Tour de France 2020 | Stage 6 (Le Teil - Mont Aigoual, 191 km)

[Gigs_98]

Stage 6 of the Tour and already the 3rd more or less mountain stage. It's a bit of a mixture of the first two as it's an uphill finish like stage 4, while in terms of difficulty the only first category climb of the day, the Col de la Lusette much rather resembles the difficult of the mountains in stage 2. As the finish isn't quite on top of that climb though I once again don't expect a stage with big time gaps but one where a gc contender might lose a lot of time if he shows a weakness. Maybe we'll even see the first serious attacks of this Tour on the up to 15% steep ramps of the Col de la Lusette. Let's not forget, it is after all the last uphill finish until stage 13.

Profile:

Map:

Timetable:
Start: 12:10
Intermediate sprint: 15:09/15:01/14:54
Col de la Lusette: 16:50/16:36/16:23
Finish: 17:14/17:00/16:45

Climbs:
The first 140 km of the stage are almost entirely flat but once the climbing starts it starts properly. The first climb is the 3rd category Cap de Coste, but it's followed by the Mont Aigoual which is really one 34 km long climb split up into a 3rd category climb, the Col des Mourèzes, then after a short flat bit the hardest climb of the day, the 1st category Col de la Lusette, which has some nastily steep ramps towards its end and then after a short downhill section the 3-4% uphill drag to the Mont Aigoual.

General classification after Stage 5

1. Adam Yates
2. Primoz Roglic + 0.03
3. Tadej Pogacar + 0.07
4. Guillaume Martin + 0.09
5. Egan Bernal + 0.13
6. Tom Dumoulin s.t.
7. Nairo Quintana s.t.
8. Esteban Chaves s.t.
9. Miguel Ángel López s.t.
10. Romain Bardet s.t.

Points classification after Stage 5

1. Sam Bennett 123
2. Peter Sagan 114
3. Alexander Kristoff 93
4. Caleb Ewan 75
5. Matteo Trentin 70

KOM classification after Stage 5

1. Benoît Cosnefroy 23
2. Michael Gogl 12
3. Primoz Roglic 10
4. Tadej Pogacar 8
5. Quentin Pacher 6

Young riders classification after Stage 5

1. Tadej Pogacar
2. Egan Bernal + 0.06
3. Enric Mas + 0.15
4. Sergio Higuita + 0.34
5. Marc Hirschi +4.03

Ps: @Devil's Elbow I hope it's alright I made the stage thread today, I was just really keen on discussing this one so I didn't wait any longer. I tried to keep it in your style though

 

[Red Rick]

Final 3 climbs are impeccable for this stage in the race tbh, but might have wanted a big more climbing before the last one

 

[Forever The Best]

Col de la Lusette <3. Very excited to see this climb, though the first few kms are not done properly, instead they're climbing Mourezes from Le Vigan.

 

[Laplaz]

I don't expect much for this one. If the pace on Lusette is not high, even WVA could win this.

 

[Gigs_98]

This is one of the rare cases where the ASO actually included one of the "Race Design Thread favorites" in the Tour. Pretty sure I once had a Lusette-Aigoual finish in a TdF without Pyrenees and Alps I never posted.

That said, this combination of climbs would work a lot better:
a) in the Giro or the Vuelta where the teams aren't as strong
b) later in the race when riders are already willing to take risks
c) After a bit more climbing earlier in the stage
So I don't really expect much to happen but I just hope this opens the door for the Lusette to return in future edition. This would be a really nice 2nd or 3rd week opener when they come from the pyrenees and ride towards the Alps.

 

[Red Rick]

Yeah I think I'm really carried away by Lusette and I'd made myself think it peaked at like 7 km from the finish or something.

I suspect Jumbo Visma will try really hard to get a numerical advantage here with Dumoulin, Roglic and Kuss.

 

[F_Cance]

First win for the break tomorrow?

 

[Red Rick]

First win for the break tomorrow?

Could be, but I can't really find a good reason why. I don't think Ineos and Jumbo would ride for the stage, but I could see DQS and UAE doing it again. Then there's an outside chance Jumbo decides that tomorrow is the day to drop the hammer down.

