Sadly, i won't have any time later so i'm posting it a bit early.
The first road stage of the race and it's already a serious venture into the Alps even if the stage is generally at a low altitude (it doesn't cross 1530m at any point). While there's not much of Haute-Savoie and it's weird to have a random venture into Switzerland on the 1st road stage i guess i can try to disguise it as a stage dedicated to the historic region of Chablais, just to have this improved Forclaz i've cooked. Also... please, don't ask why on the map it's in a Giro skin.
Previous stage:
link
https://www.la-flamme-rouge.eu/maps/viewtrack/229361
Tour de France 2 – stage 2. Évian-les-Bains – Argentière-Le Tour, 180km, mountain, HTF.
Climbs:
Côte de Laprau – 8,2km, 5,8%, cat. 2, 887m
Col du Corbier – 6km, 8,5%, cat. 1, 1230m
Pas de Morgins – 4,5km, 6,5%, cat. 3, 1369m
Col des Planches – 10,2km, 8,8% (max 14%), cat. 1, 1411m
Col de la Forclaz – 10,6km, 9,6% (max 17-18%), cat. HC, 1527m
Col des Montêts – 6,4km, 5,2%, cat. 2, 1461m
Côte du Tour – 2,3km, 7,5% (max 13%), cat. 3, 1473m
I decided to change the dirt side of Verbier for a somehow overlooked side of Forclaz (the Suisse one). It doesn't feature any dirt, but i think it's overally much harder. I decided to include it because that's one of the oldest ideas i have and i doubt i would ever use it elsewhere while i've already shown of Verbier. Of course that stage to Verbier is a viable option if you don't like this stage.
While this random venture to Switzerland does look weird for the Tour it's nothing special for Dauphine. The 2013 edition kicked off with a multicountry stage and the majority of it took place in Haute-Savoie but the start and finish were in Champéry in the Suisse canton of Valais (province of Monthey).
Profile of Dauphine 2013 stage 1.
The stage is dedicated to the historic region of Chablais, which consists of the eastern part of Haute-Savoie stretching from Évian-les-Bains to Chamonix and Bas-Valais on the Suisse side (upper Rhône valley) from Lac Léman to Martigny. The region is dominated by the Chablais Alps stretching from Lac Léman to the Mont Blanc massif. They're split in half by Pas de Morgins – Val d'Illiez on the Suisse side and Val d'Abondance on the French side. Highest peak is La Haute Cime of Dents du Midi group at 3257m. Historically the region was the northernmost province of Savoy, hence it's part of France only since 1860 after the Treaty of Turin.
Dents du Midi seen from Château de Chillon.
Savoie (or Sabaudia in Latin) was once one of the most important states in Europe (thanks to its location between France and Italy). It was created by the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund of Luxembourg in 1416 for local count Amadeus VIII, who later also was the last Antipope (1439-1449). Within the Duchy of Savoie the Duchy of Piemonte was created. The first capital was Chambéry and later (from 1563) Turin. The change was a result of repeated attacks from France as Turin was placed behind the significant natural barrier the Alps are. In XVIII c. the duchy was part of a powerful Kingdom of Sardinia as a result of the War of the Spanish Succession. This kingdom consisted of Sardinia (obviously), Piemonte and Savoie reaching as far north as Lac Lémanin Chablais. The kingdom was dissolved in 1860 as a result of the Treaty of Turin (unification of Italy) and the last king – Victor Emmanuel II would become the king of Italy.
Duchy of Savoy in XVIII c.
After this little historical preamble it's time for the stage. It starts in Évian-les-Bains. The first 8,2km are on a gentle hillside north of Évian-les-Bains which culminates in Vinzier (918m) before dropping down to the Abondance valley. The region is known as Pays de Gavot. The stage slowly drops down to Thonon-les-Bains after reaching Laprau – a hamlet just east of Saint-Paul-en-Chablais, slightly below Vinzier. The climb to Laprau is cat. 2, 8,2km at 5,8%. It should be a fine ground to instigate the breakaway.
Profile of Côte de Laprau (starting from roughly 1km sign).
Pays de Gavot.
From Saint-Paul-en-Chablais the race gradually descends down to Thonon-les-Bains via Publier. Both the ascent and the descent provides fine views over Lac Léman and the Jura mountains beyond. The peloton will pass quite close to X c. Château de Larringes – historically the main stronghold of Pays de Gavot.
Château de Larringes.
