Europcar's directeur sportif Andy Flickinger warned that his sprinter Bryan Coquard has targeted today's stage. “I just spoke with him in the bus”, the Frenchman told letour.com.

“He's super motivated. He has ticked this stage. With the digital cartography we have at our disposal now, we have a precise idea of the finale. Thierry Marie [stage winner at Le Havre in 1991 and originally from Normandy] also gave us important indications. It's an uphill finish with a gradient of about 7%. This is a stage for punchy riders. We'll have to watch out for riders like Peter Sagan and John Degenkolb. We're not satisfied with our early part of the Tour but we still believe in our chances to win stages and also to do well on GC. Today's stage can be a breakthrough.”