The race goes into the Alps with the first of three summit finishes.
Un Flamand au Parc des Oiseaux: the sprint win for Wout van Aert. Visma-LAB and Cofidis led the chase all stage when a move of six got way on the first climbs and never gave them much more than two minutes. In the final stages more teams joined in and the break was finished.
The finishing straight was three kilometres long and felt almost as wide until the finish came into sight. Helped by lead-out from Matteo Jorgenson and then a 600m turn from Edoardo Affini, Van Aert launched with 200m to go and held off Hugo Hofstetter and Phil Bauhaus. For a rider saying he’s searching for form there might be some way to go but all the same this was a solid long sprint. For all his talk of poor form right now he’s now got two stage wins to his name and was won the bunch sprint on Stage 4 too.
The Route: 181km, 2,850m of vertical gain and a day of déja-vu. The start is in Saint-Vulbas, home of Mark Cavendish’s final Tour stage win in 2024 although today in the town itself rather than outside by the logistics park that hosted the finish last time.
The mid-stage climb of the Col du Granier sees the race traverse the Chartreuse Alps via a scenic road with steep cliffs and balcony sections cut into the hillside; and where Bernard Hinault once stopped to pee. More importantly today it’s got a lot of 6-7% gradients. The descent is steep and twisty, but used by the race recently in 2024. There’s a long valley road via Albertville to Ugine, Alex Baudin’s home roads as it happens.
The climb to Héry sounds gentle with the 5% average on the profile but it’s 7% most of the way, the average is reduced because of a descent mid-way so this is a selective climb, and all on a small, twisting road including on the way down. The Tour de France was supposed to come here last year but a last-minute change because of a bovine disease and angry farmers prompted a change.
The Finish: the Dauphiné came here in 2023 where Georg Zimmerman won but for once there’s no déjà vu as that time they took the main Col des Saisies route up, then cut across to Crest Voland. This time it’s just the road up from the valley floor, a climb all the way.
It’s a steady main road up and one of those climbs where you ride thinking “I’m not feeling good today” but then realise it’s 8-9% a lot of the way.
The Contenders: with 100 riders over six minutes down the breakaway has a good chance today, the teams with GC ambitions don’t need to lock down the stage, especially as there are two more mountain stages to come.
Georg Zimmerman (Lotto-Intermarché) won here last time but this finish is more suited to someone at ease on an Alpine climb. Marco Frigo (NSN), Mauri Vansevenant (Soudal-Quickstep), Yannis Voisard (Tudor), Gal Glivar (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Jordan Jegat (TotalEnergies) fit the bill but they have seven wins between them and nothing in the World Tour yet.
Ben Healy (EF) does win from the breakaway but will he be retained to help Alex Baudin defend yellow, or if he’s going to lose it then why not try to take the stage? Pello Bilbao (Bahrain) can win but the form is a question today, while team mate Santiago Buitrago isn’t far down on GC but could try a move on the final descent.
Otherwise to extrapolate from the opening stage glimpses, Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek), Paul Seixas (Decathlon-CMA CGM) and Isaac Del Toro (UAE) are suited here with Ayuso being the most experienced but also not prolific in summit finishes.
Netcompany-Ineos don’t have to launch moves and this suits both Oscar Onley and Kévin Vauquelin who only have to match rivals to stay ahead on GC and of the upcoming mountain stages, today suits best as it’s a shorter climb. Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-LAB) looks in great form but he doesn’t finish so well out of group sprint, it’s solo or bust.
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Del Toro, Seixas |
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Ayuso, Onley |
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Jorgenson, Vauquelin, Bilbao, Tejada, Buitrago, Healy |
Weather: sunny and 26°C
TV: KM0 is at 12.45pm and the finish is forecast for 5.00pm.
Postcard from Mont Granier
Chartreux, Chartreuse anyone? Play word association in France and it’s a monastic order, an alcoholic liqueur, a colour and a breed of cat. It’s also range of mountains in the Alps and the race crosses it today via the Col du Granier.
Nearby sits Mont Granier, a big table-like mountain whose steep flanks were revealed by a vast landslide in 1248 where half a billion cubic metres fell away, including blocks several hundred metres long, some of which rolled down the valley and came to halt several kilometres later.
The Charteuse Alps range runs north-south, bookended by the cities of Chambéry and Grenoble. Only today the race crosses from west to east: up, over and down. This is the “wrong” way as the Chartreuse Alps have been spectacular in races before when the route has gone along over the top via the Col du Granier, the Col du Cucheron and Col the Porte, sometimes referred to as the trilogie Chartreuse.
