Stage 18: Lourdes - Mauléon-Licharre, 213km
Climbs:
Col de Soudet (HC) 15,0km @ 7,1%
Col de Bostmendieta (cat.1) 10,8km @ 7,5%
Col de Bagargui (cat.1) 9,7km @ 8,5%
Col d'Ahusquy (cat.1) 10,4km @ 7,7%
Intermediate sprint:
Tardets-Sorholus, 123km
So here we are, with the final mountain stage of my Tour de France: that's right, only two stages in the Alps, and only two in the Pyrenées - though we did have a medium-mountain stage in the Vosges and an MTF in the Massif Central. This is perhaps the one point in the race where we might need a bit of work to organize it; my last Tour included some pretty monstrous Iparraldean ascents with some very dangerous descents, a mountaintop finish in a national park, and so on. Here, there's just a small amount of work that ASO might insist on to make the race doable. It's also notable, of course, that despite the format of the race meaning that you can almost guarantee the race deciding time trial is tomorrow, I don't bother with a mountaintop finish today... that's because this is the climbers' last chance. They've got to go for it here. You can't save your energy for the time trial when you can't time trial. Yesterday there was a big MTF, today the climbers have a great chance to make time... as long as they have the guts. If you don't have the guts, you don't deserve to win. It's a long stage, with four categorized climbs, and though none are the super-length beasts of the Alps like Madeleine, Grand-St-Bernard or Glandon; altitude is comparatively low; but, we have some of the nastiest gradients of the whole race today.
Before that, however, there's the more conventional side of things - a stage start in one of the more traditional spots of the Tour's trips to the Pyrenées - the famous pilgrimage town of Lourdes. This attractive, if tourist-infested, town at the base of the mountains, is sat beneath famous Tour Cols like Aubisque and close at hand for Hautacam, Luz-Ardiden and of course the despised Tourmalet. As you well know, however, I have a problem with the Tour's overuse of these, and therefore consider that with the older Superbagnères and the newer Balès yesterday I have done my share of mainstream Pyrenean summits... so we're, in the words of Tom Waits, goin' out west. The first 70km of the stage are almost absurd, studiously riding along rolling terrain with the mountains to the riders' left all the way, unused. However, after passing through the town of Arette, se armó un zapatiesto!
The Col de Soudet is a pass roughly 3/4 of the way up the climb to the ski station at
Pierre-Saint-Martin; as a result we are going to see it in the Tour next year. It was last seen from the western side (which we will descend) in 2006, when it was given the full HC rating... this northern face of the climb is tougher, hence why I grant it the highest category. I have cut the opening false flat out and only chosen to rate it from La Mouline to the Col; 15km at just over 7%, but with a section in the middle averaging some 9,3% for five kilometres; though it eases up a bit after this, it's full of nasty gradients and inconsistencies, maxing out at 15% early on but with a number of ramps of 12-14% to dole out punishment to distract from the
classic scenery. This is followed by a very long and difficult descent. After passing through the village of Saint-Engrâce with its
Roman church and
scenic waterfall, the riders could turn left to head to the village of Larrau; we will however take them further north to contest the intermediate sprint in
Tardets-Sorholus (also showing that we are now very much in French-Basque territory, also being known as Atharratze-Sorholuze). Here we turn back towards the mountains, for a nasty double-header.
First up is
Bostmendieta, with its manageable first half obscuring the steepness of the second half of the climb in the statistics. Look at that profile: 3km @ 10,6% in the middle there is going to cause serious pain. The road is also
extremely narrow and
could perhaps do with some repairs; ascending I'm not so worried though. It's the descent I'm concerned about as it is equally narrow and
features some very steep ramps. The ASO would likely require some work to be done before they would be happy taking the race over that descent, and that's why I added in a contingency plan:
Contingency plan detour from Arette to Larrau
- this amendment to the route adds 14km in length to the race, extending the climb from the Col de Soudet all the way to Pierre-Saint-Martin, and replacing Bostmendieta with the easier Spanish side of the
Port de Larrau, which would probably still garner cat.1, but is easier than Bostmendieta.
Anyway: both climbs feature difficult descents for different reasons; the descent from Larrau is steep and the descent from Bostmendieta is narrow and will require some strong bike-handling skills. Both descend to the valley slightly below the village of Larrau, ready for our next ascent, the nasty and underused
Col de Bagargui. As we have bypassed the initial Côte de Larrau, we've just got the shorter, brutal section of the climb, with two equally steep kilometres at 12,8%, 4km averaging almost 11% in the middle of the climb and some
steep, sweeping curves. It can fight with most of the Tour's most iconic climbs for
scenery while beating them for steepness - so this could well be where the pace really ups even though there are no fewer than 58 kilometres remaining when the riders cross the summit.
A long and fast descent follows, broken up only by the brief rise to Burdinkurutxeta. The road is
wider and perfectly Tour-worthy, so the riders will be in the typically picturesque Basque village of Mendive before they know it. Then after practically no respite they turn back uphill for the final categorized climb of the Tour. And an unheralded beast it is. The two-stepped
Col d'Ahusquy (Ahuski in Basque) has a maximum gradient of 16%, and it isn't shy about it, sticking it right at the very beginning of the ascent, along with a kilometre averaging over 12%. The gradients are extremely inconsistent; there are kilometre-long stretches at over 11%, followed by flats; there are two kilometres of virtual flat near the top, before it ramps up to a brutal final stretch including 500m averaging 13,5% before we reach the final summit, which crests with 26km remaining on the day. It's
far less narrow than many of its neighbours,
twisting up the mountainside. It is true that the very summit is narrow, but it's
far from ridiculous for a pro péloton in a stage such as this where the bunch will have been significantly thinned before it. The only part of the descent on single-track roads is the first kilometre or so until the Col d'Inharpu, which you can see from
this profile of another side of the climb isn't steep or potentially dangerous like the Bostmendieta descent... after that it's perfectly acceptable two-lane roads. We take part of that profile as a descent but not all of it as instead of going to Arangaitz we turn north to take the road to Aussurucq;
here's a photo of the road - as you can see, quite comfortably doable for the Tour. After that it's a short and flat charge for about 10km into the capital of Soule (known to Basques as Zuberoa), the pretty Iparraldean town of Mauléon-Licharre, where we finish in front of the historic
open-air frontón for the playing of Basque Pelota.
The climbers will need to go from afar to make their presence felt, although I don't anticipate much movement before Ahusquy; however after yesterday's HC MTF some riders who can't TT may have reason to go on the charge; domestiques may be fatigued, so a high pace on Bagargui could isolate them. We could have an exciting, frantic chase into Mauléon-Licharre to finish the day. There you are: a Pyrenean odyssey without a single classic climb.
Lourdes:
Mauléon-Licharre: