This year’s Tour reaches new heights with the mighty Bonette, altitude and attitude combined. Don’t miss the early finish.
A Man With A Plan: 28 riders went up the road, the first breakaway to get more than ten minutes this Tour. This gave them the luxury of being able to trade attacks for the next few hours, each trying to reshape too large a group. It was splendid to watch, sunshine, tactics and hours of helicopter shots of the Alpine landscapes, just the melancholy of knowing next week it’ll all be over.
At times riders were dropped but came back, notably Matteo Vercher. Victor Campenaerts sat tight for a long time, as if measuring his efforts.
Michał Kwiatkowski took off on the final marked climb of the day, the Demoiselles Coiffées, with over 30km to go. He was soon joined by Vercher and Campenaerts and the trio gradually built a lead, the chase behind suffering from the classic stand-off where if some wanted to chase, others got a free ride and so the chasers didn’t want to take them to the finish.
Vercher launched a move with 800m to go, the move not to make but what else could he do? It made Kwiatkowski chase. With less than 200m left Campenaerts launched but it was like watching a muscle car accelerate on a green light, all while Kwiatkowski wilted in the heat.
Campenaerts said he’d picked this stage since last winter, knowing he’d be working for Arnaud De Lie for much of the race. He went to altitude for nine weeks, when three is plenty for many. Come the day he asked for time trial tires on his bike to get every aero advantage and the confidence boost, even if he said he was on the limit on the descents. All the investment and thought paid off.
The Route: today’s plat du jour certainly isn’t flat. 144km and 4,400m of vertical gain, a lot for a stage where the first 20km look flat… but actually the course uses a side road and it’s got some slopes and even a hairpin, the sprinters won’t like it at all, this could even be a place for Girmay to aim for as he climbs better than Philipsen but it’ll be hard to set up a sprint amid the attacks.
The mighty Col de Vars, an unsung climb that is challenging and scenic but reduced to the entrée today. It is harder than the 5.7% average suggests, you can spot the flat middle section and even the descent. The opening part to the Col de la Viste is more like 10%.
Then comes the mighty Cime de Bonette at 2,802m which is over an hour of climbing and a good part of this above 2,000m, daunting for the length and altitude. The descent is regular down to Saint-Etienne where there’s 15km of valley roads familiar from Paris-Nice.
The Finish: Isola 2000 is the most of the Col de la Lombarde and a ski station access road where corners have been widened and ramps levelled. It’s steep to start but steady to the ski station used by plenty of Nice and Monaco pro cyclists for altitude training.
The Contenders: Tadej Pogačar (UAE) is the obvious pick, he can mark his rivals and the Isola climb suits him with the way the slope levels out, he can pick his point to attack or even wait for the sprint. He’ll need his team, or Visma as well, to work to contain the breakaway. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-LAB) still has a chance at the win but he’d surely need to turn the tables with his team throwing everything they’ve got… only they sent riders up the road yesterday stage hunting, so we’ll see the long climbs can suit. As we saw in Dévoluy Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quickstep) is aggressive too for a late move.
Among the breakaway picks Richard Carapaz (EF) is suited to the climbing, indeed with 40 points on the Bonette today he can get close to Pogačar’s polka dot jersey, and overhaul him if he can score elsewhere. Simon Yates (Jayco) sat out yesterday’s moves so could be fresher. Wout Poels (Bahrain) and Laurens De Plus (Ineos) are making the breakaways but out-climbing everyone is a tough ask. Jai Hindley (Red Bull), Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) and Enric Mas (Movistar) are the same too.
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Pogačar, Carapaz |
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S Yates, Evenepoel |
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Vingegaard, De Plus, Hindley, Gall, Buitrago, Ciccone |
Weather: sunshine and 28°C with the heat making the wind blow at times in the valleys.
TV: KM0 is at 12.30pm CEST and the finish is forecast for 4.45pm CEST.
Postcard from La Bonette
Even the postcard industry struggles with the Col de la Bonette. The mountain pass that sits at 2,715m, only the Agnel and Iseran are higher paved roads in France. But reach the pass and you can ride a short loop that reaches 2,802m as it circles around the Cime de la Bonette, the mountain peak above which tops out at 2,862m. This causes a lot of confusion as people refer to the col when they mean the cime road. There are worse mistakes to make but read on if you want to be a Bonette boss.
As you can see on the map above there’s the Col de la Bonette and then just to the south of this the a small road that climbs to 2,802m as it rides around the peak, this is the road we label the Cime de la Bonette but it’s not a pass. If confused just casually refer to La Bonette.
