After two crucial GC stages, there will be a short chance to breathe for the GC riders who will relish the easier course for stage 14. Last year the organizers barely gave any room to the sprinters during the traditional journey between the Pyrenees and the Alps but this year there are at least two opportunities for the fastmen. After the first potential sprint stage to Revel and the almost completely flat stage to Montpellier, the fast riders should again be in the spotlight in stage 14 which brings the riders to the outskirts of the northern part of the Alps where the race will be decided in the final week.
At 208.5km, it is one of the longest stages of the race and will bring the riders from Montélimar to Villars-les-Dombes Parc des Oiseaux close to the major city of Lyon. All day they will be travelling in a northerly direction and there won’t be many challenges when it comes to the terrain. The category 4 climb of Cote de Puy-Saint-Martin (3.6km, 5.2%) comes after just 20.5km of racing and then flat roads lead to a hillier section with the category 4 climbs of Cote du Four-à-Chaux (3.9km, 4.2%) and the Cote d’Hauterives (2.1km, 5.5%).
The rolling terrain will continue for a few more kilometres until the riders get to the slightly uphill intermediate sprint at the 145.5km mark. From there, it’s back onto almost completely flat roads that lead all the way to the finish. Here the riders can look forward to a very easy finale as there are only two turns in the final 10km, the final of those coming just at the 3km to go mark. From there, it is a long, straight, flat, 7m wide road.
This stage is one of the easiest of the entire race and unlike many of the previous flat stages, it has a very straightforward finale. The long, wide finishing straight is tailor-made for the pure sprinters who will love to get another chance to stretch their legs before they head into the mountains and turn in survival mode. At this point of a grand tour, the breakaways always have a bigger chance than they have at the start of the race but in modern-day cycling, escape success in flat Tour de France stages is rare. With so many top sprinters in this race, it is hard to imagine that this won’t give the sprinters another chance to go for glory on a day when the GC riders hope to get a small chance to recover.
Villars-les-Dombes has not hosted a Tour de France stage for more than a decade. Last year it hosted the finish of a stage at the Criterium du Dauphiné which was won by Nacer Bouhanni in a bunch sprint. Two years earlier Tony Martin beat Rohan Dennis and Chris Froome in a long, flat time trial in Parc des Oiseaux.
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