- Sep 20, 2017
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Stage 9: Chinon – Châteauroux (174.1k)
The single easiest stage of this Tour in terms of climbing. However, this is also probably the best opportunity for echelons of the entire race, so all hope is not lost…Map and profile
Start
A long transfer has brought the riders across the Loire and into the town of Chinon. The Loire valley is of course synonymous with wine and chateaus, and although Chinon is actually a few kilometres to its south on the Vienne, it is a good example of both. The easily-defensible rocky outcrop has been occupied since prehistoric times and was fortified when the terminal decline of the Western Roman Empire made this necessary. Over the course of the first half of the Middle Ages, these fortifications were slowly transformed into a medieval castle. However, the town that had existed since Roman times appears to have survived in some form, given the establishment of a royal mint in the 7th century. As the Carolingian Empire frayed, Chinon found itself near the tripoint of the counties of Touraine (of which it was a part), Poitou and Anjou, which only increased its military importance. In the 10th and 11th centuries, the castle was therefore repeatedly expanded by the Counts of Blois, until they were forced to cede it to the Angevins in 1044. The Angevins often held court in Chinon, even after they came to rule not just their native Anjou and the Touraine which they had now conquered, but also Aquitaine, Maine, Normandie and England.
This situation, later christened the Angevin Empire by historians, lasted until the early 13th century. As discussed on previous stages, the French kingdom attempted to regain control over the domains that were nominally his, and succeeded in gaining all of the Angevin domains in France but Aquitaine. Chinon was among the last places to fall, following a nine-month siege in 1204. It was in the aftermath of losing this war that King John was forced to accept the Magna Carta, setting him on the road to becoming one of history’s favourite laughing stocks that culminated with Disney depicting him as a thumb-sucking lion.
Chinon itself remained a royal castle now that it had come under French rule. The current town had developed in the valley below the castle by the 14th century. During the Hundred Years’ War, after the famous Battle of Agincourt in 1415 forced the French kings out of Paris in 1418, Chinon became one of the places where they held their court. It was here that Jeanne d’Arc first received an audience with the French king Charles VII, and thus if I was hired by the local tourism board I would now be telling you that ackshually, the turning point of the war came at Chinon, rather than at Orléans where a relief army with Jeanne lifted the English siege. Chinon slowly fell out of favour after Charles VII died in 1461, and especially after it was transferred to Cardinal Richelieu (the most powerful court official of his age) in 1632, it was increasingly neglected. Having fallen mostly to ruins and been repeatedly threatened by demolition proposals, restauration eventually started in the second half of the 19th century and has continued into the 21st century. The castle is now one of the most-visited destinations in the region and forms the backbone of the local economy. Chinon is also the capital of the eponymous wine-growing area. It has not hosted the Tour before.
(picture by Couturier35 at Wikimedia Commons)
The route
In unfortunate news for everyone watching for the castles, we are heading away from the Loire immediately. The main place of note in these early stages is Richelieu, a model town designed at the behest of the cardinal. His adjacent sprawling chateau was demolished during the French Revolution. Shortly after this, we reach the intermediate sprint in the hamlet La Belle Indienne.
The next portion of the stage is in the Poitou. We pass through the largest town in the northern part of the province, Châtellerault, the birthplace of three-time stage winner and spring classics nearly man Sylvain Chavanel. After this, the route heads east into the sparsely populated Brenne, dotted with large ponds that were created in the Middle Ages. On account of the infertile soil, it was never really developed and is therefore among the most important parts of flat France from an ecological perspective.
And then, the potential twist. After exiting the town of Buzancais, the landscape suddenly becomes incredibly exposed, and looking at the amount of changes in direction in the remainder of the stage ASO are well aware of the potential for echelons. The section from 41 until 16.5 kilometres to go is incredibly exposed, unfortunately ASO have opted for one of very few tree-lined roads in the area to take us from there to Châteauroux.
Finish
The final 16.5 kilometres are exactly the same as in the 2021 stage, won by Mark Cavendish. I don’t really have much else to say, it’s a pretty standard sprint finish.
Châteauroux is the second-largest city in what was once the Duchy of Berry (roughly corresponding to what are now the Indre and Cher departments), behind Bourges. The town is perhaps best known as the birthplace of Gérard Dépardieu, probably both the most famous and the most controversial French actor. It originated as a castle in the 10th century, and its lords controlled an area that is essentially the modern Indre minus the Brenne until their line was extinguished in the late 12th century. This sparked a power struggle between the French kings and the Angevins, with the former coming out on top in 1188. Châteauroux remained a town of limited significance for centuries until the royal government took steps to develop the region from the late 17th century onwards, developing a textile industry intended mostly to serve the production of military uniforms. Upon the creation of the Indre department in 1790, it also became an administrative centre once more.
The opening of the railway station in 1847, on the main line from Paris to Toulouse, led to further economic growth. Châteauroux remained linked to the military, contributing to a bombing in 1944, which led it to be selected as the site of a NATO base after the war. The closure of this base in the 1960s caused an economic depression at a time when the rest of France was still booming, but the city has recovered since. Its military history is also reflected by the presence of the National Shooting Centre, which hosted the Olympic shooting events last year. The Tour has been here on four previous occasions, always for a stage finish, and three of those four stages were won by Mark Cavendish.
(picture by Châteauroux Métropole at Wikimedia Commons)
What to expect?
Best echelon opportunity or no, it’s still more likely than not that we get a very uninteresting sprint stage.
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