Morning folks.
At 130 kilometres, the last mountain stage of the Tour de France is a relatively short one. Most uphill action is clustered inside the last 50 kilometres. First the Col du Tourmalet and then a summit finish in ski resort Luz-Ardiden.
The first phase of the race traverses the foothills of the Pyrenees. Although it’s nowhere near flat, the terrain is not ascending either. Undulating, that’s the word.
The second phase of the race begins in Sainte-Marie-de-Campan, where the riders tackle the Col du Tourmalet for the 88th time in the history of the Tour de France. On this side the ascent totals 17.1 kilometres, while the average gradient sits at 7.1%. The first third is relatively easy, but from the seventh kilometre onwards the gradient never drops below 8%.
The riders fly down into Luz-Saint-Sauveur to tackle the last climb of the Tour de France.
The Finish: the climb to Luz Ardiden is 13.3km at 7.4% and a typical Pyrenees ski station road, wide enough to drive a bus up but the slope is irregular in places and the top is a car park and a ski lift. The HC label here is generous to put it mildly but as ever this is subjective rating applied by the race rather than an independent measure of difficulty. Anyway it’s uphill all the way to the line with six hairpins in the final kilometre but they’re all nice and wide.
The first three riders on the line gain time bonuses of 10, 6 and 4 seconds.
The contenders
The Contenders: it’s breakaway or bust for the mountains competition today, Tadej Pogačar leapt up to second in the competition ahead of Nairo Quintana (Arkéa-Samsic) and Michael Woods (Israel) so they and competition leader Wout Poels (Bahrain) know they need to get in the breakaway and contest the stage win to have a chance of winning the prize, once again today’s HC-category climb has double points. But this means getting in the day’s move and building up enough of a lead in the first 70km of the stage, a tall order.
Otherwise who to pick between Tadej Pogačar (UAE Emirates), Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) and Richard Caparaz (Ineos)? Pogačar makes the obvious pick but he’s gone from winning solo to outsprinting rivals and today he doesn’t have to follow every move, he doesn’t even have to win although we’ll see the cannibal appetite or not which leaves an opening for Carapaz now he’s distanced some GC rivals. David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) is going well and not a GC threat but how to win, perhaps an attack on the Tourmalet, home to his team mate Bruno Armirail?
lets hope Cav gets over the mountain
Once more, top work @lunge , I think we should all hold a "Stage 22" thank you thread for your efforts on this!
GC - wondering how much Carapaz and Vingegaard will be going at each other to fight over 2nd place. And how much Pogacar will get involved, if only to help Vingegaard work over Carapaz since he didn't do much to endear himself to them yesterday and still got shown up.
I don't think either of them can afford to just sit there and let the breakaway take the win, if they're fighting it out between themselves, that'll be taking place up front.
KOM - please God, don't let Pogacar win yellow, white and KOM. Even Lance Armstrong was gracious enough to only win* yellow. It'll be yet another bloody comparison to Eddy Merckx...
Green - the #CavWatch on Twiiter is quite entertaining. Hoping he can do the job, he knows what he has to do and he's got a great team around him.
* yeah yeah, he didn't "win", he's never won, blah blah. Whatever.
Short stages like this are always a nightmare for the likes of Cav. Cav really is THE master at a managing the time cut though, I think that he'll do it mind.
I do love the Tourmalet for some reason....hopefully the weather is okay up top though.
crazy-legs - Also my thoughts yesterday as to Pogacar taking other jerseys. I'm a huge fan of Wout Poels and dearly want him to get the polka dot. But of course Cav just has to get himself over these massive climbs.
Sitting outside a pub last night and a French chap arrived. He spent all evening on his phone and a lot of the the conversation (in French) was about Le Tour. Mac Cavendeesh was mentioned a few times :o)
Even Lance Armstrong was gracious enough to only win* yellow
It's not the use of the word win that troubles me here it's the use of the word gracious even jokingly about Armstrong.
he's a Wiley ol' dog Cav, I get the feeling he would come in slightly under cooked so he gains the fitness need to get to the end and not burn out.
@bunnyhop another Poels fan here. Love his climbing style and would love him to take the Pilka dot jersey.
KOM – please God, don’t let Pogacar win yellow, white and KOM. Even Lance Armstrong was gracious enough to only win* yellow. It’ll be yet another bloody comparison to Eddy Merckx…
Well he did it last year, so why not again 😀 Lance was too old to win the white jersey anyway.
As for what will happen, I reckon the same as yesterday, but I get the feeling that Pogacar will want to really rub it into Carapaz, I mean it's not like either of them (Vingegogo) are gonna put over 5 minutes into him in a mildly lumpy 31km TT
I've never been to the Pyrenees, what's the magic about the Tourmalet and why is it effectively a must visit?
