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[Closed] Tour de France 2021 stage 18 > Pau – Luz-Ardiden

lunge · 2021-07-15T08:45:30Z

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?

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lunge

Posts: 13540

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Cav looked quite fresh there, no issues at all.

Posted : 15/07/2021 6:11 pm

singletrackmind

Posts: 7288

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Represent

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

on the right

Posted : 18/07/2021 12:03 pm

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