A final stage and abbreviated to Paris only but this won’t alter the sport. A prestigious stage win awaits and potentially a duel between Tadej Pogačar and Mathieu van der Poel.

Stage 20 Review: if a “grand tour is an exercise in hierarchy” to quote Antoine Blondin, or a Bayesian simulator to use science, then how much can the last mountain stage tell us? Even a day with 5,450m of vertical gain and 70 points for anyone capable of passing the marked mountain points first was probably going to confirm rather than reveal.

Still, There’s plenty to be said for replicating results on a day when many struggled to hoist themselves out of bed and even scaling a bridge over an autoroute was sapping. Richard Carapaz proved he could even improve on the performances of recent days made him the rider of the day, going from a one point lead in the mountains competition to a 56 point unassailable and incontestable win in the mountains competition.

Similarly Mads Pedersen hauled himself over the Alps, attacking at one point to bridge across to the breakaway and then take maximum points at the intermediate sprint to secure the green jersey, an immense ride. The Tour has it’s Supercombatif prize and it’s surely between Carapaz and Pedersen, probably Carapaz but there are good arguments to litigate either way.

The day’s breakaway was reduced to Carapaz, Sep Kuss and Jai Hindley on the lower slopes of the Col de la Sarenne. Another day, another trio starting the climb to Alpe d’Huez with three and half minutes’ lead. But this time Pogačar wasn’t in pursuit mode.

The higher slopes of the Sarenne had no crowds, the road closed to spectators. It was pleasant to see the mountain like this, and no bad advert too for cyclists wanting to explore this road. But also a premonition of what awaits us after the Tour when the sport reverts to sparse crowds and silence.

Kuss led over the Sarenne, but only just. Carapaz had the American in sight and was closing. Then Kuss crashed twice and the second time he was lucky there was netting on the exit of the bend, while Carapaz sped past. Despite the dirt on his kit from falling Kuss looked the fresher climber and could have reversed matters. Only Carapaz is among the cast of riders who can be impossible to bring back if they get five metres.

Behind Decathlon-CMA CGM had tried to ratchet up the pace in an all-or-nothing move to dislodge Isaac del Toro off third place overall only it came to nothing with Seixas unable to sustain the move and cracking, while Del Toro had the luxury help of Tadej Pogačar. Pogačar could have won the stage if he wished but played butler, a high altitude Jeeves.

Evenepoel attacked on the final run to Alpe d’Huez, symbolic perhaps but notable as he’d survived 5,000m of vertical gain, each stomp on the pedals in the final kilometres a serving to every media outlet in Belgium who’d declared he was not a grand tour contender.

As Pogačar and Del Toro came into the finish together they were photo-bombed by Lenny Martinez who secured his fifth place overall, albeit 13 minutes down but he’ll take plenty from the consistent performance and how he was one of the few to hold firm in the third week, all while having turned 23 during this year’s Tour.

The Route: “On n’est pas a Thoiry, ici“. Well almost, there’s a presentation in Thoiry for the crowds and host politicians but then the riders are bussed to Paris. It’s 89km and laps of the Champs-Elysées before moving to the 15km long Champs-Elysées – Montmartre circuit. The stage is reduced from 133km because of a police shortage with the emergency services mobilised to help with public safety, notably in the Cap Ferret/Arcachon area. In pure cycling terms nobody is missing out on the early parade and we might see a lap or two reserved for this before the racing begins.

If the Champs-Elysées-Montmartre circuit already feels familiar there’s still a difference as after the descent of Montmatre, the course takes the riders to the Place de l’Etoile/Arc de Triomphe and then to the Champs-Elysées. Last year the descent led to the Place de la Concorde. The meaning here is that there’s 10km to the finish from the top of Montmartre when there was 6km last year so more chance for teams to organise a chase.

The Contenders: the circuit has a feel of a spring classic with the repeat cobbled climbs and if it’s only 89km everyone is tired and so it doesn’t need 200km to make the difference.

Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-PremierTech) is the obvious pick, the punch to jump away on the climb, the ability to win the sprint and he’s had this stage in mind for a long time. Jasper Philipsen is a second card to play in the sprint.

Tadej Pogačar (UAE) got beaten here last year, one of the rare moments he lost a bike race in a straight contest. He’s been talking about this stage too and this makes life harder for the sprinters as his moves will distance them. He’ll get extra stimulation from going up against Van der Poel, his arch rival for the classics.

Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) ought to be tired but so far he’s been a force of nature in this Tour.

Olav Kooij (Decathlon-CMA CGM) and Biniam Girmay (NSN) can hope for a sprint and an opportunity.

Jayco pair Michael Matthews and Mauro Schmid have a chance. Netcompany-Ineos still have chance of salvation and Filippo Ganna might be their best bet. There’s no French stage winner so far and Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ) has a chance but he’s looked fried.

	Van der Poel
	Pogačar, Philipsen
	Kooij, Matthews, Girmay, Schmid, Kanter

Weather: sunny and 24°C.

TV: KM0 is at 5.55pm and the finish is forecast for 7.30pm CEST.

The post Tour de France Stage 21 Preview first appeared on The Inner Ring.

The last day in the Alps and a ferocious stage with hardly a metre of flat road.

If you want to watch it live, note the early finish.

Pacman: a group of 42 riders were away with Lidl-Trek pulling for Mads Pedersen who’d made the move and managed to get over the big Col du Noyer. Among the group was Lenny Martinez, 7th overall at the start of the day. Valentin Paret-Peintre won the sprint on the climb to take a virtual lead in the mountains competition.

Several riders from EF, Ineos, Visma towed the breakaway as fast as they could for their climbers which was a boost for Martinez. Having worked to pull the move clear for Pedersen, once past the intermediate point Lidl-Trek, Pedersen included, dropped back to pull the yellow jersey group which shrank drastically on the modest Col d’Ornon, a clue to the pace and fatigue, to try and recover time on Martinez.

The breakaway started Alpe d’Huez with about three and half minutes on yellow jersey group and soon Martinez, Richard Carapaz and Sep Kuss left the others behind. Only they quickly started to attack each other, notably Carapaz who was frustrated by Martinez who was either baggage or bluffing. It was a bluff, and Carapaz made five moves, increasingly frustrated as he could not get away. At one point through the village of Huez the trio stopped pedalling as they looked at each other.

