John Degenkolb (600), Andrea Vendrame (600) or the all-rounder Ethan Hayter (1000), who usually disputes the sprints, but perhaps this time will be more focused to the general classification. The other bullet from Ineos Grenadiers team for the GC battle is Richard Carapaz (1000). The main rivals of the British squad will presumably be Julian Alaphilippe (1200), Nairo Quintana (600), Giulio Ciccone (400), Michael Storer (400) or the defending champion Iván Ramiro Sosa (400).