The confusion doesn’t end here though. Sometimes it is called the Bonette-Restefonds on signs, the Restefonds is a nearby pass at 2,680m. Tackle the route and you’ll large signs at the start and top that boast “the highest road in Europe” but the Pico Veleta in Spain’s Sierra Nevada goes beyond 3,000m and it’s not the highest road in the Alps either as the Austria’s Ötztaler Gletscherstraße is 30 metres taller. Maybe the altitude gets to people’s heads?
Another fantastic postcard, only here do you get the guts on La Bonette – will def miss these next week
“Maybe the altitude gets to people’s heads?” touché!
Maybe the altitude will get to the riders too, but as guys seem to spend every spare moment at altitude maybe not.
Regarding the “the highest road in Europe” claim:
I just finished the book “Higher Calling” by Max Leonhard. The Bonette takes a centre role and he explains that the sign might makes use of some definitional trickery – plus its clever marketing. I cite the relevant part here if that’s ok (it’s in the beginning of the book so also part of the reading examples online):
“[…] the Cime road, at 2,802 metres, is widely proclaimed to be the highest paved road on the continent. It is a loop that lassos the Cime de la Bonette itself, the dark, very regular pyramid-shaped peak which has a viewpoint and a panorama on top. However, the Cime is actually not the highest paved road either. The Ötztal Glacier road in Sölden, Austria, is surfaced higher, but it’s a toll road and a dead end; the Pico de Veleta in Spain’s Sierra Nevada is higher too, but that’s also a dead end and vehicle access is restricted.
And so the Cime de la Bonette may conceivably be the highest inter-valley road in Europe […].”
And:
“But even this ‘highest road’ is problematic. It’s only the highest inter-valley road if you ignore the fact that the Cime’s start and end are within metres of each other, across a narrow ridge above a perfectly usable col, and that the loop is therefore completely pointless. It is a ‘long-cut’ built simply for the glory, a treacherous circle of tourist road, two kilometres long, with steep drops and 15 per cent gradients on all sides.
The French are nothing if not masters of branding. In fact – think Bordeaux, think Champagne, think Camembert, hell, think cycling itself – they practically invented branding. So Bonette may not be the highest paved road, but since they’ve said it is so, that’s what it’s known as.”
I saw it described as the ‘highest through road in Europe’. Even that is problematic given the highest bit is a loop.
I think the world is full of such ‘ fact based’ claims.
I live near and ride up regularly Cragg Vale, England’s longest climb. The sign at the base tells me this….only it doesn’t. It says ‘England’s longest continuous gradient ‘.
It hurts my legs, but when the Tour came to Yorkshire, it was a feed zone. Totally insignificant.
We are not the only sport guilty of such hyperbole. Football is its master.
The Pico de Veleta road is surfaced to around 3200 m.
From that point, as well as the unsurfaced road up to the Pico itself, there’s an unsurfaced road over the pass on the west side of the Pico and down to Capilera on the south side of the massif.
Mountain bike recommended. It took me 4 hours from the top to Calipera on an audax bike with 28 mm gatorskins and panniers.
Riders who made it to stage 19 will want to finish – even if it’s not Paris. That looks tricky for some with the steep start to Vars and non-stop high mountains thereafter. A tough day awaits for the remaining sprinters.
What a monster of a climb. Just wondering if anyone knows why the Bonette at 2802 metres doesn’t get the Henri Desgranges? The Galibier was ‘only’ 2642 metres high. Is it because it’s a Cime and not a Col? Although the Col a bit further down is 2703 metres. What am I missing?!
It’s because the Lagrange memorial is at the top of the Galibier – so the prize is given at the top of the Galibier, or the highest climb of the Galibier isn’t ridden
Thank you. Glad the Galibier is at the top of the hierarchy. Where it should be.
Technically speaking the Souvenir Henri Desgrange can go wherever they want, there’s no specific rules about where it has to go. It usually goes to the Galibier even when there are higher climbs in the race, but there are exceptions like 2019.
Cheers for the extra context.
The Bonnette is a very hard climb. Despite the steady gradient on the profile it has a lot of ramps at 10+% separated by flat hairpins or the odd downhill, and with over an hour in the heat plus the altitude and after the warm up on Vars, I wouldn’t be surprised to see riders come over the top in ones and twos…
I rode Isola 2000 on Zwift and I have to say that it was one of the hardest climbs ever. I know I am not much of a climber, but I have successfully climbed Mont Ventoux and Alpe d’Huez virtually but on Isola 2000 I had to abandon about three quarters of the way to the finish. Of course the real thing is different but I think Zwift does a very good job of simulating the grades.
P.S. This is not a plug for Zwift I just wanted to share my pain!
If there is any chance of reviving the gc battle, this is it. I don’t expect Pogi to crack, but it will be interesting to see what Remco and JV are able to do. Could be more big gaps, just depends on where they occur and to whom.
This is indeed it – Vinny can’t keep saying ‘tomorrow suits me better’, It’s s**t or bust time.