Meanwhile Pogačar had set off solo, it was like watching an Australian-style handicap race where the best rider has to set off minutes behind the rest. In yellow, he was gobbling up riders from the breakaway like Pacman. Extrapolating his time gain per kilometre suggested the breakaway would be caught but you didn’t need mental arithmetic to work this out as the lead trio marked each other and buried their chances.

In the finish Carapaz and Martinez were able to latch onto Pogačar but he kicked one last time before the finishing straight and cracked Carapaz. Martinez was on the wheel of the Ecuadorian again and he probably took a pleasure in not moving and thereby ensuring Martinez could not win. Another stage for Pogačar. Easy to bank, to take for granted, to read as inevitable but this time with the Alpe record too.

Among the GC contenders Remco Evenepoel came in two and half minutes down, taking 12 seconds on Isaac del Toro and 16 on Mattias Skjelmose and Paul Seixas. The relative loser was Juan Ayuso who lost almost four minutes to his GC rivals, slipping two places on GC. Martinez is up to fifth now and his Bahraini team management swept away all talk of a loss thanks to this overall gain.

In the mountains competition Richard Carapaz leads by one point over Tadej Pogačar and seven points over Valentin Paret-Peintre. Carapaz has 91 points and there’s the possibility to win 70 points on Stage 20 so all to race for. Pedersen now has 52 points lead on Jasper Philipsen, not arithmetically secure but much more comfortable now.

One sour note was Einer Rubio leaving the race after the UAE team car slammed on the brakes going up Alpe d’Huez, seemingly when a spectator was in front of the vehicle and the Colombian crashed into the back, sustaining heavy facial injuries and, unable to continue, needing 20 stitches. The upper part of the Col de Sarenne for the next stage is due to be closed to the crowds.

The Route: 170km and 5,450m of vertical gain, a huge day in the mountains. The profiles speak for themselves.

The Finish: the Col de Sarenne is a backroad that leads to Alpe d’Huez and very different from the famous main climb. It’s irregular along the way with an early descent and a flat section through Clavans. The upper part in black on the profile has a series of hairpins that come in quick succession.

From the top there’s still 14.4km to go, first across a plateau-like section that’s awkward as anyone dropped before can flounder by themselves here.

Once in Alpe d’Huez there’s a descent out of the ski resort and then the route picks up the final part of the traditional climb with 3.5km to go, some last ramps before crossing the resort to the same finish line as the previous stage.

The Contenders: Tadej Pogačar (UAE) has his Alpe d’Huez stage now, does he want another? Speaking after Stage 19 he hinted at this but also said he wants to help Isaac del Toro secure the white jersey and the podium.

Richard Carapaz (EF) has been on the rampage two days in a row which makes a third time hard especially given all the efforts he’s been making but by virtue of being in the polka-dot jersey he’s got to be among the movers from the start.

Valetin Paret-Peintre (Soudal-Quickstep) sat up on Stage 19. Did he fade from the efforts of pushing a big gear, or was it a case of reculer pour mieux sauter knowing how many points are on offer in this stage?

Lenny Martinez (Bahrain) was almost carried to the foot of Alpe d’Huez on a Sedan chair but stuffed up the finish. However his time gains have propelled him up the GC and so if he moves both Lidl-Trek and Decathlon-CMA CGM will want to chase. Still he is moving well.

Sepp Kuss (Visma-LAB) gets even more climbing to suit and no GC menace.

Netcompany-Ineos can still try, is Thymen Arensman the best bet or did Egan Bernal sit up yesterday to save energy. Both are climbing well but how to win against others look livelier.

Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5) is 9th on GC and at 21 minutes and he could take eight minutes and not worry Lidl-Trek or Decathlon but he’s just been struggling on the climbs in recent days.

	Kuss, Carapaz
	Pogačar, VP-P, Martinez
	Pidcock, Arensman, Bernal, Del Toro

Weather: sunshine at times and 27°C in the valleys but with clouds building and a good chance of rain at times.

TV: KM0 is at 11.30am and the finish is forecast for 4.10pm CEST. The start of the Télégraphe comes around 1.40pm and the top of the Galibier will be around 3.00pm and the Sarenne begins around 3.35pm.

The post Tour de France Stage 20 Preview first appeared on The Inner Ring.

Alpe d’Huez awaits, the classic climb but this time with a more gentle approach. Can UAE keep a lid on things so that Tadej Pogačar gets a prestige win for his palmarès?

Festival des Cannes: one of the enjoyable aspects of stage races is seeing multiple races happening at the same time. One saw Mads Pedersen going in the breakaway he managed to make moves all the way to the intermediate sprint in Corps after 129km to take a valuable 25 points.

Early on Richard Carapaz and Valentin Paret-Peintre were in a different contest as they battled for the mountains points, the Frenchman picking off each sprint with a sprint that belied his waif-like build.

Later a solid move got clear but Carapaz missed it. His EF team mates Alex Baudin and Ben Healy set about correcting this and helped tow a willing counter move across to the front.

After Pedersen won the intermediate sprint Felix Engelhardt and Matteo Jorgenson floated away and then Tobias Halland Johannessen got across. Once they’d got a few metres things changed and you could see their backs hunched and elbows going in as they accelerated. Raul Garcia Pierna moved taking Mauro Schmid with him. This allowed Engelhardt to pull harder for his team mate Schmid, prising open the gap before he could do no more. Netcompany-Ineos had missed the move but while Thymen Arensman tried to chase Richard Carapaz darted past with a big counter-attack, taking Paret-Peintre with him. This left six clear with 45km to go and Ineos chasing.

Coming to the finish Garcia Pierna had been dropped but got back and looked like the weakest of the six. At times they were spread across the road to Orcières-Merlette, nobody wanting to lead, looking at each other like poker players around a table trying to second-guess who held which cards and scrutinising rivals for the slightest tell in body language.

Jorgenson looked the most likely to attack and was the first to move. He prompted a counter-attack from Richard Carapaz and Paret-Peintre dived on the Ecuadorian’s wheel. Carapaz went again and this time nobody could follow. Paret-Peintre cracked in finishing fourth missed on the points to take the polka-dot jersey for real rather than leasing it.

