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Wonderful stage preview by @Devil's Elbow:
Stage 18: Gap - Barcelonnette, 179.5k
In many ways, this is the epitome of a filler stage. It isn’t needed for transition, because they don’t cover much ground and the finish of stage 17 is close to the start of stage 19 anyway, and it’s also the last non-GC day. However, for half the peloton, this is anything but a filler stage, instead representing their final shot at glory, because this is such a typical breakaway day it might as well be AI-generated.The route
The start is in Gap, France’s highest departmental capital. It sits at the point where the direct route from the eastern half of the Provence to Grenoble (which Napoleon used) branches off from the road to Montgenèvre, the most important route into Italy. Gap has guarded this crossroads since Roman times, and as such has been at or near a border since the end of Roman times. As such, it has frequently suffered from war, most notably an invasion by Piemonte in 1692 which destroyed most of the town, but also once from its then-Protestant hinterland, which sacked Catholic Gap just over a century prior to the Piemontese invasion. Its location has proven equally strategic for the Tour, as this is one of the most common stage hosts in the modern era.
The stage essentially consists of all of ASO’s favourite climbs to use for padding ahead of the big climbs in a Southern Alpine mountain stage, only this time, there are no big climbs. The neutralisation takes us up the side of Freissinouse descended on the previous stage, with the flag dropping just before the summit. After the best part of 20 kilometres, it’s time for new roads, which lead to the day’s first climb: Col du Festre.
After passing through the Dévoluy valley again (this stage really just consists of taking in any roads not used on the stages that bookend it), the riders face the shortest climb of the day, Côte de Corps.
The riders then turn south, back towards Gap, taking some back roads to avoid reusing even more terrain from Wednesday’s stage. This involves some uncategorised climbing (that’s actually harder than some of the day’s cat. 3s) to Les Costes, for which I don’t have a profile. The next place of note is Saint-Bonnet-en-Champsaur, with the intermediate sprint almost literally a stone’s throw away from the road taken between Bayard and Noyer a day prior.
Up after this is Col de Manse, from a side that barely counts as a climb.
The descent is not as narrow as the one traditionally taken into Gap, but still technical. Just after it, we reach Chorges, to do the second half of the 2013 pseudo-MTT in reverse. This means we do the side of Côte de Saint-Apollinaire, the hardest climb of the day, that starts at Jean-Christophe Péraud’s favourite turn.
Upon reaching the Lac de Serre-Ponçon, the riders leave the 2013 route to head for the final KOM, Côte des Démoiselles Coiffées.
The final 25 kilometres are an endless false flat up the Ubaye valley towards the finish in Barcelonnette. Things level off completely near the end.
Barcelonnette has been the main settlement in the Ubaye valley since Roman times. As such, it’s an important base for both summer and winter tourism, but also a surprisingly attractive town in its own right. It is also notable for having many large villas, constructed by the minority of the wave of Mexican colonists hailing from the valley who returned to France with newfound wealth. Sitting at the foot of some of the biggest climbs in the Southern French Alps, I would normally be very annoyed that it’s being wasted for a breakaway day, but with Col d’Allos not opening this year due to severe road damage in the winter, it’s likely that a mountain stage would have been at least partially castrated anyway.
What to expect?
A veritable breakaway bonanza.
@mou called me and he said that Georg Zimmermann‘s pulls for Pogačar today were so impressive that Pog will do anything to make him win tomorrow.
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