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[Closed] Tour de France 2020 Stage 6 - Le Teil > Mont Aigoual

lunge · 2020-09-03T08:47:49Z

Morning all. Strange stage yesterday, no break, almost no racing and then a very entertaining last 50km followed by yellow jersey controversy. One for the highlights show. Anyway, a new, and possibly more entertaining day today awaits us. The Route: 191km into the Cevennes. Yes Mont Aigoual featured in Tim Krabbe’s celebrated novel The Rider but the account is on the roads down the other side of the mountain so you won’t get to see them today, nor the place names like Salvinsac that are all too real. Today’s stage is 155km on fast, wide roads, even the first climb to the Cap de Coste climb is quick. It’s after Le Vigan that the race heads into the hills and the feel of the roads changes. The Col des Mourèzes is a steady climb with no surprises and so is the descent but the difficulty will come from the pace as riders need to get into position for what’s to come. The Col de la Lusette is a tough climb, listed as 11.7km at 7.3%, the stats don’t tell the story and nor does the profile. Bernard Hinault famously had to walk up… or so goes the legend. Some say it was in 1980, others 1981, or it could have been 1985, maybe 1986. It was probably during the Midi Libre. Was it when he abandoned the race in 1980 or another year when he just had the wrong gearing on his bike and walked a few paces to his team car to get a spare bike with lower gears? The answers would spoil the tale, here’s a climb that defeated Hinault and that’s enough of a story. Back in reality the climb starts on a sharp corner, there’s a ramp into a narrow hairpin bend which is chased by a 10% section. From here on the slope keeps changing, a flat section here, a 12% bit there and the gradient is meaner than the average. The steepest part is as the profile shows, a sustained section of 12-14%. There’s the 8-5-2 second time bonus at the top. The descent is a long straight line and any riders dropped before face a tough time trying to get back as a strong team like Jumbo-Visma ought to be able to keep the pace up. The Finish: this time it’s as the profile suggests, at least for the wide road up to the small Mont Aigoual ski area. Here the road flattens out, a loop around the hilltop with a small descent 500m before the line. The route? So, who should we be watching out for? The Contenders: the breakaway has a chance today, the problem is you need lots of horsepower for the flat 155km but the finish is for the climbers so the rouleurs won’t like the finish but the climbers won’t like the work needed to reach the foot of Mont Aigoual with a big buffer. If there’s no danger on GC Mitchelton-Scott won’t chase too hard because Adam Yates is only three seconds ahead of Primož Roglič on GC and so they’d surely prefer the breakaway to mop up the time bonuses. Alessandro de Marchi and Ilnur Zakarin (CCC), Thomas de Gendt (Lotto-Soudal), Ben Hermans (Israel), Tiesj Benoot and Nicolas Roche (Sunweb) fit the bill. There are plenty of others down on GC who might be able to win but are retained for team duties, eg at Cofidis Jesus Herrada will work for Guillaume Martin, Alexey Lutsenko will accompany Miguel Angel Lopez. For the GC contenders it’s a strange finish, those that make the selection over the Col de la Lusette can hope to get their breath back for the finish, the stage result is not necessarily going to correlate with the best climber. Still Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) has won in Orcières-Merlette already so makes for an easy pick, among the GC contenders he’s got the best sprint, he’s got the strongest team and has a motive too with the time bonus. The flatter final kilometre suits Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quickstep) who’ll be out with a point to prove today but can he hang on during the hardest part of the Col de la Lusette? Jumbo-Visma won’t wait and should be happy with Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) in yellow but only because he’s here for stage hunting right? Only he’s in the race lead and hasn’t sat up as he ought to, Jumbo might have a problem if Yates starts winning more. If Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) can sit tight for the sprint he’s got a chance. And, as ever, over to CyclingTips for a few pics. France, once again, looking epic. Tight finish.

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stevious

Posts: 4435

Full Member

If referring to my comment

Nope. Referring to what we can all agree is an excellent joke. I'm sure you're all too busy laughing to congratulate me on my genius.

Posted : 03/09/2020 10:08 pm

lunge

Posts: 13545

Full Member

Topic starter

DOES GREGS VAN HAVE A MAT?

My apologies. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Posted : 03/09/2020 10:11 pm

cchris2lou

Posts: 3188

Full Member

The Tour is in town tonight.
And my vip village entry is printed, ready for tomorrow.

Posted : 03/09/2020 10:17 pm

TiRed

Posts: 17357

Full Member

Ineos controlling the pace for their new rider in yellow. Oh. Got their dates mixed up?

Posted : 03/09/2020 11:01 pm

t3ap0t

Posts: 575

Free Member

Jesus Herrada's pain face was the most entertaining thing from yesterday. Looked like he was being crucified.

Posted : 04/09/2020 11:39 am

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