It’s a victory for a rider with an artistic and rebellious streak. He attacked on the Puy Mary in an attempt to slip the UAE yoke on Stage 10. And he’s not done yet.

Elsewhere Brandon McNulty abandoned the stage, another UAE rider to fall ill after Adam Yates and Tim Wellens was among those dropped early. Any team talk of Yates’s illness being an isolated affair looked questionable. Tadej Pogačar seems fine but no rivals tried a move on the final climb to test. Also a final plotline in that UAE were spared some duties when the likes of Pinarello-Q36.5, Tudor and Total chased to protect the GC standings of Tom Pidcock, Yannis Voisard and Jordan Jegat.

The Route: 128km and 3,500m of vertical gain. It’s uphill from the start out of Gap on the Col Bayard. This road’s often featured for arrivals in Gap as the climb to take before the white knuckle “Rochette” descent back into Gap. The Bayard is a big wide road.

The Col du Noyer is not, a start amid fields and woodland and then a wild feel. It’s 7.5km at 8.5% with the final 2km with 10% sections between the hairpins.

The route then crosses back across the landscapes taken on the previous stage via the Route Napoleon.

The Col d’Ornon is a quiet backroad and a gentle climb. The descent is more remarkable, rarely steep either but with more hairpins and some moments where the road is cut into the cliff. It’s “technical”, cycling’s euphemism for a dangerous descent.

The Finish: Alpe d’Huez is a tough climb, over 13km at over 8% is hard by any measures and an amphitheatre with its raucous crowds. The start is the hardest part, the ramps have double-digit gradients. It’s famous for the 21 hairpins and they count, a rider can pick their line through these bends to suit and allow someone with energy to spare to accelerate. The slope kicks up for the ramp that leads into the ski resort and from there after the slope eases. There’s a left turn onto the finish line on the Avenue du Rif Nel.

The Contenders: having given Richard Carapaz (EF) three chainrings for the previous stage and writing that even if he won he’d be tipped again, he is. Watching him race to the finish he didn’t ease up when he’ll need plenty to be be able to go again today. Ben Healy helped set him up and isn’t the same force as last year but has a chance too.

Tadej Pogačar (UAE) will want the stage win but given several team mates are ill this poses questions above his team’s ability to control the stage, and that’s before we ponder if he’s immune to this. So he’s not the shoe-in he ought to have been for this stage. It’ll be hard to engineer a stage win for team mate Isaac del Toro as this could let in Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quickstep) again.

Netcompany-Ineos missed the winning move yesterday and later shut down the chase but does Thymen Arensman have anything to spare? Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal-Quickstep) faded on the previous stage but if he can recover this stage will be less intense for him, especially if he gets a colleague in the breakaway with him.

Riders who fit the bill and were not riding as hard on the previous stage include Sepp Kuss and Davide Piganzoli (Visma-LAB), Ilan Van Wilder (Soudal-Quickstep), Harald Tejada (XDS-Astana) and Einer Rubio (Movistar).

Finally Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5) sits eighth overall but has still been making moves and he won the last time the race came to the Alpe in 2022.

	–
	Carapaz, Arensman, Pogačar, VP-P, Kuss
	Evenpoel, Jorgenson, Rubio, Healy, Tejada, Piganzoli, Pidcock

Weather: sunny and 29°C.

TV: KM0 is at 2.15pm and the finish is forecast for 5.35pm CEST. The intermediate sprint at the foot of the Col d’Ornon should be reached around 4.25pm and the climb to Alpe d’Huez begins around 5.00pm.

The post Tour de France Stage 19 Preview first appeared on The Inner Ring.

Alps or Pyrenees? The two mountain ranges are often juxtaposed by the Tour de France. Do you prefer one over the other?

If you do, chances are it’s the Pyrenees. Many cyclists cite the wilder feel, the older buildings, the roads that feel more irregular to climb, while the Alps have big ski resorts, crowded valleys and busy roads. It’s true in the sense yes the Alps have have big ski resorts, crowded valleys and busy roads but so do the Pyrenees. I’ll see your Maurienne ski resorts and raise you with Andorra.

Just like the Pyrenees, the Alps have plenty of wilder corners with roads that weren’t built by bulldozers to pave access to a ski resort in the 1970s too. Only the Tour is often a poor prism to refract this back to TV audiences and this televisual psychogeography can distort the views.

This weekend’s stage to Alpe d’Huez is interesting as the main climb has As-Seen-On-TV celebrity but the Col de Sarenne gets some limelight, in part to persuade visiting cyclists to stay and try more roads in the area. If the Sarenne is rewarding for the scenery and solitude it still begins on the busy Col du Lautaret main road by the industrial Chambon dam.

There are plenty of quiet valleys in the Alps that offer tourists plenty of rural charm, cyclists get empty, irregular climbs… and residents struggle to access public services just like the Pyrenean clichés too. But these parts don’t host the race often, if at all. As a result they don’t seem to exist among the mythology of cycling locations.

Today’s stage passes many of these quieter corners. It rides into the Vercors, a spectacular part of the Alps, or pre-Alps if you’re a stickler for geology but only via a main road up and then back down rather than any of the spectacular cliff-hugging roads but it could still look good on TV. The Vercors has at least featured in the Tour but rarely. It is a quiet place, no mass tourism ski resorts and plenty of roads that started out as smuggling trails or forestry paths and then gradually got tarmacked. Once the race quits the Vercors it’ll take the training roads of Paul Magnier.

Nearby is another corner of the Alps called the Trièves which offers wide open spaces in the mountains and little in the way of mass tourism nor industry although it does now have a relatively new autoroute. Motorists have to pay but they get their money’s worth with the views along the way.

Later in the stage is the Champsaur, another corner of the Alps often passed by in the Tour. But illustrative as the race finishes in Orcières-Merlette, the name of the ski resort. Merlette, with its apartment tower blocks, is the aberration. But because the Tour visits it’s easy to remember this rather than all the side roads and smaller passes and nearby wilderness not seen on TV.

