Sharjah24 – AFP: The first of four Alpine stages on Saturday takes the Jonas Vingegaard v Tadej Pogacar duel for supremacy into territory where the Tour de France is traditionally won.
After the latest round the defending champion is clinging on to a wafer-thin lead with the tension ramped up to fever pitch.
Denmark's Vingegaard was looking ahead with a clear mind.
"I'm confident in myself and my strengths, it will be exciting in the next few days," he said.
"I'm in good shape and the race will be decided next week," he suggested.
"But I'll do my best in the next few days then we'll see."
Vingegaard's right-hand man, Sepp Kuss, says the Tour proper starts here.
"Until now Tadej and Jonas have slugged out a draw, but now tiredness will start to count and the type of terrain that Jonas loves is coming up," said the American.
Saturday's stage 14 from Annemasse to Morzine ends in a downhill dash, but only after a cumulative 45km of climbing and as much descending.
The last couple of kilometres have a three percent incline, and could feature a sprint.
Basque Cofidis rider Ion Izagirre won a rain-soaked descent of the Joux Plane in 2016.
The finale here is similar but better weather is expected.
The first three riders on the line gain time bonuses of 10, six and four seconds, while the first three atop the final Joux Plane mountain pass get eight, five and two seconds.
In the shadow of Mont Blanc, Sunday's struggle will be an enthralling fight for the yellow jersey with Europe's highest mountain as witness.
The 15th stage from Portes du Soleil to Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc has 4500m vertical gain and should pitch Vingegaard and Pogacar across the line in the top two unless one of them cracks.
French climber David Gaudu suggests someone might.
"The Alpine stages on the menu are harder than sometimes, not everyone will enjoy this," said the FDJ man.
But even then nobody can really be confident of the title.
The individual time trial will oblige any potential champion to be at their best with two short climbs at around nine percent gradient and some technical downhill sections to negotiate.
"It's super-hard, and likely to be the decisive stage," says third-placed Jai Hindley of Australia, less than three minutes behind the leader.
Its just 22km but it will be contested at breakneck speed, especially on the flat sections, a day ahead of what should provide the real decider on this Tour.
Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc to the ski resort of Courchevel on stage 17 is as frightening as it would sound to any local rider.
"This is a fight for the lead in the knowledge of what is at stake, everything can be lost here," says race designer Thierry Gouvenou.
Some 68km of climbing, with the Cormet de Roselend just short of 2000m altitude and the 28km ascent to Courchevel topping out at 2304m altitude, will test the pretenders to their limit.
Temperatures will also rise as a heatwave engulfs Europe.
And if this painful quartet of stages fails to separate those at the top and reveal the champion, there are two more mountain days in the Vosges before the race rolls into Paris on July 23.
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