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Tour de France 2020 | Stage 18 (Méribel - La Roche-sur-Foron, 175 km)

D-Day. This would have been even better as Stage 20, but it's still the most sawtoothed profile of the race... and, in my opinion, the queen stage.

Map
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Profile
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Timetable
Neutralised start: 12:05
Start: 12:30
Intermediate sprint: 12:51/12:52/12:53
Cormet de Roselend: 13:59/14:04/14:12
Côte de la route des Villes: 14:28/14:34/14:44
Col des Saisies: 15:14/15:24/15:38
Col des Aravis: 15:54/16:06/16:22
Montée du plateau des Glières: 16:31/16:46/17:05
Finish: 17:12/17:28/17:50

Climbs
The intermediate sprint comes extremely early into the stage and so the start should be furious. The spike on the profile is obviously BS, but there's still some climbing just after the flag drops.
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The first climb of the day is the Cormet de Roselend. Even if this is it's slightly easier side, it's still a solid climb, the breakaway will probably be formed here. There's no real flat from here onwards.
RoselendE.gif

The riders will take a short detour towards the end of it's descent, to climb the Côte de la Route des Villes, the first 3.1k of the profile below.
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It's immediately followed by the Col des Saisies. How this is a cat. 2 and the next is a cat. 1 is beyond me...
SaisiesS.gif

...because Aravis is twice as easy.
AravisS.gif

The wall that is the climb to Glières will make or break the day. It should be the last chance for anyone who's not Roglic to take time, let's hope this - and the stage - is raced accordingly...
GlieresE.gif

There's still one uncategorised climb remaining, the Col des Fleuries. The ascent and descent are very similar, consistently at 4-5%.
FleuriesS.gif

The descent continues into the final kilometer before the road heads slightly uphill to the finish.
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General classification after Stage 17
  1. Primoz Roglic (slo)
  2. Tadej Pogacar (slo) + 0.57
  3. Miguel Ángel López + 1.26
  4. Richie Porte + 3.05
  5. Adam Yates + 3.14
  6. Rigoberto Uran + 3.24
  7. Mikel Landa + 3.27
  8. Enric Mas + 4.18
  9. Tom Dumoulin + 7.23
  10. Alejandro Valverde + 9.31
Points classification after Stage 17
  1. Sam Bennett 278
  2. Peter Sagan 231
  3. Matteo Trentin 218
  4. Bryan Coquard 171
  5. Caleb Ewan 158
Mountains classification after Stage 17
  1. Tadej Pogacar 66
  2. Primoz Roglic 63
  3. Miguel Ángel López 51
  4. Benoît Cosnefroy 36
  5. Pierre Rolland 36
Young riders classification after Stage 17
  1. Tadej Pogacar
  2. Enric Mas + 3.21
  3. Valentin Madouas + 1.24.17
  4. Daniel Felipe Martinez + 1.48.51
  5. Lennard Kämna + 1.52.47
 
(I put this in the wrong thread)

Time limits tomorrow could be a serious issue. Tired legs, big climbs start early and go on throughout the stage. And there‘s a steep uncategorised climb just before an intermediate. Anyone who gets dropped there had better hope that the peloton sits up completely and that there isn’t still a fight for the break going on in the 10km before the first cat 1.

at least the big lumps (and honorary big lump Caleb) will know it’s the last rough day before Paris
 
(I put this in the wrong thread)

Time limits tomorrow could be a serious issue. Tired legs, big climbs start early and go on throughout the stage. And there‘s a steep uncategorised climb just before an intermediate. Anyone who gets dropped there had better hope that the peloton sits up completely and that there isn’t still a fight for the break going on in the 10km before the first cat 1.

at least the big lumps (and honorary big lump Caleb) will know it’s the last rough day before Paris

the steep uncategorised climb is 99.999% a tunnel which ASO did not bother removing from the profile
 
Dangerous stage for the breakaway. More dangerous for the sprinters as many have said.

Maybe somebody risk it from far but there are a lot of tired legs and I don't see it. climb to Glières is already far enough and if somebody wants to try something like Lopez, Landa, Uran or Porte they better put riders up the road early.
 
Sep 7, 2020
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Marc Hirschi likes this stage.
Astana might try to put a couple riders in the break but I suspect Jumbo will chase them down. I don't think any other rider in the top10 dares to go from far which is a shame given the profile.
Will he go for it?

Hooe he does

Is that your opinion or what hes said? Backed him at 200/1 for kom
Got a chance if wins stage
 
Very tricky stage and difficult to control. A lot of climbs and Glieres is a monster. It's likely that a breakaway will succeed tomorrow but I have a gut feeling that an interesting GC action may take place as well. The cumulative fatigue is big: I think at least one GC contender will crack tomorrow and I don't rule out some dramatic long-range attack on Glieres. The terrain is great: after this climb there is no flat but a descent, another uncategorized climb (Fleuries) and another descent to the finish line. Plus great views of majestic Mont Blanc massif (I trekked there a lot).
 
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