Indeed rather than juxtapose, if the Tour doesn’t show off all the Alps, it doesn’t do the Pyrenees justice either. It sticks to familiar haunts like the Tourmalet, Aspin and Soulor passes. Gavarnie was a novelty this year it’s just a turning away at the foot of the Tourmalet. So a similar selection bias is evident as the wilder parts of the Pyrenees don’t and even can’t host the race very often. This year’s stage to Les Angles touched on a relatively unexplored part of the eastern Pyrenees for the Tour but the race did not stay to range more. Similarly western parts in the Basque Country are even more unknown to the Tour despite having some of the hardest climbs in France, something that ought to be a draw for the organisers. But these areas are relatively remote.

Logistics play a big part. Alpe d’Huez can host 23 teams with their 28 bed allocation and supply parking to the fleet of vehicles every team brings. So can the city of Pau but it means the Tour struggles to reach smaller places.

One nerdy point on how Tour stages are hosted these days is that increasingly it’s a regional effort. Rather than one host town taking on all the costs, departments and regions are sharing the burden. This means a small and relatively poor town could get to host the race if there’s something to gain for the wider region. So the Col de Méhatché, aka Artazamundi, could feature one day if the Pyrenees-Atlantiques council wanted to promote what many forums say is hardest tarmacked road pass in France.

And yes there’s more beyond France for the Alps and Pyrenees alike but that’s beyond a postcard from the Tour de France. But it does speak to the relative size of these mountain ranges, the Alps by virtue of being bigger in France alone offer a lot that goes unseen.

Today’s intermediate sprint in Corps comes a relatively flat part of the stage. But turn left and there’s the Col de l’Homme and beyond to the Notre Dame de la Salette sanctuary, perhaps too sacred for the profanity of sports event and never seen on TV at the Tour… but rewarding for travellers.

The post Postcard from the Champsaur first appeared on The Inner Ring.

The Tour heads into the Alps for a ski station summit finish. Tadej Pogačar got beaten the last time the race came here and he remembers it but this should be for the breakaways given the bigger Alpine stages to come.

Classique du Dauphiné: the Tour de France is many things and among them a game of musical chairs. Come the third week and the music plays louder as riders and teams get desperate for a seat and this is not limited to small teams and unheralded riders. If anything they’re the ones already beaten down and struggling to find an opening. So a humdrum transition stage comes alive with plenty of big names making moves. The top-10 to come was worthy of a classic but the race was even better as everyone had to make their moves from the start and keep going.

With the Col des Près and the Alpine part of the stage done the moves kept going against a backdrop of scenic lakes and mountains on the roads of the ancient Dauphiné region.

We got an early split in the field with Pogačar, Evenepoel and Seixas in a front group with Del Toro and others on the wrong side but it came to nothing, UAE behind were willing chasers only they did not have to as more waves of riders tried to get clear.

With groups of riders spread like confetti over the course a group of six went clear with Jasper Stuyven, Ben Healy, Mads Pedersen, Felix Engelgardt, Michał Kwiatkowski and Edward Planckaert. Pedersen won the intermediate sprint and but with Planckaert playing policeman for Mathieu van der Poel and Jasper Philipsen, Stuyven attacked with 25km to go and he was looking good for the stage win but behind a larger group swept up the quintet he’d distance which in turn was caught by more and so a 50 rider group was bearing down on Stuyven and crucially with several helpers working for their sprinters.

The moves kept going, the group was hard to control and the last one saw Josh Tarling try a flyer in the streets of Voiron. He was closed down and we got a sprint with Mathieu van der Poel able to lead-out Jasper Philipsen and he pulled his team mate clear of the rest to leave Philipsen well clear of Mauro Schmid and Olav Kooij.

For Adam Yates the stage in the Isère rhymed with misère, thanks to illness. He was dropped and at times seemed to struggle to turn the pedals but made the time cut. The big question is whether he can recover.

Someone more happy was Jordan Jegat, 9th in the morning at over 22 minutes with several riders not far behind on time. He infiltrated the breakaway and thanks the time gain of almost nine minutes finished the day still 9th overall but now 14 minutes while other top-10 contenders were behind.

The points competition comes alive with Pedersen in green but now only seven points ahead of Jasper Philipsen who narrowed the gap with 50 points for the stage win; Lidl-Trek will be ruing how things turned out as Pedersen at one point looked like he was a contender to win the stage and Philipsen was out of the picture; although he was never distanced and Pedersen was sapped. There’s a contest and Pedersen is forced to go raiding for fear of losing out in Paris where the finish is a 50-pointer and the intermediate sprint on the Champs-Elysées could be crucial too.

The Route: 185km and 3,900m of climbing. There’s 20km on the flat until the race first goes up the road up to Lans via Engins, it’s not the most scenic road into the Vercors and 11.4km at 5.4% sounds gentle for a first category climb, it is especially as it’s an even climb up, but it’s a big prize for the mountains competition, a carrot to move early.

Once out of the Vercors and past the town of Vif there’s barely a flat road as the race heads for the Champsaur area of the Alps and then onto Orcières.

The Finish: a ski station summit finish that was long heralded thanks to the Tour stage in 1971 where Luis Ocaña got the better of Eddy Merckx for once, and by eight minutes. However the race came back in 2020 and a headwind saw the lead contenders huddle between the hairpins and it turned out that the history books and magazine articles supplied more thrill than the day’s sport. It’s still a summit finish but a gradual and even one, all on a wide road.

The Contenders: Tadej Pogačar (UAE) came here in 2020 and was beaten in the finish by his senior Primož Roglič, something he evoked on TV after Stage 17 so he may wish to correct the record but at the same time in his interview he said the focus is on Alpe d’Huez. Still he gets a chainring because if the breakaway can’t get clear, then why not gobble up another stage?

Otherwise the breakaway has a great chance, the GC contenders and their teams will want to save energy ahead of the two stages to Alpe d’Huez. The summit finish means the stage is almost reserved for a climber, or someone capable of a 20 minute effort uphill.

Richard Carapaz (EF) will get tipped for the next three stages and even if he wins here he’ll be a pick again and he’s after the mountains competition too. Ditto Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal-Quickstep). Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X) and Einer Rubio (Movistar) were on the move in the Vosges and should feature again but don’t have the same finishing kick to deliver a win.

Two new names for the breakaway are Sep Kuss and Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-LAB) now they don’t have a leader to work for. Thymen Arensman (Netcompany-Ineos) is better suited to the bigger mountains to come but has been trying already, if he can make the winning move his challenge is find a way to win from it.

