- Sep 20, 2017
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Stage 11: Toulouse – Toulouse (156.8k)
Just like the first week, the second week starts with a loop starting and finishing in one of the biggest cities in France. Unlike the first week, it’s a pretty tricky stage.Map and profile
Start
Both the start and the finish are in Toulouse, which the peloton has already acquainted itself with on the rest day. It is the fifth-largest city in the country by urban area, with the city proper being the fourth-largest. There has been a town here since pre-Roman times. Although it was prominent throughout the Roman era, its relative peak came in Late Antiquity, as the lack of a sacking until the complete loss of Roman control in the early 5th century meant that its decline came late. Only in 413 did the Visigoths capture the city, and after a rapidly collapsing Western Roman Empire formally ceded in 418, they made it the capital of an empire that at its peak encompassed most of the Iberian peninsula and almost half of what is now France. This era ended when the Franks pushed the Visigoths mostly south of the Pyrenees in 508, and only then did Toulouse’s decline truly start.
In spite of these difficult times, Toulouse soon became a more or less independent capital once more, as the Frankish kingdom disintegrated and Aquitaine became autonomous. Aside from the Carolingian dynasty from the mid-8th to mid- or late-9th century, Paris would not regain control of southern France until the 13th century. Prior to the arrival of said dynasty, Toulouse would witness a key event in French history. Having added most of Iberia to the enormous Umayyad Caliphate, the Arabs pushed north of the Pyrenees in the early 8th century, capturing the last remnants of the Visigothic Kingdom around Narbonne. They then marched on Aquitaine and besieged Toulouse, however the reigning Duke of Aquitaine had already left the city to raise an army. When he returned, the besieging Umayyads were routed in battle. Although they continued to attempt invasion until they were properly checked at the Battle of Tours in 732 and to a lesser extent until they were pushed out of Narbonne in 759, this marks the moment where the Umayyad expansion into Western Europe was halted.
After the aforementioned period of Frankish control of Toulouse from 768 to 877, the duchy that had been established here became independent. However, the dukes proved just as unable to maintain central control as the kings had been, and in the 10th century the city was one piece of fabric in an impoverished and depopulated patchwork of minor feudal holdings. Its fortunes reversed with the introduction of better agricultural techniques, and by the 12th century had become the leading city within southern France once more. During this period, Catharism (the main dissident faction within the Western European church of this era) developed in southern France. The Cathars became quite numerous in Toulouse, and the by now resurgent dukes were at least sympathetic to their cause. In the early 13th century, the Pope ordered what is known to history as the Albigensian Crusade against the Cathars, and this degenerated into such a violent suppression that many (though not all) historians now consider it a genocide. For their attempts to stop the slaughter, the Dukes of Toulouse were forced to submit to the French Kingdom.
In spite of this dark chapter, the fortunes of the city itself continued to ride high. The French kings allowed the city to retain much of the autonomy it had been granted by the dukes, founded the second university in the kingdom, and oversaw a boom in southern Gothic construction. The 14th century was more difficult, courtesy of insufficient agricultural production, the Black Death and heavy taxation leading to an ill-fated revolt, but in the early 15th century Toulouse was made the seat of a parliament that served as the most important judicial authority in southern France until the Revolution. After overcoming a major fire in 1463, the city entered a golden age after the production of blue dye was added to its repertoire. However, the introduction of indigo from the colonies from the late 15th century onwards as well as two plague outbreaks in the 16th century brought this period to an end. It continued to stagnate for a long time, not really industrialising in the 19th century and lacking its university between its disestablishment during the French revolution and refounding in 1896.
And then, France’s horror became Toulouse’s opportunity. Being located far from the front lines in the First World War, much of the industry of military importance was relocated here. Although the chemical sector was the most important at the time, this also included the burgeoning aircraft industry. This proved to be the start of Toulouse’s development into the centre of the European aerospace industry, notably being the home of Airbus. It also retains its chemical sector, has developed a significant IT sector and houses the fourth-largest student population in France. All this contributes to an ongoing economic boom, with Toulouse being one of the fastest growing cities in the country. In sports, it is arguably the capital of French rugby, with local team Stade Toulousain being record national champions in rugby union. It is also the hometown of Léon Marchand, winner of four gold medals in swimming at the most recent Olympics, and of 2014 Tour runner-up Jean-Christophe Péraud. This will be its 29th time hosting the Tour, the most recent instance being a 2019 sprint stage won by Caleb Ewan.
(picture by Frédéric Neupont at Wikimedia Commons)
The route
The broad pattern of this stage is that it is initially easy, but gets progressively more difficult. The first part heads north down the Garonne valley, before turning east in the town of Grenade (no relation to the explosive) to cross the river and continue east. Exiting the valley requires a climb, and so we encounter the first cat. 4 of the day: Côte de Castelnau-d'Estrétefonds.
The route soon turns southeast to follow the Garou, a minor tributary of the Garonne. Initially, the road sticks to the valley, before switching over to the ridge above it via an easy, uncategorised climb to Castelmaurou. Halfway through the stage, we turn away from the river altogether, which makes for more rolling terrain. There is nothing worth categorising just yet, so the only place of note here is the intermediate sprint in Labastide-Beauvoir.
The riders then turn west to enter the hills south of Toulouse, which is where the stage becomes more interesting. In fact, there will be seven climbs of note in the remaining 40 kilometres. The entrance into these hills is marked by another cat. 4, Côte de Montgiscard.
This is followed quickly by the Côte de Corronsac.
The next three climbs are uncategorised, but for two of them it’s mainly because ASO were in an apparently stingy mood. Up first is the Côte de Mervilla.
Next up is the easiest of the seven climbs in this finale, the Côte de Rebigue.
After a rare, but still short stretch of valley, the riders take on the Côte de Vigoulet.
Then it’s back to the categorised stuff, with the ascent of Côte de Vieille-Toulouse.
And then, everything changes. So far, the climbs have not been particularly hard (or at least not individually, the repetition will do some damage), but the final KOM of the day is a proper little wall, made harder by the sharp right-hand turn into the brutal gradients near the bottom. Côte de Pech David is the hardest hill in the Toulouse area without a shadow of a doubt, in fact this is about as good a finale as you can have in Toulouse so as with the first three hilly stages ASO deserve credit here.
Finish
The disadvantage of being in a big city is that the final kilometres are inevitably on wide roads, although ASO have at least limited the length of the straights. The final 2.2 kilometres are the same as in 2019.
What to expect?
Well-designed stage or no, I fear this one might suffer from being in week 2 on the one hand and the day before the Pyrenees on the other hand. This could easily be a breakaway day, especially if the bonifications are gone I’m not sure whether the GC riders are going to be interested, and I’m not sure who else is going to be able to attack on a hill of this calibre. That being said, it does still have potential.
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