Last year the organizers designed four tough mountain stages in the Alps for four of the final five days after the second rest day. That made for an intensive and exciting end to the race where everything was almost turned around on the final climb of the race. Apparently, they liked the formula as they have repeated the idea in 2016. After the rest days, it will be all about the GC in the four days leading to the final parade into Paris. Three tough mountain stages – two of them with a summit finish – and one uphill time trial mean that the hardest part of the race come at the very end and it all kicks off with a tough summit finish on the Swiss climb Finhaut-Emosson which was the scene of a thrilling spectacle in the 2014 Criterium du Dauphiné.
The 184.5km stage is held in Switzerland and will bring the riders from the capital of Bern to the top of brutal mountain at Finhaut-Emosson. Starting in the flatter part of the country, the riders will get a chance to get the legs going after the rest day as they will first travel along relatively flat roads in a southerly and southwesterly direction. As they approach the Alps, the road will gradually start to rise, culminating at the top of the category 3 climb of Cote ede Saanenmöser (6.6km, 4.8%) at the 72.5km mark. Only a short descent will follow and it leads to more flat roads and the category 3 climb of Col des Mosses (6.4km, 4.4%).
A long descent now leads to Aigle where the UCI headquarters are located and then the riders will follow the flat valley road to the city of Martigny which often signals the start of climbing hostilities. It’s not different tin this stage but first the riders will contest the flat, straightforward intermediate sprint at the 150km mark.
In Martigny, the riders will turn to the southwest to head into the mountains where they will go up the category 1 mountain Col de la Forclaz (13km, 7.9%). It’s a very regular climb with a constant gradient of 7-8.5%. The top comes with 18km to go and is followed by 7.6km of descending. There are no flat roads in between the final two climbs as the riders will head straight onto the lower slopes of the final climb which is of the HC category. It averages 8.4% over 10.4km and is pretty brutal. The first three kilometres are not that hard but from there the gradient doesn’t drop below the 8% mark. The finale is the hardest as the gradient stays above 9% and the final 400m even average a massive 12.3%. There are several harpin bends on the climb but the final 1600m are on a straight, 5m wide road.
Mont Ventoux is a harder climb but Finhaut-Emosson is definitely the second toughest summit finish in this race. It’s rare for a Tour de France mountaintop finish to have so steep gradients and as it did in the Criterium du Dauphiné two years ago, it can do a lot of damage. To make things even harder, there are no valley roads in between the final two climbs and this means that it is possible to attack from afar and maybe even use the descent to increase the advantage. This is a day when a brave rider can really turn things around and where it is likely to be very evident who’s on form in the final week of the race. However, it’s also the first of four crucial stages so the riders may have a relatively cautious approach. That could also open the door for a successful breakaway as the main teams may prefer to save some energy for the stages to come.
As said, the climb made its debut at the 2014 Criterium du Dauphiné where it hosted the finish of the penultimate stage. Lieuwe Westra rode to victory from a breakaway but it was the battle between the GC riders that was the most exciting part. Chris Froome was on track for a second overall victory but after he had crashed in the flat stage one day earlier, no one knew how he was going. He turned out to be more injured than initially expected and he was unable to follow Alberto Contador who distanced him by 20 seconds and rode himself into yellow. Andrew Talansky was the second best GC rider and would go on to win the race one day later.
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