Finally Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5) keeps making the breakaway and if this poses a problem for both the GC contenders and the breakaway he’s likely to keep trying.

	Carapaz
	VP-P, Kuss, Arensman, Pidcock
	Pogačar, Jorgenson, THJ, Tejada, Healy, Rubio

Weather: 27°C and sunny. A light 10km/h NW breeze means a tailwind for much of the stage.

TV: KM0 is at 12.50 and the finish is forecast for 5.15pm CEST.

The post Tour de France Stage 18 Preview first appeared on The Inner Ring.

Eight teams have a stage win, 14 don’t and this should make for a lively start as this is the last stage open to half the peloton.

Contre la montre: the stage win for Remco Evenepoel who blitzed the course, only Tadej Pogačar was within a minute of him and he seemed untouchable from the first time check that he was against the clock rather than his rivals, a quest to find the biggest winning margin.

Yes this is his speciality but the margin of victory was big. With Switzerland on the horizon with its watchmakers he looked as precise as some of the timepieces made nearby. His confidence is growing and we’ll see where he takes this in the mountains, moments of being dropped at Le Lioran and on the Col du Haag feel distant but they occurred after multiple, sustained climbs and there’s plenty of that to come.

Any cheer for Red Bull was muted by Florian Lipowitz crashing, washing out on a bend in the streets of Thonon and sliding into the kerb first, then some padded barriers. He is out of the Tour now with a broken collarbone. That’s two GC contenders out in two days of racing.

Mattias Skjelmose was the surprise of the day. He’s always been handy a hilly time trial but he beat expectations, including his own but more so as his team mate Juan Ayuso was 15th and this puts the Dane within a minute on GC now of his colleague but he says the plan is still to ride for Ayuso.

Paul Seixas was fourth, easy to bank as unsurprising but astonishing for a teenager. He pipped Isaac Del Toro by five seconds whose strong ride reinforces his stage racing credentials, a potential weakness overcome. The battle ahead for the third podium spot and the white jersey should be something to watch.

The Route: 175km and 2,200m of vertical gain. A scenic start after KM0 to past the Bourget lake and then the road climbs to the Massif des Bauges, part of the Alps. It looks the part with jagged peaks below which dairy cows sport clanging bells, only just no steep Alpine passes here, this is a gentle and more approach into the mountains, climbing up alongside a white river to get into the mountains. The descent is steeper and trickier, via a small rise, and takes the race back to the start in Chambéry.

The rest of the course is on rolling roads. The Col de Couz is a mountain pass inside a valley but a gentle one. Approaching Voiron there’s a final climb of 1.6km at 4% on a wide road.

The Finish: big boulevards in town and in the final kilometre there’s a 90° right bend, 90° to the left and then a 90° to the right. It’s the same as the 2019 Dauphiné where Wout van Aert took his first World Tour level road race win.

The Contenders: a big day for the breakaway. If this was the first week it could be for the sprinters but desperation means too many riders and teams will fight to get something from this Tour. The Tour is so important this kind of attitude ought to be the default from Day 1 but it’s human nature to start with plans and then if these fail try anything. Also a lot of riders are tired which makes things harder to control, plus with Tim Merlier out of the race, one of the two prime teams that chased won’t do so either.

If Wout van Aert has won in Voiron before, so can Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-PremierTech). Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) is another obvious pick, able to make moves at the start and then at the finish, while also able to win from any kind of sprint and he is also boosted by a very strong team that can shape the race, Quinn Simmons and Mathias Vacek are candidates too but can set up their leader for the win.

When Mauro Schmid (Jayco) won the stage he brought down the average number of pro wins for a stage winner as he’d “only” won 13 races before compared to 72 wins but the quality came from having Luke Plapp, Ben O’Connor and Michael Matthews assist him.  He can do the same again and Matthews is a contender too.

Visma-LAB are stage hunting now and Victor Campenaerts has won Tour stages in the third week.

Breakaway specialists Kasper Asgreen (EF) and Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X) should be in the mix but making the move and winning from it is a big ask.

Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ) seems ideal for the stage but has been trying to recover after suffering on the early stages so a harder pick. Likewise Dorian Godon (Netcompany-Ineos) was suited to this on paper but he has been struggling from injuries after being caught up in the crash among sprinters in Chalon-sur-Saône which he probably shouldn’t have been contesting and if he’s on the mend he’s a harder pick now but team mate Filippo Ganna can try.

A sprint can still happen, in part because so many teams could ride each other down and any gruppetto forming early has a chance to get back. So Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-PremierTech), Biniam Girmay (NSN) and Olav Kooij (Decathlon-CMA CGM) have a chance with Philipsen in the best place given Merlier is out.

	Van der Poel, Pedersen
	Simmons, Philipsen
	Ganna, Campenaerts, Asgreen, Kanter, Matthews

Weather: sunny and 29°C. A 10km/h breeze from the north could gust to 35km/h.

TV: KM0 is at 1.35pm and the finish is forecast for 5.20pm CEST. The start should frantic.

The post Tour de France Stage 17 Preview first appeared on The Inner Ring.

Thirsty? Today’s stage starts in Evian-les-Bains to give it the full name, but as Evian it’s one of those places more famous as a consumer brand of than a town.

Spring water is abundant in the Alps, there are many fountains supplied by abundant rain and snow melt. The handy website eau-cyclisme (“water-cycling”) lists over 7,000 places to get a free drink during your rides across France, it’d be helpful to have a map or app that does this in more countries or unifies other attempts. It’s been essential for the recon rides that inform the daily previews here. Some are dilapidated public toilets, others taps inside a cemetery. A few are more swanky. One such spot is in Evian where you can fill up your bidons with Evian for free.

In the late 18th century Gabriel Cachat had a spring in his garden and this is the origin of the water which became celebrated for its light taste. People took a liking to it, he ended up fencing his garden and one thing led to another. It was in 1826 that the spring water got official approval to become a saleable product and the industrialisation begun. This year obviously marks the 200th anniversary and the Tour is here to play a part, last month the G7 summit in Evian did too.

