Tour De France 2014 Live Stream, Preview, Classifications, Route Map: Tour Heads to Epernay for Stage 7

By Paul John Rivera First Posted: Jul 11, 2014 08:53 AM EDT

Six stages are already in the books and on Friday, the peloton will enter a grueling seventh stage - a race that could affect the current 2014 Tour de France leaderboard.

The 234.5-kilometer race from Epernay to Nancy, which is the second-longest stage in this year's Tour, is categorized as a flat race, but the riders are going to face two climbs in the tail-end of Friday's race.

The seventh stage will have a 363-meter uncategorized climb followed by an intermediate sprint in Hannonville-Sous-Lesc-Cotes. The race gets tricky when the peloton reaches the two Category 4 climbs in Cote de Maron and Cote de Boufflers, leading to a downhill finish to Nancy.

German riders Marcel Kittel of Giant-Shimano and Andre Greipel of Lotto-Belisol, who are both sprint specialists, dominated in the early part of Le Tour 2014, winning four of the first six stages, but things could change on Friday, especially when the peloton make the climb.

Slovakian Peter Sagan, who holds the green jersey and is ranked third in general classification, is predicted to win Stage 7, which is said to be tailor-made for a sprinter/puncheur like the Cannondale rider.

Astana rider Vincenzo Nibali still leads the pack, but the Italian rider is just two seconds ahead of teammate Jakob Fuglsang. He is more than two minutes ahead of tour favorite Alberto Contador, but Nibali admitted that he is still wary of the Spaniard.

"I'm still afraid of Contador," Nibali said via Detroit News. "It's true that you can lose a lot of energy defending the yellow jersey, but I've been riding well. It's a heavy task to wear it, to have the jersey could be a little advantage in the coming stages. We'll take it day by day."