- Sep 20, 2017
- 10,783
- 19,876
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The second weekend opens with a stage that both sprinters and puncheurs will be looking forward to.
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The route
The start is in Libourne, for the second time in three years after the final TT in 2021. From there, the riders head northeast, without many changes in direction or elevation, into the Périgord, land of truffles and (mostly to the east of where we pass today) prehistoric remains. This section also contains the intermediate sprint in Tocane-Saint-Apre.
From here, the roads continue to be flattish as the route winds through valleys and over small ridges, before climbing onto the plateaus of the Limousin. This point is marked by the Côte de Champs-Romain, a cat. 3.
The roads are a bit hillier here, but it is only inside the final 20 kilometres that they become worthy of categorisation again. Neither Côte de Masmont nor Côte de Condat-sur-Vienne are as steep as the hills where Jumbo shelled the peloton in Paris-Nice and the Tour last year, but the fact that they back into each other increases the chances of making an attack that sticks.
From the latter climb, the roads trend downhill until we reach the valley of the Vienne. By this point, we are well inside the finish host of the day, the cathedral city of Limoges, but there is still one last hill to deal with, which is the one atop which the finish is located.
Final kilometres
An entirely different run-in from the one used in 2016, when Kittel beat Coquard by millimetres, and it's a technical one. Eespecially between 4.5k and 2.5k to go, there are places where things could get hairy. After the slightest of rises, things kick off with this roundabout just inside the final 5 kilometres. The right side is slightly shorter.
After the roundabout, the road goes back to being a downhill false-flat, which is an issue given that the roadbook makes clear that the traffic islands on it will not be removed.
There is another roundabout further down this road, but as it isn't marked on the map and consists of easily-removable road furniture, I presume it will be adjusted for the race. Just after this point, the false flat abruptly ends at this 180-degree turn, tighter than the one on Monday's stage.
There is another right-hand turn just after this onto the bridge over the Vienne, then a big narrowing (unless they remove a lot of infrastructure) just after it as the riders turn right.
The next 1.5 kilometres follow the river and are flat and easy, before the riders take a left at the flamme rouge. The road furniture on the road they turn onto should be removed here, of course.
At 800 metres to go, the riders turn left one last time. As you can see, it's kind of a turn in two parts.
Here the road kicks up in earnest, but only at a little over 4% on average, and it isn't irregular. At about 60-70 metres from the line, the gradient somewhat tapers off.
Profile
Map
The route
The start is in Libourne, for the second time in three years after the final TT in 2021. From there, the riders head northeast, without many changes in direction or elevation, into the Périgord, land of truffles and (mostly to the east of where we pass today) prehistoric remains. This section also contains the intermediate sprint in Tocane-Saint-Apre.
From here, the roads continue to be flattish as the route winds through valleys and over small ridges, before climbing onto the plateaus of the Limousin. This point is marked by the Côte de Champs-Romain, a cat. 3.
The roads are a bit hillier here, but it is only inside the final 20 kilometres that they become worthy of categorisation again. Neither Côte de Masmont nor Côte de Condat-sur-Vienne are as steep as the hills where Jumbo shelled the peloton in Paris-Nice and the Tour last year, but the fact that they back into each other increases the chances of making an attack that sticks.
From the latter climb, the roads trend downhill until we reach the valley of the Vienne. By this point, we are well inside the finish host of the day, the cathedral city of Limoges, but there is still one last hill to deal with, which is the one atop which the finish is located.
Final kilometres
An entirely different run-in from the one used in 2016, when Kittel beat Coquard by millimetres, and it's a technical one. Eespecially between 4.5k and 2.5k to go, there are places where things could get hairy. After the slightest of rises, things kick off with this roundabout just inside the final 5 kilometres. The right side is slightly shorter.
After the roundabout, the road goes back to being a downhill false-flat, which is an issue given that the roadbook makes clear that the traffic islands on it will not be removed.
There is another roundabout further down this road, but as it isn't marked on the map and consists of easily-removable road furniture, I presume it will be adjusted for the race. Just after this point, the false flat abruptly ends at this 180-degree turn, tighter than the one on Monday's stage.
There is another right-hand turn just after this onto the bridge over the Vienne, then a big narrowing (unless they remove a lot of infrastructure) just after it as the riders turn right.
The next 1.5 kilometres follow the river and are flat and easy, before the riders take a left at the flamme rouge. The road furniture on the road they turn onto should be removed here, of course.
At 800 metres to go, the riders turn left one last time. As you can see, it's kind of a turn in two parts.
Here the road kicks up in earnest, but only at a little over 4% on average, and it isn't irregular. At about 60-70 metres from the line, the gradient somewhat tapers off.
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