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Tour de France 2017 Stage 19:Embrun-Salon-de-Provence 222.5K

We leave the Alps a little underwhelmed but with everything to ride for between 2nd and 4th.
At 220 kilometres, stage 19 is the longest stage in the 2017 Tour de France. The route, travelling from Embrun to Salon-de-Provence, seems to be tailor made for fast men. Or are we going to see an attacker who gets lucky?

The first part of the race is hilly, which will no doubt inspire a bunch of escapees to give it a go. In fact, stage 19 might be the last chance in the Tour de France of 2017 to form an early break. However, it will be hard to stay ahead of the peloton as the sprint teams will do everything to bring them back since the arrival in Salon-de-Provence is perfect for a bunch sprint.

The race leaves from Embrun, in the 2013 Tour de France host to a climbing time trial that was won by Chris Froome. In this stage the riders descent from an elevation of 881 metres at the start to 78 metres at the finish in Salon-de-Provence.

The race takes in two KOM climbs in the first 43 kilometres. Col de Lebraut amounts to 4.7 kilometres at 6%, while Côte de Bréziers is a 2.3 kilometres climb at 5.8%. The route continues on rolling roads until Col de Pointu looms at kilometre 171, which is a 5.8 kilometres ascent with an average gradient of 4.1%. The last 45 kilometres run on descending and fat roads to the line in Salon-de-Provence.

The old town of Salon-de-Provence is located on a hill with a castle: Château de l’Emperi. Nostradamus lived in the town before he died in 1566. He is widely known for his predictive powers. Who is going to win today, Nostradamus?

The Route:
CARTE.jpg


The Profile:
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The Finish:
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Enbrun:
It's thanks to its climate, among the driest and sunniest of the area that the city earned the nickname of “Nice of the Alps”. From the top of its rock, it dominates the artificial lake of Serre-Ponçon, one of the largest in Europe where each summer, the best triathletes battle it out during the Embrunman. But in 2013, a “yellowman” was to be distinguished. By claiming the fastest time on the time-trial course between Embrun and Chorges, Christopher Froome pushed his rivals further back to move closer to the title on the 100th edition.



Sisteron
Sisteron has been inhabited for 4000 years. The Romans used the route through Sisteron as can be shown by a Latin inscription in the rocks near the road to Authon. It escaped the barbarian invasions after the fall of Rome, but was ravaged by the Saracens. In 1483 during the reign of Louis XI, Sisteron re-joined the kingdom of France. Around this time there were seven plagues that killed two thirds of the population. Between 1562 and 1594 the town and its citadelle was fought over by Protestants and Catholics including two sieges. During this time the walls of the town were built. The plague returned in 1630, and typhus in 1744, killing many of the town's population.
During the French Revolution the town remained Royalist. Consequently, when Napoleon arrived on his march north after his escape from Elba in 1815, the town ignored him and let him through.
Sisteron was the starting city of the 11th stage of the Tour de France 2010.

Salon-de-Provence

The Tour has never been to Salon-de-Provence, but the city already honoured the event thanks to the presence of its most spectacular ambassadors. It is indeed on the air camp 701 Salon-de-Provence that the Alpha Jets of the Patrouille de France are based. On firm ground, the peloton of Paris-Nice came for a visit to the city last March and Kazakhstan's Alexey Lutsenko managed to fly away on his own and capture the stage win.


Current GC:

1 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky 78:08:19
2 Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:00:23
3 Rigoberto Uran (Col) Cannondale-Drapac 0:00:29
4 Mikel Landa (Spa) Team Sky 0:01:36
5 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:01:55
6 Daniel Martin (Irl) Quick-Step Floors 0:02:56
7 Simon Yates (GBr) Orica-Scott 0:04:46
8 Louis Meintjes (RSA) UAE Team Emirates 0:06:52
9 Warren Barguil (Fra) Team Sunweb 0:08:22
10 Alberto Contador (Spa) Trek-Segafredo 0:08:34
 
Another terribly designed stage. What's the point of this one being 220+km, just to put so much flat after that last small climb?

And now we're left with a battle between a handful of sprinters on terrible form, to see who is the least bad one left in the race.
 
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Barguil to go for the mountain points, then discovers that he's 15 minutes ahead of the GC guys so he carries on, wins the stage, takes yellow and France explodes.
 
Re:

BYOP88 said:
Barguil to go for the mountain points, then discovers that he's 15 minutes ahead of the GC guys so he carries on, wins the stage, takes yellow and France explodes.

Why would he, though? He's already secured the polka dots.

And just noticed the randomness of having the intermediate sprint on something that - to me - sure looks like a climb.

:lol:
 
Re:

Eyeballs Out said:
What started out as one of the best sprint lineups I can remember in the Tour has disintegrated into the worst


Much to Froome's delight. He hasn't looked as convincing as he has in previous tours, and the other guys that are still in the tour aren't delivering. Or maybe they can't. Maybe this is all they are capable of. No Nibali, No Dumoulin, Valverde crashed out, Porte crashed out, Contador has crashed multiple times and just can't have a good stage from start to finish, Quintana not in form, Fuglsang crashed out, Aru not in form, Pinot was too cooked after a great Giro...so we are left with Martin, Bardet, Uran, Meintjes, Yates and Landa (a domestique that appears to be stronger than Froome).
 
Re: Re:

BullsFan22 said:
Eyeballs Out said:
What started out as one of the best sprint lineups I can remember in the Tour has disintegrated into the worst


Much to Froome's delight. He hasn't looked as convincing as he has in previous tours, and the other guys that are still in the tour aren't delivering. Or maybe they can't. Maybe this is all they are capable of. No Nibali, No Dumoulin, Valverde crashed out, Porte crashed out, Contador has crashed multiple times and just can't have a good stage from start to finish, Quintana not in form, Fuglsang crashed out, Aru not in form, Pinot was too cooked after a great Giro...so we are left with Martin, Bardet, Uran, Meintjes, Yates and Landa (a domestique that appears to be stronger than Froome).

Hardly got anything to with the sprint lineup.
 
Re: Re:

RedheadDane said:
BullsFan22 said:
Eyeballs Out said:
What started out as one of the best sprint lineups I can remember in the Tour has disintegrated into the worst


Much to Froome's delight. He hasn't looked as convincing as he has in previous tours, and the other guys that are still in the tour aren't delivering. Or maybe they can't. Maybe this is all they are capable of. No Nibali, No Dumoulin, Valverde crashed out, Porte crashed out, Contador has crashed multiple times and just can't have a good stage from start to finish, Quintana not in form, Fuglsang crashed out, Aru not in form, Pinot was too cooked after a great Giro...so we are left with Martin, Bardet, Uran, Meintjes, Yates and Landa (a domestique that appears to be stronger than Froome).

Hardly got anything to with the sprint lineup.

My bad. I obviously can't read.
 
Sagan drops all the sprinters on the final climb .... wait
Sunweb drop Kittel on the final climb ..... sigh
Cavendish bravely holds on to the peloton .... ho hum

Greipel always wins a stage in a GT doesn't he? Bring on the Gorilla. (hopefully it will be EBH)
 

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