Don’t call it a sprint stage, today’s route has been revised to add more climbs and a series of steep roads, including some unmarked climbs await. Watch out for the Tramontane wind today too.
The Route: 156km and 1,750m of vertical gain. We’ve had sprint stages with more climbing but today is all about the short climbs in the final hour.
There’s a long – 30 minute – parade out of the city to KM0. Then flat roads and after crossing the Garonne river comes the first climb of the day and then past the Fronton vineyards, all in a crosswind.
The next 50km are roughly with a tailwind but the course twists at times, all on exposed an rolling roads past sunflower fields. It’s after the sprint point that the course is most exposed to crosswinds.
The climbs start after crossing the Canal du Midi and its green waters. The first one out of Montgiscard is almost a nothingburger but it’s quickly chased by the climb to Corronsac which stings more, 900m at 7% on a twisty road. Next some some roller-coaster roads which rise up to ridges exposed to the wind.
There’s the unmarked climb back to Vigoulet d’Auzil with less than 25km to go, 3km at 4.5% but with a middle kilometre at 7-8%. The penultimate marked climb is listed as 6.8% but measure it differently and it’s more like 8%.
The last climb of Pech David goes up a wall, 800m at 12% says the roadbook but it’s got 18-20% gradients. There’s a tight turn into it too so positioning matters. It’s not long but still a two minute effort. There’s then a fast descent on wider, more regular roads.
The Finish: a flat run around the city on big boulevards, all flat and shaded.
The Contenders: Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) is the easy pick, adept on short climbs and able to win a sprint from a group, and the motivation that today suits when so many other stages to come don’t. Plus his team can try to control the stage.
If Van der Poel can win, Wout Van Aert (Visma-LAB) can too, especially as the climbs in the finish arguably suit more.
Arnaud De Lie (Lotto) was third in Châteauroux and is feeling stronger and better, today’s L’Equipe has an interview with him talking about depression and burnout, the less emphasis on diagnosis but he talks about being disgusted with cycling but now has found fun again.
Longer shots include Vincenzo Albanese (EF), Axel Laurance (Ineos) and Marc Hirschi (Tudor) but the latter picked on reputation as he’s been invisible so far.
The breakaway has a chance today because several sprint teams won’t be chasing. Ivan Garcia Cortina (Movistar), Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ), Luke Plapp (Jayco), Benjamin Thomas (Cofidis), Bastien Tronchon (Decathlon-Ag2r) and Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor) have a chance but once again for Alaphilippe he needs to surf and bluff his way to a win rather than stomp on the pedals and ride off.
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Van der Poel, Van Aert |
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De Lie, Hirschi, Albanese, Laurance, Grégoire, Pogačar |
Weather: 29°C and sunshine, with a 25-30km/h Tramontane wind from the NW.
TV: KM0 is at 1.45pm the finish is forecast for 5.15pm CEST. It could be a lively start but if you’re rationing your time the hills start after 4.00pm.
Postcard from Toulouse
Today’s stage starts and finishes in Toulouse, a rare loop for the Tour. The Tour’s logistical demands make Toulouse – France’s fourth city – a useful base in south-west France, plenty of hotels and easy autoroute access. For a rest day it’s a great place for any flâneurs on the Tour caravan.
The Tour’s recent visits have seen Caleb Ewan and Mark Cavendish win. Only today’s stage isn’t for the sprinters, the succession of climbs will thin the field. This is the result of a hasty re-write. Having looked at the route in the while the organisers decided to cut back on the sprint stages, presumably knowing that nobody attacks these days (Mathieu van der Poel and colleagues exempted).
So they decided to revise the stage. And if Jonathan Milan and Tim Merlier get ejected today and can’t match the likes of Ewan and Cavendish, they can blame Sébastien Bosvieux. He lives at the foot of this hill and local newspaper La Dépêche reports that last year when he heard the rumours of the Tour coming to Toulouse he emailed ASO to suggest the climb of Pech David.
When the route was unveiled last October the exact details of each stage were not unveiled in the moment but with talk of a 20% climb and freeze-framing the video of the route unfurling on the screen it had to be: Pech David climb and tackled via its steepest side, the Chemin des Canalets. Bosvieux got a reply saying his email had contributed to the decision.
These local tips are a feature for organisers. There’s a mix, from suggestions of fearsome local climbs that prove to be something the peloton barely has to change gear for, let alone swap chainrings; to the outright fiendish like the Mortirolo in the Giro. An organiser can’t know every road in their country, a good one will cultivate sources and be open to suggestions.
With the race going into the Pyrenees tomorrow the pioneer event is the U23 Ronde de l’Isard stage race. Where it goes, the pro stage race now called the Route d’Occitanie might go too and this can pique the interest of the Tour. So while Pech David is a small climb, there are still “new” ascents for the Tour all over France, including some big ones in the Pyrenees. If you want Thierry Gouvenou’s email to make a suggestion, just ask.