The only stage outside of France this year, the race takes a classic route from France to Italy. 150 years ago the region was as one as the Kingdom of Savoy, a mostly French speaking area where the finishing town was called Pignerol. Today the differences are still subtle as both sides of the border are dominated by the Alpine peaks, indeed the start and finish towns are twinned.
The first climb of the Côte de Sainte-Marguerite is more a ramp than a notable climb but 2.8km at 7.6% is a rude warm up for the upcoming intermediate sprint in Villar Sainte Pancrace, which is itself uphill too albeit at a milder gradient. Then the climb of La Chaussée which is another ramp, this time in the middle of Briançon.
My latest piece for cyclingnews.com is now online to read. I wanted to take a look at the back end of the race because whilst we’re all thinking of the race up front, many are going full gas just to finish the stage. We think of the sprinters in the race as guys who struggle in the mountains but it’s all relative. The time cut-offs mean even those at the back are racing to get to the finish line.
Indeed as I put it, of the 7,000 amateurs who rode the Etape du Tour cyclosportive last week in the Alps, only four would have avoided the Tour de France’s cut off. Yet they started with fresh legs and enjoyed fine weather. Those sprinters sure can climb.
The start is near the foot of Mont Ventoux in Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux, which means St Paul Three Castles. Tourist brochures feature lavender fields, vineyards and the views towards Ventoux. It certainly is a pleasant place… except for the vast nuclear power station on the edge of town. With its four reactors, the plant produces 6% of France’s electricity and one day the town will be renamed St Paul Quatre Réacteurs.
Look at the profile and it’s uphill all day. But it is not severe, the pace should be high as a breakaway tries to go clear near the start. The race follows the river Eygues up a gorge with predictably impressive scenery. The intermediate sprint is tricky with a couple of roundabouts on the way in and some speed bumps, before the final kick to the line with an uphill of around 4%.
There’s a time limit to finish each stage, a rider who finishes outside of the cut-off is eliminated from the race. It’s cruel but designed to ensure nobody can sit up and take some stages easy. It forces the non-climbers to race in the mountains.
Movistar have announced they’re planning to set a fast pace in the mountains with the aim of putting Mark Cavendish in trouble. If the Briton finishes a mountain stage hors délais then Jose Joaquin Rojas is in line to recover the green jersey. So let’s take a quick look at how the cut-off time is calculated.
Another rest day on the Tour de France and a time for many to take stock of the race so far and plan for the upcoming stages in the Alps. But it’s also a business day and if you can hear the sound of cash registers ringing and riders are walking round with $ and € signs in the their eyes then it’s because many teams and agents are finalising contracts for 2012 and beyond today.
We should know more on the fate or future of the HTC-Highroad team today, it’ll be one thing to secure the team’s financial future but it will need to retain a core of riders to retain its ProTeam status amongst the top-18 teams.
Talking of money, it won’t be top priority but some teams have racking more prize money in the second week. Thanks to their endless attacking, in particular their keen racing for the intermediate sprint, FDJ – appropriate for the French state lottery – have hit the jackpot. Here’s the full breakdown of prize money.
An easy day after the Pyrenees as the riders leave the mountains and around the Mediterranean coast, a place where millions of French and northern Europeans migrate for the summer to profit from the sea and sunshine. The stage starts in Limoux, half-famous for its sparkling white wine that struggles for attention alongside the more famous champagne.
But the route today is inland, not by the sea and more appealing than the often over-build coastline. The race will pass by many vineyards and look out for the rugby posts in sports fields, this is the heartland of what the French call le balon oval.
Five climbs and that’s before the big summit finish on the Plateau de Beille. If Thursday gave us a glimpse through the fog of who was in form and a contender for the overall win, today will provide a much clearer view.
The stage crosses the Ariège department of France, right in the middle of the Pyrenees and a land of many hilltop castles, a legacy of 13th century religious wars and more recently a popular place for hippy camps. Spend time in the area and you’ll soon spot a disproportionate amount of long hair and tie-dye t-shirts.
Today was a bad day for Gert Steegmans who did not start the stage thanks to an injured wrist. Vladimir Isaichev, Lars Boom and Andreas Klöden abandoned during the stage and later on Cofidis’s Romain Zingle crashed on the descent of Aubisque but he made it to the finish in time. All serious things.
But on a more light-hearted note, other riders were just plain unlucky and got caught by the commissaires for more trivial. Here’s the list of fines for the day.
Imagine the scene: it’s hard stage with several climbs and you’ve made the breakaway. There are strong riders with you and the gap to the bunch is steady. Watching each rider take their turn you’ve kept some energy in reserve and suspect the others have too and with some luck you might be able to hold off the chasing bunch. You’re 70km from the finish. Then – BAM! – suddenly one of the riders attacks, going clear in a solo bid. It’s surely futile but his attack disrupts your group, instead of a harmonious group of seven, there’s now one up the road and two trying to get across and four of you left cursing the madman. The breakaway is blown to pieces and in time everyone is caught, including the attacker who cramps up.
Alternatively imagine the move keeps going but with about 30km to go one of the riders starts missing his turn. The gap is coming down and now’s not the time to play poker. Yet this rider is wincing, his face a picture of agony as he takes a pull but oddly his pedalling is as smooth as ever. 20km to go and several are now aware of this Oscar-winning performance as the grimacing rider is taking ever shorter turns. 10km to go and the breakaway has a slender lead but its possible. With 6km to go the final hill of the day and as you crest the top – KAPOW! – the actor/rider takes off and solos to the win as the rest of you are caught with 2km to go.
That’s racing, no? But the first example is a Johnny Hoogerland move and the second is pure Thomas Voeckler. The disruptive riding and the energetic attacking might make for exciting viewing but many in the peloton resent it and the likes of Hoogerland and Voeckler are not universally popular in the bunch to put it mildly.
Stage 13 almost feels like a missed opportunity given the Pyrenees but clearly the race organisers don’t want to fix the overall classification with three consecutive summit finishes. Thinking about it, I agree as yesterday gave a glimpse of how the favourites are riding relative to each other but a tentative one. Anything can happen. Back to today and the stage should be about a breakaway whilst the favourites watch each other.
Pau and Lourdes are classic stops in the Pyrenees. Pau is a town rich in history but with a young student population and has several cols in riding distance. Lourdes is a strange place, a town reputedly with more hotel beds than inhabitants, it literally trades on its reputation as a place of religious pilgrimage, a frontier town between the sacred and the profane.
