Tour de France 2016: Friday's Stage 7 Live-Stream Schedule, TV Info and Route

The favourites for the general classification of the 2016 Tour de France will show their faces for the first time on Friday, as the peloton will venture into the Pyrenees for the first stage in the high mountains.

Friday's ride up the Col d'Aspin should be a perfect warm-up for a brutal stage on Saturday, and while time gaps in the GC should be minimal, the battle for the stage win should be a good one, as a short and technical descent follows the ascent.

Those like Astana's Vincenzo Nibali have dominated stages like this in the past, and with heavier climbs on the horizon, the favourites may opt to conserve some energy for Saturday's stage. A surprise winner is a real possibility on Friday, but all of the favourites will have to be near the front as well.

Date: Friday, July 8

Time: Noon (BST), 1 p.m. (Local), 7 a.m. (ET)

Route: L'Isle-Jourdain – Lac de Payolle

Stage Profile: High Mountains

Live Stream: ITV Hub (UK), NBC Sports App (U.S.)

TV Info: ITV 4 (UK), NBC Sports Gold (U.S.)

The Col d'Aspin has been a staple of the Tour de France for years, but for the first time in decades, event organisers have opted to use the climb as the centrepiece of a stage rather than a warm-up on the way to a climb like the Col du Tourmalet, which is generally seen as a harder challenge.

The Aspin tops out at around 1,500 metres and has an average gradient well under 10 per cent, which makes it shorter and less steep than some of the Tour's iconic climbs. But as you can see in this video from the Col Collective, it's a mountain cyclists need to respect:

Aspin is a treacherous climb, starting out at a low gradient before gradually becoming steeper. The final sector touches on 10 per cent, and plenty of riders who have failed to pace themselves have fallen victim to the high altitude in the past.

Once the riders make it to the top of the climb, the stage isn't over, and the descent toward Lac de Payolle may have as much of an impact on the final result as the ascent does. This early in the race, few of the top contenders will want to take too many risks, opening the door for a surprise winner.

On paper, the stage looks tailor-made for Nibali, a strong climber and an expert technician who should be able to distance his rivals in the descent. But as Richard Windsor of Cycling Weekly reported, the Shark of Messina maintains his only goal in this year's Tour is to help team-mate Fabio Aru:

"

I haven’t had my best day...honestly I didn’t know how my legs could have answered to the high rhythm in the climbs.

Probably I also suffered a little bit for the first hot temperatures in this Tour, but I’m relaxed because, as we have said in the last two weeks, we are here to help Fabio Aru to gain the best result possible.

I’m sure my condition will grow in the next days and I will be ready to stay close to Fabio soon.

"

If Nibali, who had just a short period of rest in between May's Giro d'Italia and his preparations for the Tour, can't keep up with the favourites and set the pace in the descent, it opens up a whole array of possibilities.

According to Meteo France, rain is a possibility on Friday, which will make the favourites even more cagey going into the stage. But one well-placed attack could sink Tinkoff's Alberto Contador, who is still recovering from his earlier crashes, and the rewards of pushing him and other rivals down in the standings could outweigh the risks.

Doug Pensinger/Getty Images

BMC's Greg Van Avermaet should be able to keep hold of his yellow jersey, as the Aspin isn't steep or long enough for him to lose over five minutes, but when the inevitable attacks do come, expect one or two favourites to miss out and lose anywhere between 30 seconds and two minutes.

Bigger gaps shouldn't occur—Sky's Chris Froome and Movistar's Nairo Quintana will already have their mind on Saturday's brutal stage to Bagneres-de-Luchon, which should be one of the toughest parts of this year's Tour.