After an entertaining opening weekend, the Tour trades the Spanish for the French Basque Country, and the hills for what should be a sprint stage.
Profile
Map
The route
The stage starts from Amorebieta-Etxano, a regular host of cycling races (most recently in this year's Itzulia) and the birthplace of Beñat Intxausti. The start of the stage is tricky, with Côte de Trabakua...
...and Côte de Milloi.
After this, the riders head along the beautiful Basque coast through the intermediate sprint in Deba.
This seaside village is also the start of the next climb, Col d'Itziar.
The final categorised climb of the day, Côte d'Orioko Benta, is the hardest of the day. It's possible to drop (some of) the sprinters here, but with there being 90k to go, not that many climbing sprinters and it being very early in the race, it's unlikely we get major action here. It's the first 7.3k of the profile below
After heading through Donostia/San Sebastián once more, the riders soon cross the border into France. Here, they immediately reach an uncategorised climb which the PCS profile is WAY off about.
Following another flattish section, the riders reach the point where the route has been changed. The new finale is a little harder, but it's still easy climbing at 20k to go - difficult to change the face of the stage here.
Final kilometres
Lumpy and, at times, technical. The roundabouts until 2.1k to go are all on separated four-lane roads and should therefore not cause too much trouble, but at 2k to go there's a 180-degree turn.
From here, the road rises, especially after the next turn. Heavier sprinters might lose position here, especially with the peloton already being strung out from both the big turn just before and the narrowing at this one.
The remainder of the stage consists of a bunch of curves between 15 and 70 degrees. There is also no true final straight, instead the road heads slightly uphill and to the right for the final ~160 metres.
Bayonne/Baiona is the capital of the French Basque Country, noted for its historic city centre surrounded by Vauban's fortifications. It hosts the Tour for the first time since Tyler Hamilton's raid twenty years ago.
Profile
Map
The route
The stage starts from Amorebieta-Etxano, a regular host of cycling races (most recently in this year's Itzulia) and the birthplace of Beñat Intxausti. The start of the stage is tricky, with Côte de Trabakua...
...and Côte de Milloi.
After this, the riders head along the beautiful Basque coast through the intermediate sprint in Deba.
This seaside village is also the start of the next climb, Col d'Itziar.
The final categorised climb of the day, Côte d'Orioko Benta, is the hardest of the day. It's possible to drop (some of) the sprinters here, but with there being 90k to go, not that many climbing sprinters and it being very early in the race, it's unlikely we get major action here. It's the first 7.3k of the profile below
After heading through Donostia/San Sebastián once more, the riders soon cross the border into France. Here, they immediately reach an uncategorised climb which the PCS profile is WAY off about.
Following another flattish section, the riders reach the point where the route has been changed. The new finale is a little harder, but it's still easy climbing at 20k to go - difficult to change the face of the stage here.
Final kilometres
Lumpy and, at times, technical. The roundabouts until 2.1k to go are all on separated four-lane roads and should therefore not cause too much trouble, but at 2k to go there's a 180-degree turn.
From here, the road rises, especially after the next turn. Heavier sprinters might lose position here, especially with the peloton already being strung out from both the big turn just before and the narrowing at this one.
The remainder of the stage consists of a bunch of curves between 15 and 70 degrees. There is also no true final straight, instead the road heads slightly uphill and to the right for the final ~160 metres.
Bayonne/Baiona is the capital of the French Basque Country, noted for its historic city centre surrounded by Vauban's fortifications. It hosts the Tour for the first time since Tyler Hamilton's raid twenty years ago.
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