- Sep 20, 2017
- 10,805
- 19,903
- 28,180
Stage 3: Lorient – Pontivy, 183.9 km
The first full bunch sprint of the race. There will probably be another seven, so time to get used to it.
Map and profile
Route details
From Lorient, the stage heads through one of the flatter parts of Brittany into Grand-Champ, where Arnaud Démare took the third national title of his career last year. From there, it’s not too far to one of the classic climbs of the region, the Côte de Cadoudal. It hosted the finish of the first stage last time the Tour started in Brest in 2008, with a win for Alejandro Valverde, and a TTT in 2015, won by BMC. Since then, it hosted the first professional version of the Euros the following year with a win for Peter Sagan, and of course it’s the epicentre of the GP Plumelec every year. Of course, here, it won’t matter much.
The intermediate sprint comes just after a brief climb. The hardest bit, 500 meters at about 7%, sits just before where this profile starts.
The other categorised climb of the day, Côte de Pluméliau, is quite easy.
From here, it’s mostly rolling roads into Pontivy.
Final kilometers
The descent into town is quite narrow, this is inside the final 4 kilometers:
With 2.8 kilometers to go, they turn left to follow the river. The big traffic island here is unmarked in the roadbook, so it will presumably be gone. 500 meters on, one right-hander backs into another as the riders cross the river. Again, the traffic island should be removed.
It’s wider roads from here on out, but there’s still a final key point at 1.4 kilometers to go, with this roundabout. The narrowing will line out the peloton, good positioning is vital here.
The remaining section is almost ramrod straight. The roadbook shows a roundabout, but it’s a painted one so the riders won’t even take notice. There’s the slightest S-curve near the end, which means that the finish will only be in sight when it’s just 130 meters away.
(approximate location of the finish line)
The first full bunch sprint of the race. There will probably be another seven, so time to get used to it.
Map and profile
Route details
From Lorient, the stage heads through one of the flatter parts of Brittany into Grand-Champ, where Arnaud Démare took the third national title of his career last year. From there, it’s not too far to one of the classic climbs of the region, the Côte de Cadoudal. It hosted the finish of the first stage last time the Tour started in Brest in 2008, with a win for Alejandro Valverde, and a TTT in 2015, won by BMC. Since then, it hosted the first professional version of the Euros the following year with a win for Peter Sagan, and of course it’s the epicentre of the GP Plumelec every year. Of course, here, it won’t matter much.
The intermediate sprint comes just after a brief climb. The hardest bit, 500 meters at about 7%, sits just before where this profile starts.
The other categorised climb of the day, Côte de Pluméliau, is quite easy.
From here, it’s mostly rolling roads into Pontivy.
Final kilometers
The descent into town is quite narrow, this is inside the final 4 kilometers:
With 2.8 kilometers to go, they turn left to follow the river. The big traffic island here is unmarked in the roadbook, so it will presumably be gone. 500 meters on, one right-hander backs into another as the riders cross the river. Again, the traffic island should be removed.
It’s wider roads from here on out, but there’s still a final key point at 1.4 kilometers to go, with this roundabout. The narrowing will line out the peloton, good positioning is vital here.
The remaining section is almost ramrod straight. The roadbook shows a roundabout, but it’s a painted one so the riders won’t even take notice. There’s the slightest S-curve near the end, which means that the finish will only be in sight when it’s just 130 meters away.
(approximate location of the finish line)
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