Stage 13: Digne-les-Bains - Montélimar, 183km, flat
After 5 consecutive stages in the (medium) mountains, it's sprinters' time again, with a flat stage through the Provence.
It would be very easy to make this stage a lot hillier, but I didn't do so on purpose. I think sprinters should have some chances in GT's (5 or 6), but I'd like them to be in the 2nd and 3rd week rather than in the 1st. A well designed first week of a GT should have opportunities for every kind of rider. Let there be a cobbled stage (or strade bianche), an ardennes like stage (or even two), a TT,... Everything, but not five or six dead flat stages.
Anyway, this is a featureless flat stage. You know what it means: an hour racing at full speed, break of the day establishes itself, rides on the front until 5km to go, mass sprint.
Climbs:
Col de la Peyruergue: km103.5, 4km @ 4.3%, 4th cat
Côte de Série: km161.5, 4.8km @ 3.5%, 4th cat
Intermediate sprint: Sisteron, km38
After 5 consecutive stages in the (medium) mountains, it's sprinters' time again, with a flat stage through the Provence.
It would be very easy to make this stage a lot hillier, but I didn't do so on purpose. I think sprinters should have some chances in GT's (5 or 6), but I'd like them to be in the 2nd and 3rd week rather than in the 1st. A well designed first week of a GT should have opportunities for every kind of rider. Let there be a cobbled stage (or strade bianche), an ardennes like stage (or even two), a TT,... Everything, but not five or six dead flat stages.
Anyway, this is a featureless flat stage. You know what it means: an hour racing at full speed, break of the day establishes itself, rides on the front until 5km to go, mass sprint.
Climbs:
Col de la Peyruergue: km103.5, 4km @ 4.3%, 4th cat
Côte de Série: km161.5, 4.8km @ 3.5%, 4th cat
Intermediate sprint: Sisteron, km38