Tour de France Tour de France 2023, stage 20: Belfort - Le Markstein, 133.5k

[Devil's Elbow]

The encore.

Profile

Map

The route
After starting from Belfort, best known for its citadel, it's only a short distance until the bottom of the first climb of the day, the historic Ballon d'Alsace, is reached. Despite this being the easy side, it should still massively help any climbers wanting to enter the break.

The intermediate sprint is shortly after the descent.

The next section is relatively easy, going over the false flat to Col du Ménil.

Then, the climbing starts again in earnest with Col de la Croix des Moinats. Despite there being about 80k to go, there is almost no flat from here on.

The next climb, Col de Grosse Pierre, is deceptive. It starts with 1.4k at 6.1%, then proceeds with the entirety of the profile below, with the KOM just after the steep section rather than at the true summit.

Next up is Col de la Schlucht, via the uncategorised Col des Feignes. The profile below contains both.

Then, it's time for the finale as the climbs turn to cat. 1s. We start with Petit Ballon...

...the somewhat narrow descent of which backs directly into Col du Platzerwasel. The road continues to rise after the KOM as far as Le Breitfirst. The whole thing is the final 10.3k of the profile below.

After under a kilometre of easy descent, it's 3.9 rolling kilometres to the line.

Final kilometres

 

[Didinho]

Jumbo to get Vingo the stage and KOM jersey.

 

[Red Rick]

Always thought this stage was lethargic to begin with.

Lots of guys can want something from this stage, and I can see break or Pog/Ving go win either way.

 

[Tim Cahill]

Gall and Ciccone gotta go early, think Simon Yates and maybe Bilbao could also try a Hail Mary for the podium

 

[Sciatic]

I could see UAE working to the keep the break close to give Pogacar to finish the Tour on a high note with a stage win. However, that is assuming that Pogacar has enough left in the tank to fight for a stage win.

 

[FrontHeadlock]

Jumbo to get Vingo the stage and KOM jersey.

No way. Can't see him winning more than the last climb. And even assuming he wins the last two Cat 1's, surely he won't take ANY points on the climbs before that. If that's the case, then Ciccone only needs 14 points to clinch over Vingegaard, which seems very possible even before the Cat 1's.

On a separate note, NBC kept saying Ciccone needs 16 point to "clinch" the KOM. That can't possibly be right.

 

[proffate]

Gall and Ciccone gotta go early, think Simon Yates and maybe Bilbao could also try a Hail Mary for the podium

If I were him I'd probably just try to jump ahead of Rodriguez rather than risk everything to topple my brother. Yates + Yates as "best of the humans" is a pretty decent trophy to take home.

Anyway, at this point I think UAE is going to be riding to defend third. And honestly should they care which of Pog or A. Yates nabs it? Since Pog has a larger buffer to 4th that means UAE is all in for A Yates. At best it will be a mano-a-mano duel between Adam and whoever else wants that spot, like Rodriguez or Bilbao. I don't think anyone within spitting distance of third gets in the break. But Bilbao is definitely gonna give it a shot.

 

[Netserk]

(Schlucht) - Petit Ballon - Platzerwasel - Le Markstein has been a traceur favourite, mine included, and now we actually get it! Further more, it serves as last GC stage - its best use.

Obviously I had hoped for even more as Grand Ballon was rumoured for a long time, but despite the rest of the stage, I will still applaud this.

 

[RedheadDane]

Etymological question:
What's a climb called "Platzerwasel" doing in France?

 

[zlev11]

Pogacar all out attack on the Ballon d'Alsace, wins by 8 minutes and wins yellow

 

[Kwaremonster]

Etymological question:
What's a climb called "Platzerwasel" doing in France?

Well surrounding places also seem to have German names, it borders on Germany so without looking it up I assume it may have been part of Germany in the past 😀

 

[Skijumper Roglic fan]

Etymological question:
What's a climb called "Platzerwasel" doing in France?

I think because it‘s close to Germany, this Alsace region…

Edit: Kwaremonster wrote it more quickly…

 

[zlev11]

Pogacar all out attack on the Ballon d'Alsace, wins by 8 minutes and wins yellow

 

[Bolder]

Etymological question:
What's a climb called "Platzerwasel" doing in France?

Ask Kaiser Wilhelm...

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Etymological question:
What's a climb called "Platzerwasel" doing in France?

The Alsace was German until the 17th century (and then again from the Franco-Prussian war until WWI), the Alsatian dialect is also much more closely related to modern German than it is to French.

 

[RedheadDane]

Ask Kaiser Wilhelm...

You want me to do some sort of necromancing?

 

[Izzyeviel]

Etymological question:
What's a climb called "Platzerwasel" doing in France?

The French being useless at wars isn't just a meme.

 

[Volderke]

I've done the Schlucht / Petit Ballon / Platzerwasel combo until Le Markstein on the bike, and the Tour feminin rode this last year (Petit Ballon / Platzerwasel, not coming from the Schlucht but rather the pittoresque wine villages more North.

It's a great combo for an attack all out from the Petit Ballon, but I wonder who has that ambition.

 

[bob.a.feet]

Floyd really was asking for it to all fall apart wasn't he?

Pinot for the win!

 

[rallybanana]

The French being useless at wars isn't just a meme.

For a country that's useless at wars, they've sure won a lot of them

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[Faserr]

The Alsace was German until the 17th century (and then again from the Franco-Prussian war until WWI), the Alsatian dialect is also much more closely related to modern German than it is to French.

20 years ago I was on a holiday in the Alsace. While walking through a town an old lady started to speak in fluent german to us. I was surprised but she was speaking german in her youth and until now.

 

[TourOfSardinia]

Ciccone to save his Jersey from the jackals

 

[zlev11]

Which book is that from?

it's from Hincapie's book. dont ask me why I read it, someone lent it to me. it's very boring but that little passage made it all worth it.

 

[Unterlenkerfahrend]

If Pog were below 3 minutes behind Vingegaard with Wout now gone, they could've potentially done something before Petit Ballon. A satellite rider for the Col de la Schlucht descent can work wonders, it's not technical and the second part is with a lot of peddaling where draft matters massively. Petit Ballon descent is kinda like the opposite, I rode it last year after the TdFF and was a bit surprised how bad the road surface was, lots of dirt on it and there are plenty of technical twists.

Honestly the situation is a bit flat right now, Jumbo will protect yellow, UAE will protect the podium and simply follow because Pog (if back to half normal) will win the sprint in Markstein. Ineos will probably also defend 4th given how the 3rd week went so far with Rodriguez, the only ones who have little to lose are Bahrain and Bora but Hindley is still hurt and Bahrain might simply try to win from the break instead.

 

[FrontHeadlock]

20 years ago I was on a holiday in the Alsace. While walking through a town an old lady started to speak in fluent german to us. I was surprised but she was speaking german in her youth and until now.

We were just in the Alsace last year, and I can't tell you how helpful my German was in small towns, shops etc.

Wonderful region. Our entire family loved every bit of it.