Is it just the history there, or is it particularly scenic or good for spectators? Or just it's location is good for linking up to Pau?
Can UAE boss it again? Probably, they will be super motivated after yesterday. In which case I think it will be same as yesterday but with a slightly bigger group at the end. Pog could well win the stage again.
I’ve never been to the Pyrenees, what’s the magic about the Tourmalet and why is it effectively a must visit?
It's a massive climb, one of the highest. But apart from that history. Part of the first tour in the Pyrenees and regularly features as the pass conveniently links east/west.
quite the dilemma for oily jims mob.... save G and Richie Gate legs for a possible win in the TT or push today for a Carapaz (assuming he'll attack off their efforts) win and 2nd place on the podium.
It's always in Pau isn't it?! It is the absolute hotspot of Tour doping raids.
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/jul/18/pau-cycling-20-years-armstrong-tour-de-france
if Bahrain are doping, they should get a refund from their Dr
Carapaz has more chance of 2nd than Porte has of TT win (and G is miles off that unfortunately)
I’ve never been to the Pyrenees, what’s the magic about the Tourmalet and why is it effectively a must visit
It's basically about 400m higher than any other pass in the area.
perhaps DQS might try and get Cav into the break today.... a few points and a head start in the race against the cut off.
if Bahrain are doping, they should get a refund from their Dr
Maybe the French police got their Gulf states confused and meant to look at UAE... 😉
I’ve never been to the Pyrenees, what’s the magic about the Tourmalet and why is it effectively a must visit?
Is it just the history there, or is it particularly scenic or good for spectators? Or just it’s location is good for linking up to Pau?
It's a beautiful climb - probably nicer from the side that they'll descend today. Climbing up from Luz St Sauveur you can detour just above Bareges onto the "Voie Laurent Fignon" which is the old, original road and rejoins the current route below the summit. All the old road painted tour rider names still there and closed to traffic.
The side they'll climb today is still nice but they do have to go through the rather ugly ski reort of La Mongie.
The views on a nice day are lovely.
The Luz Ardiden climb is very nice especially with all the switchbacks. From the big car park at the top you can look down on all those zigzags you've just ridden up.
Yep, Luz-Ardiden is a lovely climb.
Might be a bit busier than this today though....
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^^^^ Yup,that's the view I meant. A good excuse for a breather before enjoying the ride back down going through all those bends.
Cav has made 2 points back up on the intermediate sprint then.
Surprised that Bike Exchange messed up that intermediate so much.
Anyway, the door is opened now for all the GC and stage win racing.
I've ridden both the Tourmalet and Luz Ardiden. Tourmalet both ways with whilst touring with panniers and Luz Ardiden without the luggage. Luz Ardiden was the nicer climb barring the hailstone half way up. Took me an hour to ride up it. I also cycled up Hautecam, Aubisque, soulour and upto the dead end road (to spain) above the cirque du Gavanie. before heading east towards Foix via the peryesourd and the aspet past the memorial to the Fabio Carsetelli who died on the descent. One day I'll visit again, Might put the effort in to cycle some of the climbs again.
Uran and Thomas both dropped.
INEOS still riding like a derny bike, DvB is on a hell of a ride.
That is SUCH a good descent. I love those fast pedalling ones, good sightlines.
Gaudu is on a flyer, great riding.
ad-free my arse.... telling us it's ad-free is a ****ing ad you muppets! 😉
#CavWatch is going to be pretty close today...
16 back should get in ok
Cav now off the back with basically the whole of the DQS team with him!
*Anxiously watches clock*
LOL
I almost feel sorry for Ineos. They're trying so hard and every time they just get shown up.
I’ll pop it up in 2.5km!! (Just watching end of TdF
I'm on Live Pause function, someone had the temerity to phone me.
I think I'm about 6 mins behind Live now.
come on cav!!!!
Timelimit 18%, or 4:12:14 (+38:29)
It's annoying that they cut the live data stream once the winner has finished, would like to see where the grupetto is.
yeah, the page has how many are still on course, but no details...
🙁
https://racecenter.letour.fr/en
Cut off will be 5pm UK time.
Here he comes! Great stuff. 🙂
7 minutes to spare.
He's there 🙂
🙂
Awesome! Cav that is. I've lost all interest in the GC.
That’ll do.
Cav looked quite fresh there, no issues at all.
Doubt this will post the pic
Its not just the pros who can ride the Tourmalet and Luz Ardiden on the same day. Old, Bald mtber's can also winch their way up these big mountains