Visit Evian and the scale of the industry is not obvious. It’s a tourist town and not a corporate one. The fountain is a steady trickle rather than a gushing torrent. However three big pipes which take water from the Cachat spring, or the geology that supplies it, a vast layer of glacial sand wedged between to layers of clay. The conduits go to bottling plant in Publier, another town to the west.

Production estimates vary, take your pick of online sources, but at the low end of 1.5 billion bottles a year are said to leave the factory gates or two billion litres. Whatever their size, that works out as over four million bottles a day, most of which is taken away by train direct from the factory to different freight platforms where it is loaded onto more trains, trucks and also sent to shipping ports for export.

Plenty ends up in countries with abundant water and what’s really being sold is convenience and standardisation. It’s big business for parent company Danone, Evian has been a tenth of its sales.

This makes it a delicate day for the Tour de France’s sponsorship staff. Since 2008 the race has been sponsored by Vittel, another brand of water that belongs to Nestlé Waters, arch rival of Danone.

Vittel is an important customer for the the Tour as an “official partner”, the label used for the second tier of sponsors below those that sponsor the jerseys like LCL or Skoda. So how much can the race visit Evian and not trigger talk of Danone’s produce? Perhaps starting in Evian helps as the finish tends to get more attention.

The Tour has a good reason to visit now. As well as the 200th anniversary of the water as a commercial venture, a century ago in 1926 the race started in Evian. This was the first time it did not begin in Paris, a literal departure from its established format.

Nevertheless the race was determined to stick to its tour-of-France. 1926 was truly the year of the grande boucle, “the big loop” as the race fastidiously returned to Evian to complete a full lap around France before making the journey to Paris for the remaining two stages. This made it the longest ever Tour de France with 5,745km compared to 3,200km today. But back then things were obviously slower. The 1926 Tour took 238 hours to complete for the winner Lucien Buysse, and the lanterne rouge was a full 24 hours down on GC, compared to last year’s race taking 76 hours for the winner with the last rider only six hours slower. Thirsty work either way.

The post Postcard from Evian first appeared on The Inner Ring.

The Tour resumes with the only solo time trial of the race this year.

Gamelles et Solaison: it shouldn’t be news to anyone that Jonas Vingegaard is out of the Tour. It was evident when he climbed into the ambulance, and then the way the rest of the stage was ridden with the pace in the final of Tadej Pogačar set for Isaac del Toro which allowed Remco Evenepoel to take along and then take the stage. If there was a gift it was probably Pogačar trying to help Del Toro which in turn helped Evenepoel.

The third week looks like it’ll see more of this. UAE will work to protect Del Toro’s podium spot – TT result pending – and RedBull have an interest in cementing Evenepoel’s second place overall too so two big squads looking to shut the others.

Jonas Vingegaard might not have troubled Pogačar but as we saw on the Tourmalet and Haag he was causing all sorts of trouble for Evenepoel. And his team were riding hard, see how they were leading the chase on Sunday’s stage. Now they’ll focus on stage wins instead and consequently some stages should be more open to the breakaways.

The Route: uphill from almost the first pedal stroke and it’s like this all the way for 11km. It’s never steep, a steady 4% almost all the way where it’s easy to feel good at the start but sustaining the pace to top of the climb is harder, and a test of back muscles in the TT position as much as legs and lungs.

The descent looks like it goes down like it went up on the profile. However, first it’s more a passage across some rolling road doesn’t come right away. Later it’s steeper and twistier as goes down a small canyon. It’s been freshly surfaced for the Tour and so looks even faster but the workers haven’t done the best job with the big roller, it’s got little bumps all over the place which are probably invisible to anyone driving in a car but hit one on a bike at 70km/h just as you try to line up or brake for a bend… it just requires more thought, it’s nothing wild. We’re talking micro undulations on fresh tarmac rather than potholes and most riders should have already picked this up on their recon rides.

It’s twisty around the streets of Thonon including two very brief sections of surprisingly gnarly cobbles – the Nokereberg is smoother, it’ll pay to ease the bike over the stones – going over recently tarmacked cobbles before a slight kick up the line.

The Contenders: Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quickstep) is the obvious as this is his speciality, he’s in form, he’s climbing well and the amount of climbing gives him an advantage on the pure specialists.

Tadej Pogačar (UAE) has a real shot at victory here as the climb is terrain he can push on and descent and the final in the streets of Thonon suit someone able to brake and accelerate several times. How motivated is he for the stage win? Secure in yellow with five minutes’ lead he can afford to manage his efforts in the third week.

It’s hard to see others get a look in. Filippo Ganna and Josh Tarling (Netcompany-Ineos) would prefer flatter stages even if they can cope with a slope and they’ve been able to rest for this day, likewise Edoardo Affini (Visma-LAB) while Daan Hoole (Decathlon-CMA CGM) has been working more in recent days.

A reminder that Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek) is an excellent time trial rider, he’s beaten Evenepoel before so even if his climbing is coming up short he could do well here but a win is a big ask.

	Evenepoel
	Pogačar
	–

Weather: 27°C and a 10km/h wind from the NE which means a light tailwind uphill, faster but also hotter.

TV: First rider Kamil Gradek is off at 1.00pm and Tadej Pogačar starts at 5.15pm CEST and should finish roughly half an hour later.

The post Tour de France Stage 16 Preview first appeared on The Inner Ring.

After the Vosges, now the Jura and into the Alps for the Tour de France with a summit finish.

Le Bilan d’Alsace: before the start Jordan Jegat told the media he couldn’t be bothered to attack as the mood in the breakaways was not good, nobody wanted to work fully and they feared being gobbled up by UAE anyway. It’s notable to see this expressed aloud.

The stage started under a downpour but a few kilometres later there was warm sunshine for the intermediate sprint won by Jasper Philipsen ahead of Mads Pedersen in his green jersey.

The Grand Ballon saw a group of 38 go clear including Tom Pidcock, fourth overall. If he was Thomas Piedcoque of Total or Tom van Pidkoek of Alpecin then he would have found plenty of others shaking their fists and swearing at him as it meant the bunch behind had to chase but he’s a big name rider so the others struggle to voice concerns.

Valentin Paret-Peintre was first over the climb and in time a move of seven was away with team mates Ben Healy and Richard Carapaz, team mates Einer Rubio and Pablo Castrillo, and twins Tobias Halland Johannessen and Anders Halland Johannessen. With Paret-Peintre sprinting for the win atop the Ballon d’Alsace he became the virtual mountains leader but the peloton led by UAE was only 90 seconds behind and picking up the pace.

