The Tour de France this year is a tour of innovation. No prologue, no time bonuses, no long transfers and mountaintop finishes in the first week. It can’t be the Tour, can it?

Yes, it is. And in the year of innovation, stage 6, a trek of 195.5 kilometers (121.4 miles) from Aigurande to Super-Besse, the Tour’s first substantial ascents will occur.

The stage will advance north to south through the Massif Central and it will include four categorized climbs, including two category 2 efforts, one to the finish that features some 12 percent sections en route to the ski station arrival.

The stage starts in a small town and finishes in another small village with the two points combined including about 5,000 residents.

Neither the starting or finishing cities have much Tour history. Super-Besse has hosted two stage finishes, 18 years apart. But it represents this year’s first mountain summit finish, and it’s the mountains the make the Tour. And it’
;s the mountain stage finishes that differentiate overall title contenders from the other riders.

As such, the 2008 Tour de France title contenders will start their efforts in earnest today. The stage's two climbs aren’t the epic ascents (they’re still three stages away), but one thing is certain. Non-climbers will begin to suffer in stage 6.

It’s no easy task to win a solo Tour stage. But in 1978, the first time a stage finished in Super-Besse, Paul Wellens of Belgium accomplished the solo feat, with a one-minute win over a small group finish. On the same day, the back-of-the-pack finishers crossed the line a half-hour later.

In 1996, a small breakaway group emerged and stayed away from the pursuing field. Rolf Sorenson of Denmark took the stage with a strong uphill push over Orlando Rodrigues of Portugal and Richard Virenque of France. Two years later, Virenque would become part of the Festina Affair. Although he admitted his offense much later than his teammates, Virenque eventually served a nine-month suspension but returned to win more Tour stages in his long, controversial career.