The final week of the Tour de France resumes with one of the race’s most iconic climbs
The Tour de France has made it through a gruelling three days in the Pyrenees and the riders have enjoyed a well-earned rest day in Montpellier - but hostilities recommence today as the race enters the Alps for the first time.
Tadej Pogacar rampaged through the Pyrenees, winning atop Hautacam on stage 12, then demolishing the field in the time trial on stage 13, and those back-to-back wins have gone some way to ensuring the destiny of the Tour de France title is looking fairly well sewn up.
The defending champion opted for a more conservative, defensive ride on Saturday - one of several contenders for the race’s ‘queen stage’ - and simply marked Jonas Vingegaard’s late moves as the Dane went on the attack.
Ultimately Pogacar had enough left in the tank to sprint away from his rival for second place, behind Ineos Grenadiers’ Thymen Arensman. In doing so Pogacar picked up more bonus seconds to eke out a further six seconds on Vingegaard, who he now leads by 4’13”.
There was no major change among the general classification on stage 15 but there was the now-familiar sight of a UAE Team Emirates-XRG jersey winning - although this time it belonged to Pogacar’s reliable domestique Tim Wellens, let off the leash and completing the set of Grand Tour victories with a brilliant long-range solo attack on the road to Carcassonne.
The Belgian national champion dropped a slimmed-down breakaway on the final uncategorised climb of the hilly, frenetic stage from Muret, and extended his gap on the long descent into the medieval citadel as his former companions failed to work together.
His compatriot Victor Campenaerts eventually escaped to solo to second place, while further back Julian Alaphilippe - part of a large group which swallowed up the escapees - won the sprint for third place, but celebrated in the mistaken belief that he had actually won the stage. The Frenchman crashed early on and race doctors had to pop his shoulder back into place, but he put in a brilliant ride before being taken to hospital at the end of the day.
Now with a rest day in their legs UAE’s stranglehold over this Tour is likely to continue as the race returns to Pogacar’s favourite terrain. Stage 16 is something of an hors-d’oeuvre before the real feasting in the serious Alpine climbs later in the week, with the ‘Giant of Provence’ - Mont Ventoux - the star of the show today.
Isolated in the landscape, towering over the Rhone valley and on the periphery of the Alps proper, Mont Ventoux is something of an outlier among the Tour’s formidable ascents - but that makes it no less beastly.
15.7km long at an average gradient of 8.8%, reaching 1,910m above sea level, it has long been established in the annals of Tour history and plenty of riders will fancy writing their names into the history books with victory on its summit today.
Ventoux comes at the very end of today’s stage, 171.5km from the start town of Montpellier - where the riders enjoyed a rest day - and is the only climb on an intriguing parcours. It’s flat all day until the town of Bedoin at the foot of its lunar slopes, meaning the riders have 130km of flat to plan how they’ll attack.
Its place in Tour mythology is partially down to how rarely it features in the route: the race last had a planned summit finish here in 2016, but that stage was curtailed as a result of expected 100km/h winds, with the finish relocated to Chalet-Reynard, 6km down the mountain.
Thomas de Gendt took the win then; the previous time out, in the 2013 Tour, Chris Froome infamously ran up part of the Giant on his way to victory. Hopefully today the only drama will be of the racing kind.
The first day back after a rest day can throw up some strange results, with some riders slow to get back into the groove. Today’s racing may have an extra edge to it as the top-10 look to shore up their positions and take advantage of any slumps by their rivals.
Route map and profile
Start time
Another earlier start today with an early finish too: 12.10pm local time for the neutralised start, 11.10am BST, with an expected arrival time of 4.45pm local time (3.45pm BST).
Prediction
The design of the stage means there isn’t much terrain for a real elite breakaway to escape on, and the green jersey of Jonathan Milan is likely targeting the intermediate sprint at Chateauneuf-du-Pape 112km into the stage, so Lidl-Trek and the sprinters’ teams may be on hand to help UAE control proceedings during the flatter section.
All that means that we’re likely to see the whole peloton reach the climb together - and there’s one man who can climb faster and more brilliantly than anyone else.
So it seems foolhardy to bet against race leader and modern Cannibal Tadej Pogacar. The yellow jersey has had a day to rest his legs and is likely to come out firing on all cylinders, and while he has claimed wins on many of the Tour’s most legendary climbs, there are always more to add to that list - including Mont Ventoux.
Category: General Sports