The escapees were down to Tobias Halland Johannessen, Carapaz, Paret-Peintre and Rubio at the start of the Col du Haag and by the first ramp Tobias Halland Johannessen and Carapaz were clear. Then Carapaz. He had a minute’s lead and behind Decathlon-CMA’s Tiesj Benoot and Niclolas Prodhomme set the pace as Tom Pidcock was dropped and white jersey Juan Ayuso started to dangle at the back. Sep Kuss took over the pacing.

Onto the cycle path and Florian Lipowitz accelerated and Paul Seixas followed but the move was over in a flash and perhaps more about being in a good position on the narrow road lined with dense crowds.

Jonas Vingegaard led for a long time, stoically pulling the group as Remco Evenepoel was dropped. But at the “Owl Hairpin” Pogačar attacked and put daylight between everyone. Vingegaard set off in pursuit and Paul Seixas moved too a few metres behind the Dane and the two linked up at the top of the climb with Del Toro joining them. Behind Remco Evenepoel was back with Lipowitz and Ayuso and closing the gap.

Pogačar won the stage of course but it was a finish where lots was going on behind. Del Toro finished second, mopping up the six second time bonus while Paul Seixas was third. Vingegaard came into the finish with them but lost six seconds in the sprint. Adrift earlier, Evenepoel closed in to four seconds of the Dane.

The result of all this is Seixas moves up to fourth overall, 15 seconds behind Evenepoel, three seconds ahead of Ayuso which puts him in the white jersey, the youngest ever wearer. Here’s the GC:

Vingegaard is second but the amount of work he and his team are doing seems to be proving costly, his advantage on the other podium contenders has been eroded rather than bolstered but he’ll find the summit finishes to come more suitable. It’s all bunching up with second to seventh place overall spread across 80 seconds.

Jegat’s pre-stage interview was proved right but his idea is a self-fulfilling prophecy, a strong group going clear might have been able to take more time and UAE are intimidating but not full-strength.

Another winner of the day was the “new” Col du Haag and the Vosges. This mountain range has often delivered mid-mountain stages but the Haag is a focal point now, a new option for the Tour. Also huge crowds, including many from Germany, made this a popular success too.

The Route: 184km and 3,950m of vertical gain. There’s 22km to the unmarked Col de la Savine, all on big ring roads before descending into Morbier, known for its eponymous cheese and this year as a place where the men’s Tour visits in one direction and then the women visit in the other direction next month. The climb to Les Rousses goes into the Jura mountains via a wide main road.

Then comes a long descent but most of it not steep enough to freewheel as the course cruises down towards the Rhone valley. The climb out of Bellegarde to Léaz would be categorised on many other stages but not here amid all that is to come.

After 120km it’s time to get into position. Mont Salève is listed as 4.7km long but there’s 4km of climbing before to get to the official start, gentler than what is to come but awkward as positioning counts for plenty here. From the village of Le Coin onwards the road has double-digit gradients, seemingly never below 10% but often 12-14% and with steep hairpins where it pays to lead and take the line that suits as the inside can stall some riders and the outside is too long.

A tricky descent and then the pleonasm “Côte du Mont” is really the Col le Parc but nothing too hard.

The Finish: it’s back to the Plateau de Solaison climb which has featured in the Tour de l’Avenir once, three times in the Dauphiné/Aura Tour including last June and now the the Tour de France for the first time. Why? Why not as it is a very tough climb, uncharacteristically steep for the French Alps and a solid 30 minute climb. Also the President of the Haute-Savoie department, who is behind this stage and the time trial to come, has a house in Brison.

It’s steep from the start, the flat road of the valley seems to smash into the mountain and in one bend it pitches up and stays steep but in shaded woodland. The profile above doesn’t capture the flatter recovery section heading into the village of Brison mid-way out of the village it’s steep all the way up to the top.

The Contenders: with the rest day to come, Tadej Pogačar (UAE) can use his team to go for his fifth stage win. He’s obviously stronger than the field although it’s notable he’s taking more time out of rivals on the flat than straight summit finishes. Isaac del Toro, pictured on the Solaison climb, looked better on Stage 14 but was marking rather than making moves so the team’s best bet is all on for Pogačar.

Anyone else? Paul Seixas (Decathlon-CMA CGM) is a local of sorts as his grandparents live nearby and these roads have been his summer playground. He knows the climb but this only helps so much. It’s hard to get a win outright and if Pogačar is in the mood to gift or relinquish wins then it’s for Del Toro.

Jonas Vinegaard (Visma-LAB) returns to the club where he half-wheeled to the win ahead of Primož Roglič and with hindsight, a symbolic moment in his rise and Roglič’s gentle decline. Vingegaard’s not actually losing much time to Pogačar on the climbs so could be close.

The breakaway still has a chance as there are long stretches of road for a cohesive group to build up a lead, teams with ambitions for the finish can send a support rider. So Netcompany-Ineos may have plans for Thymen Arensman and these would be better suited if they can send Filippo Ganna or Josh Tarling up the road to help tow the move (perhaps with some Conti Gatorskin tires this tie). Likewise a Dylan Van Baarle for Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal-Quickstep), a Casper Asgreen for Richard Carapaz (EF) again. So far, all the names from yesterday’s stage so Tobias Halland-Johanessen (Uno-X) is a contender too. Fresher picks could include Michael Storer (Tudor), Harald Tejada, Ben O’Connor and Luke Plapp (Jayco) but they’re not moving as well.

	Pogačar
	–
	Vingegaard, Del Toro, Arensman, Carapaz, VP-P

Weather: sunny, dry and 25°C. A light tailwind for the start but this will vanish once over the Jura.

TV: KM0 is at 1.20pm and the finish is forecast for 5.55pm CEST. If you want to tune for the Salève climb, start around 4.15pm.

The post Tour de France Stage 15 Preview first appeared on The Inner Ring.

One of the most selective climbs in this year’s the Tour de France. If it’s not as fierce as the Angliru or Zoncolan, it still sits in a category of steep climbs that deserves to be explored in this series and ought to be raced more. So far it’s played a greater part in art history than the Tour de France.

