Video Preview: Tour de France Stage 11 - Albertville to La Toussuire-Les Sybelles 148 km (high mountains) (+ video)

Stage 11 of this year's Tour de France is the toughest in the Alps in this th edition, making it an obvious choice for IG Markets to send Daniel Lloyd out to do the second of his video previews of this year's race. As the IG Markets-Sigma Sports rider explains, it's a stage that like yesterday's is bound to see a lot of attacks early on, but as he goes on to say, that final climb is familiar terrain for riders including maillot jaune Bradley WIggins and his chief rival, defending champion Cadel Evans.

The second of the three summit finishes that figure on this year’s parcours, this is a stage where those GC contenders who have seconds, minutes even, in the time trials to Wiggins and Evans must attempt to conjure up something special. The 18 kilometre climb to La Toussuire, last featured in the Tour in 2006. It will be familiar to Wiggins and Evans from last year’s Dauphiné, has an average gradient of 6.1 per cent, but will be particularly challenging on a day when the riders will already have passed over the Madeleine and the Croix de Fer.

It's a big GC day, and as a relatively short stage, the racing should be relentless from the start. This is also the stage that features as Acte I of the 2012 Etape du Tour, held the previous Sunday on a slightly longer route of 152km.

Geraint Thomas says: The last climb suits Brad, it’s pretty constant and he can time trial his way up and not get too carried away with jumping around, and the team as well can set a really fast tempo which would be perfect for him and deter any attacks, so it’s a good climb for Brad. I think the winner will come from that group. It will probably be one of those where people keep getting dropped until there’s eight or ten guys left, and a couple of attacks in the last couple of kilometres. That’s the way I think it will go, but as I’ve said before, other teams might try and spice it up a bit earlier, and try and isolate Brad a bit more.

To find out more about the stages on this year's race check out our full 2012 Tour de France Preview with analysis of each stage and tips from Geraint Thomas

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