In the spirit of Christmas, I'm giving the péloton a tough day in the saddle. Merry Christmas, guys.
Stage 3: Leitza - Mauléon-Licharre, 181km
The first day of potential major GC action begins in the hometown of Mikel Nieve. Leitza has been raced through by the Euskal Herriko Itzulia many a time, most recently last year, and is one of the main Basque strongholds in Navarre; many
ikurrinas can be seen in the town. This stage has a flattish first half, with only two less-than-challenging climbs to mark it; after 63km the péloton crosses the Col d'Izpeguy and we enter Iparralde for the first time. The intermediate sprints are both early in the stage, because the second half of it is more about the climbers.
The first real test of the day is one of the toughest climbs in the area, and in France as a whole, the brutal
Errozate. This is 10km of pain at 9,6% that seldom lets up in its whole length on narrow, twisty roads, categorised as "Berezi" (special category). See some unfortunate souls in the Irati Xtreme take on the beast
here, and look at its evilness
here, here and
here.
But this is just the warmup; there are still 72km to go when the riders top this. Afterwards there is the easy climb to the Col de Sourzay to tackle, before a long and technical descent. Then the riders arrive at the base of the final climb of the day, the
Col de Landerre. According to the ClimbByBike profile, this is 17km @ 5,1%. Don't believe them, not least because we're starting at Mendive, so cutting all that false flat at the start away. Instead, from where we're climbing, as in the
altimetrias profile above, it's 9,9km @ 8,1% - though 6km of that, the main body of the climb, is at over 10%, with three km averaging over 11% and a maximum of 16% - so there will be plenty of opportunity to break things apart here. The road is also very, very exposed to the elements, as shown
here and
here.
The Col de Landerre crests 31km from home, so you may suggest that this would deter attacking. The first four kilometres after the summit are flat, and certainly small gaps could be bridged in that time; I would expect riders to be in small groups rather than alone by the time we get to the descent, but several kilometres over 10%, sometimes it's simply not possible to maintain everything together as one big favourites group. The descent gets steeper as you go further downhill too, slightly unusually, so if a good descender can get away, then their advantage could easily snowball as the descent goes on, giving them enough time to hold on for the victory in the final 10 flat kilometres into Maule-Letxarre, capital of Zuberoa/Mauléon-Licharre, capital of Soule.
Climbs:
Puerto de Ezkurra (cat.3) 4,5km @ 4,5%
Col d'Izpeguy (cat.2) 8,2km @ 4,3%
Errozate (cat.B) 10,1km @ 9,6%
Col de Sourzay (cat.3) 6,1km @ 4,3%
Col de Landerre (cat.1) 9,9km @ 8,1%
Esprinteanak:
Doneztebe (29km)
Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port (Donibane Garazi)(83km)
Leitza:
Mauléon-Licharre: