Tour de France 2021 stage 9 >Cluses – Tignes – Page 2 – Bike Forum

lunge · 2021-07-04T09:57:45Z

Morning all, I'm back and so are the mountains. The 9th stage of the Tour de France takes in five climbs. The race finishes uphill in ski resort Tignes after a 21 kilometres climb. The route amounts to 145 kilometres. The caravan sets off from Cluses. The first kilometres run upstream through the Arve valley before the punchy Côte de Domancy is likely to see a lot of attacks to form the breakaway. The short – 2.5 kilometres – but steep ascent – 9.4% – appears after 17.5 kilometres. The climbing continues after the top of the Domancy for 6 more kilometres, although the gradients are friendlier – around 5%. The route then moves through the Arly valley to enter the Col des Saisies after 40 kilometres. The 9.4 kilometres climb averages 6.2%. The Saisies also featured in 2020, but it was tackled on another side, while Marc Hirschi was the first rider at the summit. A 17.5 kilometres downhill leads into Beaufort and the road goes straight back up again. The Col du Pré climbs for 12.6 kilometres and the average gradient sits at 7.7%. From kilometre 7 onward the inclination is hovering around 10% before it flattens out to 4.5% just before the summit. The Pré was included for the first time in 2018, when Warren Barguil pocketed most KOM points at the peak. A short descent and a section on the flat lead onto the next obstacle. The Cormet de Roselend is a 5.7 kilometres climb at 6.5%. Warren Barguil (2018) and Marc Hirschi (2020) were the last Tour de France contenders to reach the summit in first position. The riders fly down another long descent to reach Bourg-Saint-Maurice-les-Arcs before a virtually flat section leads onto the finish climb. The Montée de Tignes is 21 kilometres long, while the average gradient sits at 5.6%. Halfway up the climb the route flattens out for 2.5 kilometres before continuing with a slightly steeper second half. The riders reach Tignes with 2 kilometres remaining. The run-in to the line is flat. The 2019 Tour de France would have seen a Tignes finish, but snow and ice on the road and landslides in the Val d’Isère decided otherwise. ASO decided to stop the stage before the riders could enter the finale. The first three riders on the line gain time bonuses of 10, 6 and 4 seconds. Lumpy then. WHo to look out for? Well, not Roglic as he abandoned today. The Contenders: the breakaway has a good chance again and there are mountain points on offer, especially with the HC rating for the Col du Pré, a virtual finish line for anyone wanting the polka dot jersey. Dylan Teuns won yesterday but today is that much more mountainous so both he and Matej Mohorič will have a hard time delivering a third win for their team. Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) is perfect for the long drag to the finish but his form post-Giro is questionable. Esteban Chaves (Bike Exchange) is suited too while colleague Simon Yates has gone in the break two days in a row now and come up short so risk being even more tired today, even if the course is ideal. Miguel Angel Lopez (Movistar) has had a rotten Tour so far but the course suits him today too. Jakob Fuglsang has lost time on GC now so has the space needed to attack. Ineos can still get Carapaz on the podium but can probably spare riders for attacks and today is ideal for Richie Porte. Michael Woods went yesterday so does Dan Martin go today? Neilson Powless (EF-Nippo) was tipped yesterday… and finished second last. Perhaps he’ll go again today? Otherwise who’d bet against Tadej Pogačar (UAE Emirates) ? He can take minutes out of the breakaway with an attack on the final climb. But he doesn’t need to, perhaps he’ll only go if provoked by others or if his team mates dwindle again. Richard Carapaz (Ineos) can try and see if it’s third time lucky and the final climb is perfect for him, not too steep and at altitude. Yesterday?

whitestone

Posts: 0

Free Member

If a large enough group of riders finish outside the cutoff time then the race commissioners have the option to allow them to continue but they lose all of their accrued points.

"Large enough" is vague but from memory I've heard 25% of the field as being the sort of figure. There have been instances of domestiques being instructed to drop back to boost the grupetto's numbers to ensure this is the case. Yesterday's grupetto was something like 50% of the field but they were a couple of minutes inside the cutoff. Not sure how big today's was.

Posted : 04/07/2021 11:25 pm

Klunk

Posts: 11402

Free Member

G doing his best Dick Dastardly impersonation 😉

Posted : 04/07/2021 11:32 pm

winston

Posts: 4171

Free Member

Whereas I keep expecting Pog to shout 'bus w@nkers!'

Posted : 04/07/2021 11:56 pm

kelvin

Posts: 31083

Full Member

I’m not ready for a rest day. I’ll miss the daily excitement… I’ve come to expect it now. Great racing every single day. Best first week of a Tour for a long time.

Posted : 05/07/2021 12:02 am

theotherjonv

Posts: 24853

Free Member

Great effort by DQS to get Cav in under the time limit.

Sonny Colbrelli was very impressive today going for points, but most of the genuinely fast men seem to be dropping, Demare, Merlier, Coquard all dropping out today (assuming the cutoff isn't ignored)

Be great to see him make it to Paris and win green, but I think there's a few stages to be had now.

Posted : 05/07/2021 12:16 am

nbt

Posts: 12481

Full Member

Looks like Demare is properly out, he's not listed in the main rankings on the tour website. Confirmed on cyclingstage.com

https://www.cyclingstage.com/tour-de-france-2021/withdrawals-tdf-2021/

DNS in stage 9
11 Primoz Roglic (slo – Jumbo-Visma)
101 Mathieu van der Poel (nld – Alpecin-Fenix)

DNF in stage 9
103 Tim Merlier (bel – Alpecin-Fenix)
126 Nans Peters (fra – AG2R Citroën)
152 Jasper De Buyst (bel – Lotto Soudal)

OTL in stage 9
83 Arnaud Démare (fra – Groupama-FDJ)
84 Jacopo Guarnieri (ita – Groupama-FDJ)
133 Anthony Delaplace (fra – Arkéa Samsic)
183 Stefan De Bod (rsa – Astana – Premier Tech)
196 Nic Dlamini (rsa – Team Qhubeka NextHash)
217 Loïc Vliegen (bel – Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert)
221 Bryan Coquard (fra – B&B Hotels p/b KTM)

Merlier, Coquard and Demare all out in one day. The Green Jersey field is thinning right down and we still have the pyrenees to come

Posted : 05/07/2021 9:32 am

weeksy

Posts: 28712

Full Member

INdeed, if Cav can make it through the mountains though as someone else said, it's not just the green jersey that's opening up but also stage wins for both him and DQS.

Posted : 05/07/2021 9:42 am

steve_b77

Posts: 10498

Free Member

Sonny Colbrelli was very impressive today going for points, but most of the genuinely fast men seem to be dropping, Demare, Merlier, Coquard all dropping out today (assuming the cutoff isn’t ignored)

Yeah, nothing suspicious about that at all.

Posted : 05/07/2021 10:30 am

Forum menu

[Closed] Tour de France 2021 stage 9 >Cluses – Tignes