The first mentions of Thonon-les-Bains are from XIII c. In 1288 the capital of Castellany of Allinges moved from Allinges (two X c. castles in Allinges-Neuf and Allinges-Vieux near Faucigny, east of Annemasse) to Thonon-les-Bains. Later said castellany was transformed into Chablais and was included within the newly formed Duchy of Savoy. The town was often used as a summer residence of the counts of Savoy. Like the neighboring Évian-les-Bains, in XIX c. the city also developed as a spa.
Château de Ripaille, Thonon-les-Bains.
Mains sights are XIV c. Château de Ripaille – originally a manor house turned into a summer residence of the Counts of Savoy after the original Château de Thonon was destroyed during a skirmish with Geneva in XVII c. Château de Ripaille is also the deathplace of the first count of Savoy and Antipope Amadeus VIII. XVII c. Château de Sonnaz – replacement of former Château de Thonon and now a museum of Chablais, XIII c. Tour des Langues, XVI c. Château de Marclaz XIV c. Chapelle Saint-Bon and XIV c. Église Saint-Hippolyte.
Château de Sonnaz, Thonon-les-Bains.
Historically Thonon-les-Bains was often featured in Tour de France thanks to its location on the edge of the Alps and good connection with bigger cities (sort of the northern Gap). It was either at the start of an Alpine mountain block or at its end. The winners in Thonon-les-Bains include Jacques Anquetil (1957), Jan Janssen (1964), Marino Basso (1970) and Sean Kelly (1981). However, last time the town hosted a Tour stage was in 1981. Last time the town was featured in a bike race was in Dauphine 2013 stage 3 to Oyonnax won by Elia Viviani.
Dranse valley.
In Thonon-les-Bains the race enters the Dranse valley, quite often seen during the Dauphine. Near La Vernaz the valley splits into two – Dranse de Morzine and Dranse d'Abondance. I'm taking the first one, which includes the Gorges du Pont du Diable to then transit to the other one near Saint-Jean-d'Aulps via Col du Corbier.
Gorges du Pont du Diable.
West of the valley are the Voirons pre-Alps – a medium mountain massif with a number of interesting but semi-obscure cat. 1 cols – Feu, Moises, Cou, Jambaz, Plaine-Joux (or Avernaz) and Saxel. Below is a medium-mountain/mountain stage focused around them.
Saint-Gervais-les-Bains – Thonon-les-Bains.
Col du Corbier is rather undistinguishable. Just a random pass at a low altitude somewhere in the Alps. The road is wide and there's not much to look at. At the top there's a small ski station of Drouzin-le-Mont (dissolved in 2012 because of lack of snow). While nowadays it's nothing special historically it's one of the more important passes, especially in the Tour. It was an old monk route between the Saint-Jean-d'Aulps abbey and the Abondance and Saint-Maurice abbeys via the Abondance valley.
Back in the day on this side of the Alps only Chamonix, Morzine and Thonon-les-Bains were capable of hosting a Tour stage. So happens Corbier is right in the middle of the latter two and potentially right at the start of the Chamonix one. Historically (mainly 70's and 80's) there were plenty of stages to Morzine using Morgins and Corbier or to Chamonix using Corbier, Morgins and later Forclaz. The winners of the Crobier KOM include the likes of Lucho Herrera and Fabio Parra. I've decided to use the hardest side of Corbier, from the very narrow Aulps gorge. It's a decent cat. 1 climb with 6km at a stable 8,5%. The last 4,6km are at 9%. A kinda technical descent leads to Bonnevaux, part of the village of Abondance.
Profile of Col du Corbier.
Col du Corbier.
Abondance is the biggest village of the eponymous valley. It was founded in early XII c. as an abbey of Canons Regular of Saint Augustin, closely linked with the Saint-Jean-d'Aulps abbey. It was closed in 1761. Abondance is also home to XIII c. Église Notre-Dame-d'Abondance.
Abbaye d'Abondance.
From Abondance the race continues slightly uphill, closing on Pas de Morgins and going through La Chapelle d'Abondance and Châtel – both medium sized ski stations of Portes du Soleil (which you may know for Morzine). Technically you may try to have either Abondance or La Chapelle d'Abondance as a finish after Corbier or Morgins as in 2012 Dauphine finished in nearby Châtel, where the proper Pas de Morgins starts. It's cat. 3, 4,5km at 6,5%. Obviously it's one of the most popular French-Suisse passes in cycling and it's history is closely tied with that of Corbier. It's worth noting the last time theTour passed Pas de Morgins was in 1997 (
from the same side). The KOM was won by pre-1999 VDB1. In Pas de Morgins the stage enters Switzerland.
Profile of Pas de Morgins.
Pas de Morgins.
