Tour 2015: Stage 8 Rennes > Mûr-de-Bretagne
STAGE FACT
When he wasn’t commentating, legendary Tour announcer Daniel Mangeas liked nothing more than to go to Rennes to watch his beloved football club Stade Rennais.
Mûr-de-Bretagne wasn’t named after the French for ‘wall,’ but with the long straight road into town hitting an average of 8.4% over 1.3 km, it might as well have been. The climb featured regularly in the Tour until in 2011 it was used as a stage finish for the first time. That day Cadel Evans outgunned Alberto Contador to the line (198/1000) and went on to win the Tour outright.
Fast and furious
It’s basically an uphill sprint finish for the GC riders, and with a flat run-in to the bottom of the climb, the GC teams will be doing full-on lead-outs to position their leaders. While the pure sprinters will be thinking about the rest day and saving their legs for the mountains, the stage will also be high on the list for puncheurs like world champion Michal Kwiatkowski.
Local favourites
You can put good money on local team Bretagne-Séché Environnement getting into the breakaway today as the route heads west from the squad’s HQ in Rennes for its final day of racing in northern France. Brittany has a long affinity with cycling; the route passes through St-Méen-le-Grand, the birthplace of Louison Bobet, the first man to win three consecutive Tours from 1953-55, and the Breton "Badger" Bernard Hinault hails from nearby St Brieuc. Indeed, today’s route goes close to Dinan, where today Hinault lives on a farm and keeps donkeys.
You can put good money on local team Bretagne-Séché Environnement getting into the breakaway today as the route heads west from the squad’s HQ in Rennes for its final day of racing in northern France. Brittany has a long affinity with cycling; the route passes through St-Méen-le-Grand, the birthplace of Louison Bobet, the first man to win three consecutive Tours from 1953-55, and the Breton "Badger" Bernard Hinault hails from nearby St Brieuc. Indeed, today’s route goes close to Dinan, where today Hinault lives on a farm and keeps donkeys.
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