Tour 2015: Stage 18 Gap > Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne
STAGE FACT
The Lacets de Montvernier makes its Tour debut in 2015. Appropriately, given the squiggle of road climbing the cliff face, lacets is French for shoelaces.
The riders will be warming up on the rollers on the morning of the longest alpine stage of the race. The peloton heads straight uphill out of Gap on the Col Bayard before a relentless succession of 4 more short, sharp ascents (including the wonderfully named Rampe du Motty, the Côte de la Mure, the Col du Malissol and the Col de la Morte) and the Col du Glandon, a fearsome 21 km long monster. The final climb is the Lacets de Montvernier, coming 10 km from the finish.
Hard day’s height
Any teams looking to take control early on could find themselves short on numbers towards the sharp end of the day. The Glandon ought to provide a stern test and it will be a shredded peloton that will contest the slopes of the Lacets de Montvernier, a spectacular series of 18 hairpins in just over 3 km. There could be several narratives: the fight for the stage win, the fight between GC rivals, and the fight just to make it to the finish in time. The gruppetto is going to have a long day in the saddle.
Any teams looking to take control early on could find themselves short on numbers towards the sharp end of the day. The Glandon ought to provide a stern test and it will be a shredded peloton that will contest the slopes of the Lacets de Montvernier, a spectacular series of 18 hairpins in just over 3 km. There could be several narratives: the fight for the stage win, the fight between GC rivals, and the fight just to make it to the finish in time. The gruppetto is going to have a long day in the saddle.
Bottleneck
The pivotal point of the day will come on the Lacets de Montvernier. Neither particularly long (3.4 km) nor steep (8%), the difficulty of this jawdropping sliver of tarmac is its narrow width and probable high speeds. It’s the perfect ambush point, and a mechanical or puncture here could be catastrophic since team cars will be way back.
The pivotal point of the day will come on the Lacets de Montvernier. Neither particularly long (3.4 km) nor steep (8%), the difficulty of this jawdropping sliver of tarmac is its narrow width and probable high speeds. It’s the perfect ambush point, and a mechanical or puncture here could be catastrophic since team cars will be way back.
Commenti
Posta un commento