The descent to Monthey is wide, quite long and at times technical. It leads through Val d'Illiez – home to a number of Portes du Soleil stations which you may heard of – Planachaux, Les Crosets, Champoussin and the biggest of them – Champéry. It's a realtively popular area with a number of cat. 1 or HC MTF options.
Val d'Illiez.
In Monthey the race enters Bas-Valais, or the upper Rhône valley. It's a capital of a local district, part of the canton of Valais. It's worth noting that just on the other side of Rhône is the canton of Vaud but this stage will stay entirely in Valais.
Bas-Valais in Monthey.
Monthey was first mentioned in XII c. For a long time it was a small town but it developed rapidly in XIX c. mainly thanks to the establishment of glass industry. Because it's a relatively young city there's not much in terms of sights besides a XV c. manor house Château de Monthey. The town is home to one of the biggest carnivals in Switzerland that takes place every thursday before a local holiday – Mardi Gras, which is 47 days before Easter (late February or early March). Monthey is also the birthplace of Steve Morabito.
Monthey.
From Monthey the stage continues in the valley to Martigny via Saint-Maurice, Evionnaz and Vernayaz for the next 23km before climbing Col des Planches (which was ommited in 2016). Both Saint-Maurice and Martigny are old Roman settlements – Agaunum and Octodurum respectively. Of course Saint-Maurice is famous for its Canons Regular abbey – one of the oldest (515) and once most powerful in the Alps. It was built on a Roman Mercury shrine and was dedicated to the legendary Theban Legion – an entirely Christian legion of III c. who refused to sacrifice to the Emperor Maximian and were put on death row. It was once even a coronation site as the king of Burgundy Rudolph I of Burgundy was crowned here in 888.
Saint-Maurice abbey.
Martigny is as old as Saint-Maurice. It was at first a Gallic settlement lost to Rome as a result of Battle of Octodurus of 57-56 BC. In the antiquity it was the last stop before the Grand-Saint-Bernard pass. From these times are the remains of thermal baths and a number of villas plus a resotred Roman amphitheatre.
Martigny.
In IV c. a bishopry was established in the city, which makes it the oldest bishopry in Switzerland. However, in VI c. it was moved to Sion. The modern Martigny is an important transport hub linking Switzerland with Italy via Grand-Saint-Bernard and Simplon. There's also a long tradition of cow fights in the region. Martigny is a very decent cycling playground with Planches and Champex nearby, but also the nearby Verbier system. Martigny is also the birthplace of Sébastien Reichenbach, favourite of Master Kirby and possibly the winner of the worst descender in the peloton award.
Roman amphitheatre of Martigny.
I decided to bundle Planches with Forclaz to give it a bit more punch. Col des Planches is a very good, borderline cat. 1/HC climb that is sadly overshadowed by Lein. Unlike Lein, Planches is entirely surfaced but i guess Lein should be at least theoretically crossable. Planches is located on the slopes of La Crevasse (1807m), part of the Pennine Alps. It can be liked with Tronc and Lein via a dirt road. It's sometimes featured in Romandie, but lately in irrelevant spots. Sadly, 2009 TdF decided to not feature it en route to Verbier.
As i've mentioned, Col des Planches is borderline cat. 1/ HC. I've decided for cat. 1 as there are more than enough of HC climbs in the race and almost all of them are definite HC besides two borderline examples i'll get to later on (btw none of them is Aubisque east). The climb itself is 10,2km at 8,8% with the first 5km at 10% (max 14%). That's a serious incline and if you'll combine it with something like Verbier then it may provide a sizeable initial selection. Even in this stage it should generate a fairly large initial selection. If you want to see how the road looks here's a showcase of both sides of Planches to
Martigny and to
Sembrancher.
Profile of Col des Planches.
Both sides of Planches are very technical, but the Sembrancher side should take the cake. Within 4,7km there are 9 harpins on a not so wide road. Thankfully it's not as steep as the Martigny side. The region also likes to feature a lot of rainfall so considering it's the first road stage and the GC isn't shaped yet there's a higher risk of crashes. Planches is mostly covered in a quite dense forest but there are some open spots especially en route to Sembrancher at the mouth of the Entremont valley.
From Sembrancher the race doesn't go deep into the Entremont valley to finally end at the foot of Col du Grand-Saint-Bernard (Tour 2009) but goes back to Martigny (route E27) passing by a sideroad to Col de Champex. Champex is yet another good 1/HC climb. It can be linked with Planches to create a combo before either Verbier, Martigny or even Grand-Saint-Bernard if you're tired of Lein or Croix de Coeur. It can also be a MTF like in
2015 Romandie's stage 5.
Val d'Entremont.
