If the race so far has been like a murder-mystery novel with clues as to the rider with killer form, today should reveal their identity, leaving the others to work on their plans to entrap the best rider in the coming days.
A 41.5km time trial, the stage is more technical and hilly than the profile above suggests, although it remains a test for the specialists.
Thibaut Pinot (FDJ-BigMat) won today’s stage of the Tour de France. The youngest rider in the race, he delighted French fans with a big win to confirm the hopes invested in him. But there was nobody more delighted than team manager Marc Madiot.
Again this isn’t really a mountain stage. But nor was yesterday’s route and it was still decided by the climbing. Today is as much about descending as climbing with some very steep climbs but also some tricky descents. It’s also short and promises action from start to finish, ideal since it will be televised live from the start.
As many have remarked, when Team Sky launched they stated the aim of winning the Tour de France. It seemed far-fetched but my take was that when you have a big sponsor and you launch the team then you cannot say much else.
Today this aim is now a possibility and in Sky’s management style, a big box to tick. The British squad is in a very comfortable position with both Wiggins and Froome in control and don’t forget it was the work of Edvald Boasson Hagen, Michael Rogers and Richie Porte that shredded the peloton. It split in the approach to the final climb, it exploded on the slopes of the Planche des Belles Filles.
All change. If you’ve been dipping in and out of the Tour de France during the last week, today’s the day to plunge right in as first proper summit finish of the race appears. But the climb is not Alpine: it will give us clues about the relative form of riders and 10 minutes of tension.
The last few stages of the Tour de France have not been the most exciting. Cyclesport’s Lionel Birnie has a good piece on the topic. The stage starts, the gears clunk and a few riders are given a day ticket to escape the bunch on the condition they return, like residents of an open prison who must return before nightfall.
Things only come alive in the race in the final minutes. Four hours of racing for four minutes of action. L’Equipe today describes yesterday’s stage with tales of broken alarm clocks, hammocks, snoozing, snoring and says the riders “only fell out of bed with three kilometres to go”. Is the Tour de France boring?
The last of the sprint stages, today’s race will sweep across the champagne region of France before the fizz of the finish. Again this looks like a day for the sprinters but with the first summit finish looming tomorrow the GC contenders will try to ride in economy mode.
If it is a sprint finish the final kilometre has a dangerous narrow point followed by a sharp turn turn.
Regular readers will know I’ve been following the case of Danish rider Alex Rasmussen closely since last September when news emerged that he’d committed three anti-doping “whereabouts” faults. Normally this constitutes an anti-doping violation under the rules, meaning a ban was likely. He got fired by his team, HTC-Columbia but when the case was heard by the Danmarks Cykle Union he was cleared. Only the case went to appeal and yesterday he lost.
The case is bigger than one rider as it covers the systemic issue of out-of-competition testing, the logging of an athlete’s “whereabouts” and also exposes discrepancies in the UCI rules which have to be fixed.
Maybe something random will happen today? Otherwise it’s a dull dash across northern France where many TV viewers in France will be having a siesta on the sofa before the adrenalin rush of the sprint finish. Meanwhile the riders risk being cold and wet whilst dodging crashes, today is the day to spectate rather than participate.
But the last kilometres are trickier than they look with tight turns and a gradient to the finish line.
One of the great things with the Tour de France is that not only do you get almost all the best riders competing in the race but you also get a depth of content that’s not available during the rest of the season.
There is a wealth of audio content out there. I’m a fan of podcasts as you can listen whilst doing something else and the way they are recorded means analysis and debate of the day’s racing as opposed to live coverage. So when André Greipel powers across the line you might turn off the TV but the race coverage continues for hours and hours.