The Route
The D45 road climbs out of the village of Le Coin in the Haute-Savoie department of France. It is 4.7km with an average gradient of 11.2%. At the top is the Col de la Croisette, a crossing point in a dip along the ridge.

The Feel
This is one of those climbs you can see from afar. Photos don’t do the vertical gain justice. It looms with a cliff face some 800 metres tall. Apparently the name is derived from the Latin salire, to rise up or jump. Today in French it sounds like ça lève or “it rises”. You scan the mountain and know there’s road up but can’t figure out how it will work, just a vertical wall to scale.

The official climb might be only 4.7km long but to get there there’s a three kilometre ride mostly uphill too, it averages 5% but it’s irregular with flat passages and 12% ramps, climbing past the suburban villas and chalets of Archamps and Vovray. This is France but Switzerland is nearby, freshly-washed cars with Swiss plates sit on driveways.

A ramp into Le Coin has your reaching for low gears and here you start the climb proper, passing the last few houses to reach a farm building at the first hairpin, the switch for town to countryside. This is where the forest begins and if you struggled to spot the road from afar it’s because it climbs up inside the woodland. And boy does it climb. You’re onto 12% ramps right away.

There are signs every kilometre for cyclists, a nice touch to value the road and warn of the constant double-digit gradients to come. It snakes up and the hairpins are even steeper. It’s the opposite of Alpe d’Huez, with its wide and flat bends in between each ramp. Here the corners are the steepest part of the road.

Climbing this on a late afternoon in June it had been freshly resurfaced for the Tour. But it was already scored by vehicles grounding their chassis on the inside of the bend because of the slope. There was some commuter traffic, people hurrying home. One van came past just before a bend and as it cornered clockwise around a hairpin its rear wheel on the inside was briefly hanging in the air before the van finished the bend and got all four wheels lined up on the slope.

It wasn’t busy or crowded but clearly used by some people in a hurry to get home, a daily rally that can’t be easy, or even an option, if it is dark and icy in winter.

It’s steep but inconsistently so with 11% here, 14% there. Only there’s not a moment’s rest, it rarely eases below 9% and so makes for a constant winching effort. The changes in slope are never abrupt either.

It’s punishing going up but barriers along the road have extra panelling to stop cyclists sliding out beneath so perhaps ascending is the better idea? Being in the woods means there are few views but occasionally you get a view and can appreciate how much you’ve climbed in a short distance.

Clear the final hairpin and there’s still a way to go. Eventually the woodland gives way to grass pastures a small ski lift dangles in the wind but the slope still pins you back with double-digit gradients. Once at the top there are some buildings at the crossroads but look straight ahead beyond the railings for views of the Alps including Mont Blanc. This is one of those climbs with a payoff at the end, this time the panorama.

The Verdict
A climb just to get to the start. Once you climb out of Le Coin it’s harder still. Is it as hard as as Monte Zoncolan or the Mortirolo and other climbs we cite as references? No, but it does belong with them in a bracket of persistently steep climbs, the kind where it pays to think about your gearing because whatever works for normal Alpine climbs of 7-9% may not be sufficient.

It’s strictly a rural climb with woodland but does have a big population nearby. It’s a gateway climb, the city of Geneva and its surrounding suburbs extending in France sit on one side where locals get a gymnasium climb that leads to a new landscape beyond.

Ride More
Having scaled the cliff face there are some cafes and bars, plus a water fountain. You can turn left or right to ride along the crest top of the mountain to enjoy the views more before descending and being able to ride around to the start.

If you do go straight on, and down, you can find a way towards Annecy for more Alpine roads. Or try a hipster version of the 2026 Tour de France stage by going via the climb to the Plateau de Glières to take its grave road before tackling the Plateau de Solaison summit finish.

History
In terms of geology this is part of the Jura mountains. The cliffs of Mont Salève have long inspired artists. In 1444 Konrad Witz depicted biblical scenes in The Miraculous Draft of Fishes but each painting has a backdrop with recognisable landscapes, including the Salève whose striated cliffs are on the top right of the painting here. This is regularly cited by art historians as the first work to accurately depict recognisable landscapes.

The image at the top of this post is by landscape artist Théodore Rousseau, who features in a recent Substack post of Edward Pickering, the former Cycle Sport and Rouleur editor.

In 1815 Mount Tamboura erupted in what is Indonesia today and this is said to be the most powerful in recorded human history. It propelled so much rock, dust and gas into the atmosphere that the following year the debris reduced the sunlight around the world, causing temperatures to plunge and what was since branded “a year without summer”. Crops failed, people rioted. Amid this a 19 year old Mary Shelley was staying in Lord Byron’s villa near Geneva and she complained of the “incessant rain”. To pass the time indoors they told scary stories and from this Victor Frankenstein was born and two years later her story was published. Part of the story sees Frankstein pursue the hideous monster he created across treacherous terrain:

I thought of pursuing the devil; but it would have been in vain, for another flash discovered him to me hanging among the rocks of the nearly perpendicular ascent of Mont Saléve

Tour de France History
The Tour de France first climbed this mountain in 1973 and via the same steep road too. It was a crucial stage as Luis Ocaña won and took the yellow jersey which he’d keep to Paris.

The stage finish was in Aspro-Gaillard. Don’t look for it on a map because Aspro was a brand of aspirin. Its factory was in Gaillard, one of the first to mass-produce aspirin pills in France. The company sponsored the Tour de France, funding ambulances and medics at the race and quid pro quo it got a stage finish and start outside the HQ. A few other stages have had place names altered for sponsors but mercifully its rare.

The last time it featured in the Tour was in 1992. The Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré, in its pre-ASO ownership days, used it in 2008. The surprise is that it isn’t used more often by bike races. The Tour organisers have been trying to hunt out steep roads for a long time and this is the first time that it’s tackled during Christian Prudhomme’s time as race director.

Travel and Access
Geneva in Switzerland is the nearest city with good rail, road and air connections. It’s not a climb to travel a long way just to try by itself but sits at a transport crossroads with traffic from France, Switzerland and Italy passing by so worth stopping to enjoy the views at the top.

More roads to ride at inrng.com/roads

The post Roads to Ride: Mont Salève first appeared on The Inner Ring.