The nature of the French geography means that the Tour de France usually gets to the longer climbs much later than they do at the Giro and the Vuelta. In 2016, however, the rapid journey from north to south means that the riders have already reached the outskirts of Massi Central at the end of the fifth stage. This means that the organizers have had the opportunity to include a first hard finale a bit earlier than usual and even though stage 5 is not going to decide the overall winner of the race, it could give the first indication of who’s not on form to go for a top result in the biggest race of the year. At the same time, some of the punchy classics riders hope to go for glory in one of the few stages that suit their characteristics.
At 216km, stage 5 is the third stage in a row at more than 200km and it will bring the riders from Limorges to Le Lioran in Massif Central. Like the previous stage, it consists of a long southeasterly run towards the harder terrain in the southern part of the country. The first part of the stage takes place in one of the flatter parts of France and so there’s only the category 4 climb of Cote de Saint-Leonard-de-Noblet (1.7km, 5.2%) at the 16.5km mark to test the riders. From there, the riders will follow mainly flat roads to the city of Pont de Saint-Projet at the 133.5km mark.
The next 51.5km are all uphill and includes three categorized climbs along the way: the category 3 Cote du Puy Saint-Mary (6.8km 3,9%), the category 3 Col de Neronne (7.1km, 3%) and the main challenge of the day, the category 2 Pol de Peyrol (5.4km, 8.1%). The latter ascent is very tough as the final 2.4km average more than 11%. Along the way, the rider will contest the intermediate sprint just 2km after the top of the Cote du Puy-Saint-Mary. The final 500m are uphill at around 5%.
The top of the Pas de Peyrol comes with 31km to go and the final part of the stage is definitely not easy. Right after the descent, the riders will hit the category 2 Col du Perthus (4.4km, 7.9%) which is a very irregular climb with two kilometres at an average of more than 11%. From the top, there are still 14.5km which consist of a small descent, the category 3 Col de Fent de Cere (3.3km, 5.8%) and the final 2.5km which are mainly slightly descending. The Col de Fent de Cere is a relatively regular climb that never gets very steep and then the descending roads lead to a 500m ramp at 6% in the end. The finale is very technical as there are numerous hairpin bends on the climb and in the final 2.5km. The last of those comes just before the flamme rouge and then two turns lead to the final 90-degree corner with 190m to go. The finishing straight is on a 6m wide road.
This is the first test of the climbing legs for the GC riders but at this point of the race, they will probably have a pretty cautious approach as the finale is not hard enough to make a difference. Both Col du Perthus and Pol de Peyrol are pretty hard but they come too early to separate the best riders. Depending on the situation on GC, it could be a day for a breakaway but as it’s a great chance for riders like Julian Alaphilippe, Daniel Martin, Michael Matthews, Greg Van Avermaet and Peter Sagan to take or defend the yellow jersey, it will probably be pretty controlled. Much will depend on how the GC teams approach the hardest climb. If Sky go nuts to see if some of their rivals have a bad day, it could be too hard for riders like Sagan, Matthews and Van Avermaet and then it’s a great stage for Martin and Alaphilippe. However, Sagan, Matthews and Van Avermaet have all proved that they can be there for a long time in this kind of terrain and if they can get to the top of the penultimate climb, they have a big chance to win the stage in an uphill sprint that suits them down to the ground.
Le Lioran has not hosted the finish of a major bike race for more than a decade.
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