- Oct 13, 2021
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Stage 17: Bollène – Valence (160.4k)
Thanks to @Devil's Elbow for this excellent write up as always; would love to see some breakaway specialists try their hand but let’s see if A) 2nd tier sprint teams ride for 6th and B) anybody actually gives it a go.The first and probably only reward the sprinters get for dragging themselves over three mountain ranges.
Map and profile
Start
The peloton has put Mont Ventoux in the rearview mirror… quite literally, as it’s easily visible from today’s stage start in Bollène. It’s a fairly typical town for this part of the world, with a medieval upper town (likely dating back to the 10th century), a 17th-18th century lower town, and a fairly nondescript history. The town’s valley location has determined much of its development, with the floodplains having been used for large-scale brick production in the 19th and 20th centuries. After the Second World War, a canal cutting off a bend in the Rhône, which included the development of a hydroelectric dam right next to Bollène, was constructed. The water in the reservoir of this dam is now used for cooling in France’s largest nuclear site, which is partially within the municipality. This flurry of development caused the population to almost triple to about 14000 people between 1946 and 1990, at which point Bollène started to stagnate. This will be its first time hosting the Tour.
(picture by Etienne Baudon at Flickr)
The route
With the exception of a few detours through the foothills of the Alps, the entirety of the stage is spent heading north up the Rhône valley. The start of the stage looks sort of interesting on the profile, but in reality the main ascent, up to Col de l’Aspre, looks like this.
Slowly, the road starts to creep up towards the low pass at La Serre de Turc, with the gradients rarely exceeding 2%. Part way up this long false flat, there is an intermediate sprint, in Roche-Saint-Sécret-Beconne.
After Serre de Turc, there is a tiny descent into Dieulefit, before the road starts to climb in earnest for the first and only time this stage. Col du Pertuis. Although the climb is not quite as hard as the official profile suggests, it’s still weird that this isn’t a cat. 3. The KOM is at Le Collet, but they ride the profile below in full.
The route then heads back into the Rhône valley. However, to continue north, it’s necessary to either stick to the riverside or traverse a low ridge. ASO have opted for the latter, but the resulting KOM at Col de Tartaiguille is nothing that should worry any pro (albeit less easy than the official profile suggests).
Finish
There are 43 kilometres left to race after this final KOM, but there is little to discuss in the remainder of the stage. I will note that there is a decent amount of more exposed terrain in this final hour, but the odds of echelons are not good on this stage. The finish in Valence is completely different to the one seen in recent visits to the city, The big turn at 700 metres to go is a big narrowing if they don’t do any road adjustments, but given that it isn’t marked and that there is not be much in the way of road furniture that would need removing, I’m going to assume that it won’t be a problem.
Valence was founded by the Romans in the 1st century BC, strategically situated at the point where two major roads through the Alps joined the main road up the Rhône valley. Its importance is reflected by the establishment of an archbishopric during the reign of Constantine the Great, in the early 4th century. The town was sacked on multiple occasions in the 5th century by migrating tribes, and then again in the 8th and 9th centuries by both the Arabs and the Vikings. During the former wave, it was taken by the Burgundian tribes, who were forced to submit to the Franks in the early 6th century.
As we know from previous stages, that was not the permanent end of an independent Bourgogne. In fact, two states emerged during the 9th century: one de facto independent duchy around Dijon, which is the one that wound up controlling Flanders, and one fully independent kingdom (which, to avoid confusion, was sometimes called the Kingdom of Arles), occupying the area from the Jura to the Provence. In the 11th century, Arles became a constituent state of the Holy Roman Empire, and thus Valence was as separate from France at this time as anything we’ve seen during this Tour. However, both the Kingdom and Holy Roman control were quite weak, and by the 12th century regional power was in practice only contested by the bishops and the local lords.
With the power of the French kings growing again during this period, more and more areas that were nominally still part of the Kingdom of Arles were peeled off. Valence was annexed in 1316, and after France also acquired the Dauphiné (in this case via purchase) in 1349, Valence was folded into it. As the terms of the sale stipulated that the heir to the French throne (henceforth known as the Dauphin) would rule the Dauphiné, royal interest in the area was quite high, and Valence received a now-defunct university, market rights and tax exemptions. This successful period ended during the Wars of Religion, when the town was first violently seized by the Protestants and then treated less than favourably by the French kings because of its new status as a centre of Protestantism. However, its location remained very suitable from a trading perspective, and thus it never sank particularly far. In 1799, the ruling Pope Pius VI, who had refused to abdicate his temporal power after Napoleon’s conquest of Italy and been arrested for it, died here in captivity.
After the First World War, Valence became a major destination for Armenian refugees, and it is today one of the centres of the Armenian community in France. During the Second World War, an Allied bombing and the explosion of a German train carrying nitroglycerin caused over 500 deaths and the destruction of part of the city in the final month before liberation. Modern Valence continues to profit strongly from its favourable location, on the main route from the north towards the Provence, which is reflected by a heavily service-based economy. In cycling, it is notable as the hometown of Charly Mottet, who between the mid-80s and early 90s became the joint record Critérium du Dauphiné winner as well as finishing second at the Giro and winning Lombardia. In spite of its size and proximity to the Alps, the Tour did not come here until 1996, after Mottet’s career was over, however this will be the fourth stage finish here in eleven years. The most recent instance came in 2021, when Mark Cavendish won his antepenultimate Tour stage.
(picture by Benoît Prieur at Wikimedia Commons)
What to expect?
This is the only good opportunity for the sprinters in the second half of the race, their teams will crawl over broken glass to control the break if needs be. I’ve seen certain outlets suggest that weaker climbers might not make it over the hills here, which is obvious nonsense. In other words, this is simply going to be a full bunch sprint.
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