Stage 9) Nantua-Chambéry - SUNDAY JULY 9 / 181.5KM

Tour de France 2017 - Stage 9

Nantua-Chambéry - SUNDAY JULY 9 / 181.5 km

An absolutely brutal day, with just one fewer HC-ranked climbs – three – than the rest of the Tour put together

When the 2017 Tour route was unveiled, the main criticism was that the big summit finishes had been missed. The Col d’Izoard apart, there was no Alpe d’Huez and no Ventoux. But the route planners may be on to something here. In recent years, the strongest teams have suffocated the race on the big summit finishes. These stages have become tactically unexciting. However, some of the best racing now is happening when there’s a climb at the start, even if the riders hate it. The start of this stage is a wonderful chance for a team willing to risk unpopularity to blow up the race – there’s a cat-two climb straight out of Nantua, no descent, then a third cat climb, and again, no descent for another five km. Be ready for the sight at the start of 190 or so riders on rollers, warming up for the fast start.

This is the hardest stage of the 2017 Tour. After that tough start, there are three HC climbs, the Biche, Grand Colombier and Mont du Chat, all averaging at least 9 per cent. The one obstacle to open racing is the long valley between the Grand Colombier and the Mont du Chat. Even if the favourites leave everything to the last climb, weaknesses will be exposed on the Mont du Chat, which is renowned for being one of the toughest mountains ever used in the Tour.

The scenery of the Jura is picture postcard perfect and beautifully forested, rather than epic in the same way as the high Alps, and the highest the peloton will go today is 1,504m on the Mont du Chat, which is well over a kilometre lower than the high point of the Tour on the Col du Galibier, but the combination of route, beauty and toughness means that if you are going to watch any single stage of the Tour, it should be this one.

TOUR HISTORY

The Mont du Chat is so terrifyingly steep, with an average gradient of 10.3 per cent, that the Tour has only visited once, in 1974. In spite of its toughness, it was only a second-category climb then, and the Spanish rider Gonzalo Aja was first to the top, though Eddy Merckx won the stage in a four-up sprint in Aix-les-Bains.

MILLAR SAYS

Big, big day for the GC. It’s not often a Tour stage has three hors-catègorie climbs so this will be a cracker. Anyone with an eye on the KoM jersey will want to be in the early escape and hope they survive at least the first two climbs before the GC fight kicks off. The Binche and Grand Colombier are basically the nastiest ascents of the same mountain range then it’s across the valley and the unrelenting Mont du Chat. Finish off with a dodgy descent into Chambéry and we’ll learn who the contenders are.

7 - HC climbs in the 2017 Tour de France. Three of them are in today’s stage

10.3 - Average gradient of the Mont du Chat, the steepest of the long climbs this year

1 - Previous appearances of the Mont du Chat in the Tour de France

0 km -- Nantua -- 11:55

3.5 km -- Côte des Neyrolles -- 12:03

11 km -- Col de Bérentin -- 12:20

38 km -- Côte de Franclens -- 13:03

67.5 km -- Col de la Biche -- 14:05

91 km -- Grand Colombier -- 14:51

126.5 km -- Massignieu-de-Rives -- 15:33

134 km -- Côte de Jongieux -- 15:47

155.5 km -- Mont du Chat -- 16:35

181.5 km -- Chambéry -- 17:02