The final stage with a hectic dash across the Alps and all to play for on GC.
The Route: 120km and 3,860m of vertical gain. It’s uphill right from the start with the Col du Pré, one of the most scenic climbs in the Alps and a hard one too with a gentle start but soon come steep ramps between the hairpins in the second half. The descent is more regular and down a bigger road.
The Bisanne climb is a backroad version of the Col des Saisies, a small road and irregular in places.
The Aravis is one of those climbs with a climb to get to the start that is so long and steep it would feature in most other races. The top has an Alpine-style descent that then eases as it heads through a long valley or gorge section all the way to the Faucigny area and the Arve valley floor. This is a tactical point where cards can be played.
The Finish: 11.2km at 9.2% and that’s with a flat section midway that doesn’t show on the profile. It’s got lots of 10-12% slopes and is up there with the likes of the Mortirolo but needs more visits to make it infamous.
The Contenders: Isaac del Toro (UAE) won yesterday and he has every chance of repeating, today’s stage ends with another selective climb with steep ramps and he’s got double the incentive now with Luke Tuckwell’s yellow jersey only 49 seconds ahead, the Australian having lost two and a half minutes yesterday; plus needing only a handful of seconds to leapfrog Matteo Jorgenson on GC.
Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek) said he rode like an idiot yesterday. It was audacious but came with a cost, we’ll see if he can be more measured today as he could just aim to snipe the stage even if he is close on GC too. Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X) is having a great race but getting ahead for the win is going to be hard.
With Paul Seixas (Decathlon-CMA CGM) we’ll see, first if he starts today. It’s the plan he said yesterday. He will be sore and probably lacking sleep and he had a hard ride chasing back from his crash but all the same if he’s able to be in contention by the final climb he showed on Friday he was climbing the fastest.
The breakaway has a chance because UAE just need to make life hard for Tuckwell. Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal-Quickstep) is looking better each day and gets to race on a climb he can reach from his home.
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Del Toro |
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Ayuso |
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Paret-Peintre, THJ, Seixas |
Weather: sunny and 27°C.
TV: KM0 is at 1.30pm and the finish is forecast for 5.00pm. During the week we’ve got the last 90 minutes live but here the final two hours so tune in around 3.00pm and see the action as the race starts the Col des Aravis.
Postcard from the Signal de Bisanne
Mont Bisanne is the second climb today, the Signal sounds like a TV aerial or suchlike but it’s the name given to one peak.
This road has been in the Tour de France before and your blogger went to recon it in June 2016 only to find it was being resurfaced in time for the race. The road was fully closed for the works and a crew had just rolled fresh bitumen on the road. This is quite a common experience in June.
The workers had done a few hundred metres that morning and they helpfully explained that the only way around was to walk on the narrow parapet by the road. Here’s the view from Google Earth above, you can see the wall on the left and the tarmac across the whole road done in one go. Walking on the wall wasn’t obvious, one slip in plastic cleats and it was a long way down one side and the other had tarmac that would more than cook an egg. But it was the only way through.
Just then a Tour contender and a couple of team mates arrived on the scene, they were doing their recon as well, complete with two following vehicles which quickly turned around as there was just no way through and they had a long detour, leaving the riders to find a way past. Taking the wall was ruled out, too risky so the team leader decided to walk on the road and wheel his BMC bike. Moments later the Doron valley echoed to the cry of an anglo-saxon word beginning with “F” as he sunk new white Sidis into the bitumen, then struggled to lift his feet clear from the sticky mess.
As the race passes today it’s quite possible the imprint of small shoes and Shimano cleats, like the handprints on Hollywood Boulevard, are still set in the road.