In 1947 Jean Robic would win the Tour thanks to an attack on the final stage but he was within touching distance of yellow in part because of his win in Grenoble after romping across the trilogy of climbs. In 1958 the race took the reverse direction and Charly Gaul started the Col de Porte with a two minute advantage on the chasing bunch. With cold rain pouring down he took time on each of the climbs to win solo by 14 minutes, defrocking yellow jersey Louison Bobet by 19 minutes, Jacques Anquetil even further back.
Action-packed short stages in the Tour aren’t new. The 1989 Tour de France used the trilogy during a 125km stage. Pedro Delgado, third overall, attacked after just 50km and was later joined by Greg LeMond, Laurent Fignon, Gert-Jan Theunisse and Marino Lejarreta, a breakaway royale that stayed away with LeMond winning the sprint.
Today the Chartreuse trilogy is largely forgotten. It makes you wonder what race-winning terrain today could vanish from the collective conscience in the future too.
Van Aert said in his interview that his sprinting has been good all year so I assume that what he is lacking is stamina.
Have they ever used the Col du Coq in races? The climb itself is a nice one and I vaguely recall it brings you roughly to where the Porte would, just over a steeper (but shorter) climb. It’s a bit of a balcony road with tunnels, so that may rule it out.
As I recall, and happy to be corrected on this as it’s from memory and thirty years ago, the Classique des Alpes, a one day race usually finishing in Chambery or Aix-les-Bains, used to include the Col du Coq. As you say, it’s a steep climb and the road is very narrow in places, so one that will probably not be included in bigger races often.
It’s been used in the past, eg the 1989 Dauphiné, again the 1990s. Was thinking it had been used more recently but can’t find the year. You can take it and then descend to Saint-Ismier, the finish on Stage 1 (and home of Bernard Thévenet)
It’s Thevenet that has the monument at the top of the Bastille climb, isn’t it?
Ah, no, it’s Claveyrolat.
Who has 2 stage wins and a 2nd place?
Sorry, Van Aert won the bunch sprint, not second place. Fixed now.
Rumours of WvA’s decline seem to be somewhat exaggerated though it was hardly a top class sprinting field (if such a thing still exists), will be interesting to see how he copes on the climbs.
I wonder if the GC teams will want to go for the win. I can see the argument for letting the break go, though perhaps a bit less with no bonus seconds available, but it only takes one of the teams to start chasing and they will all join in. Recent races with mountain stages seem to have a pattern of not letting the break go (exception with Sepp Kuss in the Giro but that seemed a deliberate ploy by Visma to let him have the stage). I can see some of the riders wanting to make a statement with a dominant win, a good number of alpha males here with points to prove.
Yeah, agreed. I had WVA to win at 22/1 a few days ago so when he led the pack home behind the breakaway I was a bit disappointed. My winnings would have gone straight to this website for the new merch INRNG keeps threatening to produce!
I suspect that Seixas with the ambition and confidence of youth will want to win today – Saturday and Sunday too! He might well do so.
Very much looking forward to seeing the GC race today! The good TTrs from strong teams have the time advantage now, but how good will the good climbers, around a minute down, be on this first day of real climbing?
it was not jorgenson but instead hagenes who was the penultimate helper for van aert yesterday
“Un Flamand au Parc des Oiseaux” – is this a reference to the song “Un flambeau, Jeanette, Isabelle” that I remember singing at school? If so, what a deep cut!
Alas. Instead the finish was at a large bird park where they have flamingoes, or flamants in French.
Equally strong.
Wasn’t it Geminiani the maillot jaune in the 1958 Gaul stage ? “Tous des Judas…” Le Vieux Fusil will not be happy…
Is this the first race where Seixas is up against real peers, so to speak? Interesting that he could not do anything to lose del Toro…
Today felt like a very weird and surprisingly mild introduction to the real GC battle. I think tomorrow is going to be off the chain, and Seixas is going to show his true quality.
I hope so. I’m rooting for the kid. Del Toro, though, looked as fit as Seixas though…
The 3 minute gap to Tuckwell is large enough to make this exciting.
Grand Colombier and Plateau de Solaison will be a different story but I think Seixas was not the only contender holding a bit back for the weekend today. Del Toro looked to be cruising and as if he could have attacked. He’s also under much less expectation. We’ll see, should be good…