 

[cellardoor]

35K of climbing...this is too hard for Alaphilippe, right?

 

[Devil's Elbow]

The worst possible way to introduce the Lusette-Aigoual combo to the race, gaps between the favourites are unlikely now. First real breakaway opportunity too.

 

[18-Valve. (pithy)]

Could be, but I can't really find a good reason why. I don't think Ineos and Jumbo would ride for the stage, but I could see DQS and UAE doing it again. Then there's an outside chance Jumbo decides that tomorrow is the day to drop the hammer down.

Yates just implied that he wants to win tomorrow's stage. I think M-S will chase hard, too. Assuming there will be a breakaway...

 

[Rollthedice]

First win for the break tomorrow?

Today's break will win tomorrow.

 

[jsem94]

35K of climbing...this is too hard for Alaphilippe, right?

I think Ala survives actually.

 

[topcat]

This is one of the rare cases where the ASO actually included one of the "Race Design Thread favorites" in the Tour. Pretty sure I once had a Lusette-Aigoual finish in a TdF without Pyrenees and Alps I never posted.

That said, this combination of climbs would work a lot better:
a) in the Giro or the Vuelta where the teams aren't as strong
b) later in the race when riders are already willing to take risks
c) After a bit more climbing earlier in the stage
So I don't really expect much to happen but I just hope this opens the door for the Lusette to return in future edition. This would be a really nice 2nd or 3rd week opener when they come from the pyrenees and ride towards the Alps.

This would work better if you had Ala in 1st place instead of Yates in the gc. Nice preview and commentary.

 

[Breezy1985]

Martin, Bardet and Rolland will try attack everyone not French will be boring

 

[Gigs_98]

35K of climbing...this is too hard for Alaphilippe, right?

If they want to drop him I have no doubt they could, but the pace on the Lusette will have to be high enough. That final drag to the finish should be doable for him.
That said, those people who say this will be the first one for the break might have a point and I don't expect any changes in the gc if the stage win isn't up for grabs.

 

[yaco]

Don't expect any breaks to succeed until after the first rest day - I'm confident the final climb will create gaps on GC.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Agree with Devil's Elbow that this isn't a good use of it, and the fact they've cut some of it off to get there by an easier route is a shame, but this iis a true traceur favourite. There are so many ways to lead into here via cat.2 or cat.3 climbs just to ramp things up a bit and make it more decisive, but then with the Pyrenees having been designed all about small gaps, perhaps they're hoping for a high pace here, or perhaps, of course, they don't want any big time gaps until week 3. They could have added Roquedur-le-Haut between Cap de Coste and Le Vigan; I'm assuming they have to go via Saint-Hippolyte-du-Fort as it's hosting an intermediate sprint, but from there they could use the Col du Lac to get to Sumène, or, better, the Col de Pierre Levée. From there they could either rejoin the real route at Sumène, or go to Le Vigan by a tougher route over the Col de la Tribale. None of these climbs are especially hard, but they would make it less of a cold-open. I wish Peyrefiche south was in good enough condition to descend, that would have been a perfect lead-in.

 

[Big Doopie]

i expect Big Tom to be dropped on the 15% stuff.

Hoping he can recover on the long gradual slope to the finish tho -- that should benefit rider with power.

 

[Jagartrott]

When I hear 'Mont Aigoual' I think 'windy'. So, will it be windy tomorrow?
Not very, it seems. It'll be mostly headwind on the cat.1 and the little descent there (NW), then somewhat from the side & back towards the finish.

 

[houtdffan]

why is the final climb not even categorized?

That most years would be a cat 2. Should be no less than a cat 3

 

[Escarabajo]

I have no problem with the design of this stage. I wish some stages were longer but we can't have everything.

Carapaz for the win!

 

[bambino]

Would be nice to see finally the big engines going into break like Asgreen, De Gendt, Lutsenko, Lulu etc. They could definitely make it tomorrow.

 

[roundabout]

There is a 5km section at 9.6% average that ends at 15 to go (with a whole km averaging over 12%). It would be a shame if nothing is tried there as there is relatively little risk of getting dropped on Mont Aigoual if an attack is not successful.

 

[wheresmybrakes]

Another Roglic sprint for bonies. Get onto the next stage.