The former would make the stage exciting. The later is more likely.
Exactly. Remco would make modest sense from his team’s POV, rationally at least, but uhmmm… he’s surely in growing form (which doesn’t mean I believe him to perform great, literally anything could happen).
Vingo has nothing to lose. Visma isn’t in need of points, has signed sponsorship contracts few months back, and a Pantani/Landis/Contador/Froome attitude would probably work better for most sponsors than the recent “Pogi attacks, Vingo looks back after 2 sec.” scheme.
And despite the UAE superteam, still the difference between Vingo and Pogi’s gregari is huge enough to make for the strength in numbers of the latter.
If Vingo goes in a suicide mission launched with an all-in attack, the sort of attack which leaves you athletically uneasy for a whole stage, what’s Pogi going to do? Cover him personally risking to blow up, too, or trust teamwork, which could be over too soon leaving him a little further behind than desired?
Very interesting…
Of course, it could turn out to be the dumpest of squids ^___^, but Vingo and Visma showed a good deal of kamikaze attitude on PDB…
I hope it doesn’t happen but after seeing JV dropped and not looking good at the end of Stage 17, will he crack today or tomorrow, even fall off the podium?
Any way, thanks for the daily write ups, I have really enjoyed this year’s Tour and great to see Victor win this morning (NZ time).
At 2000 meters on the Bonette there’s the cutest little family restaurant, the Halte 2000. A perfect place for a cyclo-tourist looking for a little sustenance before continuing up the beast/beauty.
When I rode there with a friend last June, the change in landscape, vegetation and fauna was fantastic to witness – reminding me more of home the higher we got. And with a cool 2°C at the top of the col (the cime still impassable due to snow), the tropical climes over towards Nice were very welcome and a stark contrast, adding to the experience.
I doubt that today’s peloton will have the luxury of enjoying the ride as much as we did, but seeing the tour follow our wheels these days (Corps to Barcelonette and Couillole) is allowing me to revisit the memories and reaching for the planner.
Gall, Rodriguez and Ciccone should be looking to move up on GC so if they’re feeling alright I’d expect one of them to go up the road early on.
Not meaning to be a smarty pants, but Campenaerts used the TT tyres for the reduced rolling resistance rather than aerodynamics.
Rolling resistance is needed as it is what pushes the bike forward. I think TT tyres are lighter, more streamlined.
Rolling resistance and grip are entirely different things.
The clue is in the word ‘resistance’.
I loved reading that he used TT tyres. Cycling’s missing those days when a rider asked for the special equipment because he knew today was the day.
Barry Hoban knew: ‘I got the mechanic to put my light wheels with silk tyres in my bike, and I was really psyched up’.
https://cyclinglegends.co.uk/index.php/features/short-reads/112-barry-hoban-s-50th-anniversary
There are TT tires that can be more aero, the match the profile of the rims, eg Decathlon have been using special Conti ones for this… but Campenaerts was on Vittorias which just have less material so they roll better as you say.
I expect a huge battle between Gee, Buitrago, Gall, Ciccone, Yates, Almeida & alii for the top-10 places. Everything will depend on Pogacar – but he tends to attack on every big mountain stage, showing everyone his real place.
Am I right in thinking from the Bonnette map that there’s only one stretch of road leading to/from the loop? If so then it’ll be rather depressing for any riders if they are still going up to the loop & some of their rivals pass on the same stretch of road going in the opposite direction. (I wonder if there will be barriers up to make sure they don’t get in each others’ way?)
No, but they can greet each other at the pass, drilled through a thin (I’d say about five meters wide) band of the rock.
If I may… there’s a better map.
https://mapy.cz/s/kozekadoro
Thanks, that is a better one.
Thanks. So they can just either wave or yell insults at each other in passing depending on their moods 😉 And if they have any breath to spare…
That photo up top shows well Victor’s Calves of Doom.
Back to the whole kit/aero thing. Is it my imagination, or is virtually everyone riding on the hoods all the time? Surely the drops would give a considerable advantage? My estimate is that I get a 1mph boost for the same effort.
Others have noticed the same. The hoods have become the primary riding position but with the current fashion for slammed stems, hoods nowadays are where the drops used to be in decades past. As a result, the actual riding position hasn’t really changed (as one should expect, human anatomy hasn’t changed either).
My understanding is that this is a consequence of shorter stages and wider gears. When stages were dawn-to-dusk affairs endurance had a greater role and the tops, ramps, hoods and drops all got use in different moments of a race. When gears were limited, pushing a heavy gear required more body language. All-in-all, racing entailed a wider range of positions. Today essentially only one position remains – the hoods, slammed – with the drops reserved for very short sprints.
++ good response.