The descent back to Martigny stops just north of the city in a place called Martigny-Croix where peloton leaves E27 for a smaller road through Martigny-Combe – a set of villages on the lower slopes of Forclaz (Pointe Ronde, 2700m). That's where the first difference to the classic side of Forclaz comes into play as the normal route goes through the slopes of Mont de l'Arpille northwest of Martigny.
Martigny-Combe.
So, what's the difference in taking the route through Martigny-Combe to the normal side? Both routes start at roughly the same point (and altitude). The normal route is 5,4km long before both routes merge. Compare it with 3,8km of the side i'm taking. That means it must be very steep and it is. The first 3km in the village are at roughly 11,2% with max 17-18% near a place called Les Rappes and 14-15% whent it merges with the normal side. The road is not the narrowest in the world but also at times not in the best of shapes as it sweeps in and out of local farms and vineyards.
Col de la Forclaz through Martigny-Combe.
Snippets of the road through Martigny-Combe.
I think this should be the road used in the mentioned before stage 5 of Romandie 2015. Then it was signed as Petit Forclaz. Understandable, as it only covered the 1st half of the climb. Unlike that stage, i'm doing the whole climb with another ramp/shortcut later up the climb.
Profile of stage 5 of Tour de Romandie 2015.
After joining the classic route the climb follows with its 8% glory for the next 4,2km after which i'm doing another detour taking a quicker route through a hamlet La Caffe. This detour is 2,3km long before merging once again with the normal side (which is 3,4km long) near the top. The first 2km of the La Caffe shortcut are at 11,5% (max 17%) before slightly slowing down at the merge with the normal route. Judging from the satelite images the road is quite narrow but on good tarmac. This detour merges with the normal side 450m before the top of Forclaz.
Col de la Forclaz through La Caffe.
Overall, those very elaborate changes elevate Forclaz from a very good cat. 1 climb to a proper HC comparable with the likes of Errozate. It's 10,6km at 9,6% of which at least 5km are beyond 11% with at least two instances of 17-18%. The hardest are the first 3km ar 11,2% and last 2km at 11,5%. The middle is at 8%. I assume it will do a lot of damage, especially if combined with Planches. There are still 20km of the stage left but i hope the first major GC action of the race will start here.
Profile of Col de la Forclaz.
Of course Col de la Forclaz is a major Alpine pass, (with Grand-Saint-Bernard) part of the Mont Blanc tunnel bypass. It's a especially busy road in the winter as it connects major ski resorts of the Chamonix area with many big resorts in Vallis while not being particulary threatened by snow thanks to it's quite low altitude. In the Tour it was often used with Chamonix in the 60's with the likes of Bahamontes and Roger Pingeon winning the KOM. Last time the
Tour passed in 2016 en route to Emosson with the KOM won by Rafał Majka.
Bahamontes and Gaul, possibly the best climbers of the 50's/60's era during 1959 Tour.
The rest of the stage is mostly channeling the stages from the 60's. The race comes back to France in Le Châtelard, at the bottom of Montêts and passes through a small ski station of Vallorcine. Montêts is a rather unchallenging climb with only last 1km at any notable gradient (7%). Overall it's 6,4km at 5,2% which just barely makes it cat. 2. The descent to Argentière is also not too difficult, but there are 4 relatively easy sperpentines in the last 1km. Thanks to the location in the heart of the Mont Blanc massif Montêts can provide good overview of the highest peaks of the Alps (Graian Alps).
Profile of Col des Montêts.
View from the top of Col des Montêts into Aiguille Verte (4121m).
The descent leads to Argentière – a ski station above Chamonix. I thought it was part of Chamonix but it seems to be its own thing. It's located at the end of the Arve valley surrounded by picturesque glaciers Glacier d'Argentière and Mer de Glace – the longest glacier (12km long) in France, which splits into Tacul, Leschaux, Mont Mallet and Talèfre glaciers.
Mer de Glace.
When the main road reaches the Arve the race starts to go uphill for the last time to the main ski station of Argentière – Le Tour, located at the very end of the Arve valley. Most of the climb is not particulary challenging. However, the last 1km is at 10% (max 13%), which makes it a very Valverde-sque finish. Overall it's cat. 3, 2,3km at 7,5%. There's plenty of space in Le Tour. It should be enough for Dauphine, Suisse and maybe even the Tour itself. Any remaining cars and buses can be stored in either Argentière or even Chamonix.
Finish in Le Tour.
Because of how this Tour is built this stage is created to force big time splits. If you're just riding into form then you may bleed a lot of time on Forclaz. I guess it should be small groups finishing together with quite large time gaps. Next stage is kinda similar to this one but with much bigger mountains and distances between them.