Tour de France 2017 Stage 16: Le Puy to Romans-sur-Isère

[Robert5091]

Once the flag is dropped the road starts to go up until Côte de Boussoulet is crested after 20 kilometres. The official climb (3rd category) is 4.5 kilometres at 6.3%. The rolls on and at kilometre 65 the riders are atop Col du Rouvey, which is the highest point of the day at an elevation of 1,250 metres. The climb itself is modest – 2.8 kilometres at 5,6% – before a long drop runs to a gently rolling last section of some 50 kilometres.

AG2R’s Pierre Latour was born is arrival place Romans-sur-Isère.

3 roundabouts in the last km could make it a tricky finish

 

[Alexandre B.]

Depends on Sunweb.

 

[bob.a.feet]

Seeing as Kittel has a fear of hills, Degenkolb FTW.

 

[Gigs_98]

If Matthews wants green they have go hard on the first half of the stage and try to drop Kittel.

 

[MartinGT]

Kittel

 

[vedrafjord]

This stage is the wrong way around.

 

[Oliver]

Not another sprint I hope :sad:
Stage for attackers?
But maybe Matthews wants it.

 

[Anderis]

Would be interesting if Sunweb tries to drop Kittel on the first climb. If so, then another teams with whoever sprinter survived might join to fend off the Kittel's chase. That would mean a high pace and the favourites being a bit stressed before mountains in the following days.

It's likely to be a sprint finish, because 2nd part of the stage looks easy to control. A very strong break of 10+ riders including some great rouleurs would need to form early to change that.

 

[Gigs_98]

Could there be echelons in the 2nd half

 

[rick james]

Could there be echelons in the 2nd half

My god I hope so

 

[Anderis]

Could there be echelons in the 2nd half

My god I hope so

Do you want Froome to gain more time over his rivals?

 

[Laplaz]

Could there be echelons in the 2nd half

Yes, i heard the possibility of crosswinds is pretty high.

 

[VENTAGLIO85]

Informazione

wind gusts 50km/h

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

I personally dislike stages like this, they seem to throw away any meaning to the mountains. However, hopefully the winds will make things interesting. If that chart is right, we could be looking at winds over 30kph in many spots, with gusts over 50kph. That's pretty brutal.

 

[DanielSong39]

Could there be echelons in the 2nd half

My god I hope so

Do you want Froome to gain more time over his rivals?

Good point there. When was the last time Froome lost time due to echelons on a flat stage?

 

[Forever The Best]

Could there be echelons in the 2nd half

My god I hope so

Do you want Froome to gain more time over his rivals?

Good point there. When was the last time Froome lost time due to echelons on a flat stage?

Stage 13 2013 TDF.

 

[cipurian]

Matthews in a break?

 

[RedheadDane]

Re:

Seeing as Kittel has a fear of hills, Degenkolb FTW.

He has a fear of hills, or he just isn't very good on them?

 

[Netserk]

This stage should have been today and the rest day tomorrow.

 

[mode747]

Forecast is for crosswinds ...
2:00 PM TUE Sunny 89° SSW 18 mph
3:00 PM TUE Sunny 90° SSW 18 mph
4:00 PM TUE Sunny 91° SSW 18 mph
5:00 PM TUE Sunny 91° SSW 18 mph
6:00 PM TUE Sunny 90° SSW 18 mph

 

[classicomano]

if Kittel wins this I might cry.

 

[Leinster]

Re:

if Kittel wins this I might cry.

If Kittel gets over the early lumps on this and somehow wins the stage, it'll be well deserved. It'll kill Bling's last chance of making some sort of contest out of the green jersey, but then, that will be well deserved too at this stage.

 

[bob.a.feet]

Re: Re:

Seeing as Kittel has a fear of hills, Degenkolb FTW.

He has a fear of hills, or he just isn't very good on them?

Well I don't think he's actually scared of hills but you never know

 

[rick james]

Could there be echelons in the 2nd half

My god I hope so

Do you want Froome to gain more time over his rivals?

Good point there. When was the last time Froome lost time due to echelons on a flat stage?

Stage 13 2013 TDF.

And that was super dawg that year as well

 

[DanielSong39]

Re: Re:

if Kittel wins this I might cry.

If Kittel gets over the early lumps on this and somehow wins the stage, it'll be well deserved. It'll kill Bling's last chance of making some sort of contest out of the green jersey, but then, that will be well deserved too at this stage.

Kittel still has to make the time cut in the two mountain stages; he probably will but it's not a guarantee.