Also, with slammed bars and hands on the hoods with forearms horizontal, it’s more aero than in essentially the exact same position but hands in the drops.
The consensus at my club is that riding on the hoods with forearms parallel to the ground is the most aero. It is less comfortable for most compared to the drops. Sometimes called the Sphinx position.
This is exactly right. When on the hoods, there is less forearm exposed to the wind and so the position is slightly more aero. Obviously at higher speeds this becomes increasingly important. The difficulty is in being able to maintain that “sphinx” position for long periods, but a good bike fit can help with that.
Thanks all, that makes sense.
I believe Pog wore a more aero skin suit on nearly all stages, instead of bib/jersey separates. I wasn’t paying as close attention to other racers, but seemed skin suits were also more in evidence. Skin suits no longer limited to pure sprinters or the elite TTers.
BTW, every side view of Vingegaard I’ve seen shows a significant hump on his back, not the usual small bump of a race radio.
Compare these side views of Pog vs Ving:
https://x.com/LeTour/status/1814272569039532266
Is Vingo possibly wearing some kind of brace as a result of his horrific crash, or is this just a natural part of his semi-freakish body?
And while Vingo has very narrow chest, viewed from front or back, his side view shows a disproportionately very deep chest, something Mr.Ring has commented on.
Maybe Vingo has a horse-sized heart in that giant chest cavity 😉
It could be a big bump for the radio. Some riders are moving the position to try and suit aerodynamics, more usually in the time trial by placing it on the front and then wrapping it to make it more pronounced so it works as a kind of fairing.
Why is Cime de la Bonette worth 40 points and the other HC climb only worth 20 mountains points? Is there a page that lists the point value of all climbs in the Tour?
https://inrng.com/tour/
Thanks!
It worth 40 because the end of the tour is near
It’s the highest point of the race, like the the Col de la Loze last year.
It worth 40 because the end of the tour is near.
I think Pogs should go for the Vuelta too. Why not? He could win like 10 stages there.
In rainbow stripes.
He’s pretty good but he can’t outpace the arrow of time
Freddy Maertens won 13. And the overall.
But seriously, I suspect Pogacar is more interested in maximising his chances for Worlds and recovery for another real crack at Milan San Remo next spring, to help complete his palmares.
Injury and illness could strike at any time ruling him, or anyone, such as Vingegaard, out of winning form for the Tour. The Vuelta is always waiting in the wings for those racers.
Without checking at all, I suspect many recent Vuelta winners starting the season not even intending to race the Vuelta, much less targeting it.
Indeed, Skjelmose announcing that he is specifically targeting it this year was a surprise, the exception that proves the rule.
once again going to make the call for pogacar winning all three grand tours this year.
The next goal is meant to be the Worlds in Zurich.
Also UAE have internal politics with leadership promised to other riders.
Maybe the triple is next year’s challenge?
Plus a gold medal!
Maybe, but TP could easily win 6-10 stages and make it as boring as the Giro, and ensure his (maybe) best chance of the treble. UAE cannot win with any other rider.
If VLaB can win with Kuss the UAE can win with Yates, Ayuso or Almeida, if they choose to do so.
Ayuso is not riding the Vuelta and neither Almeida nor Yates seem to be able to win a Grand Tour. But we’ll see.
If Simon could win the Vuelta, then Adam can do that too
If he really wants the triple he should wrap it up this year while the stars are all aligned. Even the best bike handlers crash out occasionally, and a few tours with nasty weather feels overdue.
Do it while the opportunity exists surely? Who knows what next year brings – a crash, a virus that ends hopes in one, loss of form (shock), sudden loss of motivation (for whatever reason – not necessarily cycling related). The chance may bever come around again.
So does Pogacar do some payback to his teammates tomorrow and work get Almeida the win?
Jorgenson’s ride today was impressive: to change tactics on the last climb and come in second by 20 seconds or so after being in the break all day is nuts. I’d love to see him lead a GT.
TP will likely want to win tomorrow and Sunday as well. Both stages are suited to his current form, and Almeida is too far from having any chance.
At this pace Cav has another 4 years to enjoy his record.
Agree. TP is on to Project40-something.
I read that El Patron, Don Pogacar himself, will allow a break to go away tomorrow. We can only hope for his benevolence.
Slightly off topic but as much as there may be melancholy at the thought of the end of the Tour for another year, there is always the Transcontinental starting almost as soon as the Tour finishes…
It was really moving seeing Jonas in the arms of his partner crying after the stage.
The thing about Jonas and Visma is that he is clearly a sweet, shy little fellow on a team with a bit of a Darth Vader vibe. Kind of a weird combination, but I definitely feel for him; it’s been a rough few months.
He may be a sweet, shy fellow off the bike but when in form he’s a stone cold assassin on it – the Vingenator!