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As the 2014 Tour de France enters its second day in the Vosges mountain range, join me from 10pm AEST for all of the latest coverage and live race updates.
Stage 9 of the Tour de France is a 170 kilometre ride beginning in Gérardmer in the Vosges and finishes at Mulhouse. Riders will traverse six categorized mountains before riding a 40 kilometre flat stretch to the finish.
The first climb of the day is the category 2, Col de la Schlucht. It’s an 8.6 kilometre climb with a gradient of around 4.5%. Expect riders to reach it around 11 kilometres into the race.
The next climb of the day comes around 30 kilometres later and is the category 3, Col du Wettstein. The climb is 7.7 kilometres long and 4.1%.
There will be another two climbs, the category 3, Cinq Châteaux raced after 70 kilometres followed by the category 2, Côte de Gueberschwihr which is 86 kilometres into the race.
The Cinq Châteaux is a 4.5 kilometre climb with a gradient of 6.1% and the Côte de Gueberschwihr is a 4.1 kilometre climb with a gradient of 7.9%.
The only intermediate sprint point of the day comes after 105 kilometres of racing at Linthal.
The day’s biggest climb is the category 1, Le Markstein after 120 kilomteres of racing. This category 1 climb is 10.8 kilometres and has a gradient of 5.4%.
The final climb of the day is the category three Grand Ballon at 127 kilometres. This is a 1.4 kilometre climb and its gradient is 8.6%.
Once over this climb riders will make their way down to a flat 40 kilometre run into the finish at Mulhouse.
Today is another day where a breakaway may be allowed to successfully get away.
Prior to last night’s stage I would have penciled in Sylvain Chavanel to have a crack here but he went yesterday instead.
Picking a breakaway is always a hard thing and almost any number of riders may take off today, although I do wonder if the French contingent of climbers will wait for Stage 10 and Bastille Day glory.
Yesterday’s stage saw Tinkoff-Saxo’s Alberto Contador test out his rivals legs and teams and none were found wanting. Bertie may have taken back three seconds on leader, Vicenzo Nibali but he will need to do much more in order to ply the yellow jersey from the race leader.
I suspect the GC contenders will keep playing cat and mouse for another day and will really attack each other later in the race.
Australia’s best placed rider is Sky’s Ritchie Porte who has been elevated to team leader with the abandonment of Chris Froome. Interestingly, large sections of the cycling media, particularly the British media have suggested that Sky team director Sir Dave Brailsford has erred in not taking Wiggins as a back up plan. I’d suggest that Sky did take their back plan and that plan has always been Ritchie Porte.
Join me tonight from 10pm AEST for live coverage of Stage 9 of the Tour de France.
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