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Stage 6: Bayeux – Vire-Normandie (201.5k)
At 3550 metres of elevation gain, this is by far the hilliest of the first-week stages, but the finale is somewhat easier than both of the preceding hilly stages. In other words, this is a test case of the value of attrition. Race design research in practice, now available to watch in real-time around the world!Map and profile
Start
The shortest transfer of the Tour has taken the riders twenty-five kilometres west to the town of Bayeux. It was founded by the Romans, but remained of limited significance until it became the seat of a bishopric around 360. This allowed it to remain one of the few places in the area still worthy of being called a town in the dark days of the Early Middle Ages. In the Carolingian era, there was an important mint in the town. Although it appears to have suffered during the Viking invasion of Normandie, it was the second-largest town in the region (behind Rouen) for approximately the first half of this era. Bayeux lost this status when William the Conqueror moved the ducal capital from Rouen to Caen. With Caen being so close to Bayeux, this meant that Bayeux was effectively and permanently replaced as the main centre in the western half of Normandie.
It is rather ironic that it was William of all people who so negatively impacted Bayeux’ importance, because the tapestry with which the town is all but synonymous depicts his conquest of England. Although Bayeux was a textile production centre at the time, the tapestry was certainly not produced there (the most popular theory has it being made in Kent), however it likely was meant to hung in Bayeux’ cathedral, which was completed a decade after the conquest. At almost 70 metres in length, the tapestry is among the longest that have survived the Middle Ages and undoubtedly the most famous.
From the 11th century onwards, Bayeux permanently takes a back seat relative to Caen, leaving me with relatively little to talk about here. Like its larger neighbour, it was held by the English between 1417 and 1450. The tapestry gained fame in the 19th century, allowing Bayeux to tap into tourism from then on. In the Second World War, it was the first town of any real size to be liberated by the Allies during the Battle of Normandy, and somehow it sustained very little damage in the process. The only visible remains of this period is the largest British WWII cemetery in France. It was also the location of two famous speeches by Charles de Gaulle in this period; the first, in 1944, was his first after returning to France, the second, in 1946, set out his vision for France’s constitution (which was being rewritten). Although mostly disregarded at the time, this latter speech heavily guided the current constitution, adopted in 1958 during the chaotic transition from Fourth to Fifth Republic. Incredibly, this will be the first time Bayeux has hosted the Tour, a timing that will undoubtedly have delighted Kévin Vauquelin, who hails from the town.
(picture by Mairie de Bayeux at Wikimedia Commons)
The route
The entire stage alternates between hilly and rolling, there really isn’t a whole lot of flat to be had. The first 30 kilometres fit the latter category, and feature the earliest intermediate sprint I’ve ever seen the Tour do in a non-mountain stage. The official profile is pretty terrible – in reality, the 1.5 kilometres before the sprit consist of a hill of 640 metres at 6.6% (containing a stretch of 200 metres at 10%) backing into 860 metres of false flat.
Then it’s time to head into the Suisse Normande, which contains some of the best hilly terrain in the entire northwestern half of France. This stage is not the best showcase, but it will tackle three climbs in this region, starting by the ascent to (just below) the highest point in the region: Côte du Mont Pinçon.
Up next is one of the harder climbs in the area, Côte de la Rançonnière. Although they ride it in full, the KOM sits atop the steep section.
Finally, we have the more straightforward, uncategorised Côte de Ménil-Hubert-sur-Orne.
This gives way to the easier middle part of the stage. There are neither KOMs nor steep ramps, but that doesn’t mean the terrain is without its share of elevation gain. The most noteworthy hill in this section is the Côte de Ger.
Then, it’s time for the final third of the stage, which is the hardest. Things kick off with the Côte de Mortain Cote 314, the hardest climb of the day. The name Cote 314 originates from World War II, when its position as the highest hill on a long ridge overlooking flatter terrain to the south meant it was of strategic significance. Mortain is a somewhat touristic town of 3000 inhabitants and there is enough space at the summit for a finish, so perhaps it could be in a much more impactful spot in a future Tour…
Up next is the Côte de Juvigny-le-Tertre. There are harder ways to climb from this valley to this village, but the main road they’re using isn’t bad.
The main disadvantage of using the main road for the climb is that they can’t descend it, which is a problem when your next hill starts in almost exactly the same spot. The result is that we have a rather needless 10-kilometre loop to get to the bottom of the uncategorised Côte du Chênot. Not ideal when the purpose of this section should be to whittle down the peloton.
This backs nicely into the next KOM, the two-stepped Côte de Saint-Michel-de-Montjoie. For reasons beyond human comprehension, the official categorisation starts two-thirds of the way up the first step, but the profile below shows the climb in full.
The next 14 kilometres trend downhill and take us to the town hosting the finish, Vire Normandie, where the riders will face a testing final loop.
Final kilometres
The riders enter Vire via a small climb into the town centre. Once again, the official profile is useless.
The route then heads out of town for the final KOM of the day, Côte de Vaudry. While this is quite a tricky hill, it is not as hard as what we’ve seen in the finales of the previous two hilly stages.
After a short downhill stretch on the ring road, it’s time to head up the hardest hill within the town limits. By itself, it’s better for the puncheurs than the GC riders (the stats are extremely similar to Monte Berico in this year’s Giro), but will that also apply after more than 3500 metres of elevation gain?
Vire is comfortably the smallest finish location we’ve seen so far this Tour, and consequently I also don’t have quite so much to write about here. Although the hill on top of which it was built was usually fortified since pre-Roman times, its history does not really start until the construction of a Norman keep in the early 12th century, which was then expanded in the early 13th century. It is not entirely clear when a town started to develop around this castle, but by the 14th century said town had become large enough (and the threat of the Hundred Years’ War potent enough) to merit being walled. Like most of Normandie, it would spend over thirty years under English occupation in the latter stages of this war. After the war ended, the military function of the castle declined and it was mostly dismantled in the 17th century.
Although it was historically a producer of textile, the Industrial Revolution bypassed Vire until companies that had operated in the Alsace settled in Normandie upon the German annexation of Alsace-Lorraine in 1871. In 1944, like so many Norman towns and cities, it was bombed by the Allies in the Battle of Normandie. In Vire, the destruction was particularly great: more than 90% of buildings were destroyed and around 350 people were killed. After reconstruction, it resumed its historical regional centre function. Vire has been hit quite badly by the gradual depopulation of France’s rural areas, losing almost a quarter of its population since the 1980s. The suffix Normandie was appended in 2016, upon a municipal merger. This will be its sixth time hosting the Tour, most recently in 1997 when Mario Cipollini won a sprint whilst in yellow. Thank God the Tour has become more creative with its first-week stages since then…
(picture by Ikmo-ned at Wikimedia Commons)
What to expect?
I honestly think this one will once again feature more GC riders than puncheurs. There’s also a chance the big teams decide it’s too much work to control the breakaway here, in that case action from the peloton should be limited
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