Thanks to @Devil's Elbow
Stage 15: Loudenvielle - Plateau de Beille, 197.7k
Here’s another parallel with the Giro I didn’t mention in the first post: both of them have their queen stage (by elevation gain) on the penultimate Sunday, and both have done an absolutely awful job of using that elevation gain well. As such, this one is all about the MTF where the GC is concerned.
The route
(I really should put that profile in the worst profiles thread…)
The smallest stage host of this year’s Tour is Loudenvielle, appearing for the fifth time (the previous four, most recently in 2020 when Peters won thanks to Zakarin’s meme descending and Pogacar took back crucial time). There’s not much else to say about this place, a village depending primarily on tourism.
For the first time all race, we have an uphill start: Peyresourde from the easier side. It’s the final 7.0k of the profile below, enough to break things up but not enough to ensure the break goes here.
After Froome’s favourite descent down Peyresourde and a passage through the classic Tour host that is Bagnères-de-Luchon, there is quite a bit of valley before the intermediate sprint in Marignac.
The next course consists of tackling the second-hardest climb of the day, Col de Menté from the more difficult side. If the break goes here, it will have been a really hard start of the stage.
A fairly technical descent takes the riders to the bottom of Col de Portet d’Aspet. This is comfortably the preferable side to ascend: not only is it harder, but it’s also the side that has seen more than its share of awful crashes, including Casartelli’s fatal one, when used as the descent.
The actual descent is short and quite easy, and gives way to almost 60 kilometres of valley, where we’ll find out if this is one for the breakaway. The penultimate KOM of the day, Col d’Agnès, is too far from the finish to serve as a proper launchpad, but is at least hard enough to really thin out the peloton.
As ever when we’re heading west to east through this area, it’s a double summit, with the final 3.8k of Port de Lers (in defiance of tradition and common sense, uncategorised this year) to tackle before the main descent.
And then it’s time for the problem with Beille – barring easy climbs, it necessitates a much longer stretch on wide, flat valley roads than the already-problematic one before Alpe d’Huez. The MTF is pretty good, but a purported queen stage just shouldn’t have a long valley before the big MTF.
Plateau de Beille is the most important Nordic skiing venue in the French Pyrenees. This will be its seventh inclusion in the Tour (first stage in 1998, last one in 2015). Oddly, the first four of those stages were all won by the eventual GC winner (at least until Armstrong was erased from the record books).
What to expect?
Of the four main mountain stages, this is probably the best one for the break, because it isn’t easy to control and the GC riders should keep their powder dry until the MTF. That being said, it’s unlikely the GC action will be as poor as on the last two stages here, when the favourites all finished together.
Stage 15: Loudenvielle - Plateau de Beille, 197.7k
Here’s another parallel with the Giro I didn’t mention in the first post: both of them have their queen stage (by elevation gain) on the penultimate Sunday, and both have done an absolutely awful job of using that elevation gain well. As such, this one is all about the MTF where the GC is concerned.
The route
(I really should put that profile in the worst profiles thread…)
The smallest stage host of this year’s Tour is Loudenvielle, appearing for the fifth time (the previous four, most recently in 2020 when Peters won thanks to Zakarin’s meme descending and Pogacar took back crucial time). There’s not much else to say about this place, a village depending primarily on tourism.
For the first time all race, we have an uphill start: Peyresourde from the easier side. It’s the final 7.0k of the profile below, enough to break things up but not enough to ensure the break goes here.
After Froome’s favourite descent down Peyresourde and a passage through the classic Tour host that is Bagnères-de-Luchon, there is quite a bit of valley before the intermediate sprint in Marignac.
The next course consists of tackling the second-hardest climb of the day, Col de Menté from the more difficult side. If the break goes here, it will have been a really hard start of the stage.
A fairly technical descent takes the riders to the bottom of Col de Portet d’Aspet. This is comfortably the preferable side to ascend: not only is it harder, but it’s also the side that has seen more than its share of awful crashes, including Casartelli’s fatal one, when used as the descent.
The actual descent is short and quite easy, and gives way to almost 60 kilometres of valley, where we’ll find out if this is one for the breakaway. The penultimate KOM of the day, Col d’Agnès, is too far from the finish to serve as a proper launchpad, but is at least hard enough to really thin out the peloton.
As ever when we’re heading west to east through this area, it’s a double summit, with the final 3.8k of Port de Lers (in defiance of tradition and common sense, uncategorised this year) to tackle before the main descent.
And then it’s time for the problem with Beille – barring easy climbs, it necessitates a much longer stretch on wide, flat valley roads than the already-problematic one before Alpe d’Huez. The MTF is pretty good, but a purported queen stage just shouldn’t have a long valley before the big MTF.
Plateau de Beille is the most important Nordic skiing venue in the French Pyrenees. This will be its seventh inclusion in the Tour (first stage in 1998, last one in 2015). Oddly, the first four of those stages were all won by the eventual GC winner (at least until Armstrong was erased from the record books).
What to expect?
Of the four main mountain stages, this is probably the best one for the break, because it isn’t easy to control and the GC riders should keep their powder dry until the MTF. That being said, it’s unlikely the GC action will be as poor as on the last two stages here, when the favourites all finished together.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram