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Beginning with tonight’s 197.5 kilometre parcours from Saint-Étienne to Chamrousse, the Tour de France says “Bonjour” to the Alps for two days of pure alpine ecstasy. Join The Roar for live coverage of Stage 13 from 10:30pm AEST.
Tonight’s thirteenth stage could be a bit of a dark horse with tomorrow’s fourteenth stage just as gruelling and important for the King of the Mountains and General Classification contenders. With tomorrow’s fourteenth stage boasting an even greater maximum points haul for the climbers, we could see some climbers riding conservatively in preparation for an all-in assault tomorrow.
The peloton could be in for a furious opening to the stage with the Category Three Col de la Croix de Montvieux beginning just 16 kilometres in to the race route. At a length of eight kilometres and an average gradient of 4.1% it could cause some light damage if the breakaway is still in the process of forming.
While the beginning of the Category One Col de Palaquit lies some 114 kilometres after the summit of the Col de la Croix de Montvieux the peloton will have little chance to rest thanks to the rolling terrain in between. Never seen before in the Tour de France, the Col de Palaquit will seek to prove itself worthy of further appearances in le Tour.
Thanks to a two kilometre descent located just three kilometres in to the climb of the Col de Palaquit the average gradient is deceptively low at 6.1 percent. With the gradient rarely below six percent and at times soaring higher than 11 percent, the Col de Palaquit’s 14.1 kilometre-long slopes will sort the weak from the strong.
Afterwards the peloton can look forwards to a lengthy descent down in to Grenoble, which is not a stage finish this year, to begin a modest ascent up to the foot of the hors catégorie Montée de Chamrousse. Despite lacking the dizzying altitude, the climb matches the infamous Galibier in both length and arguably difficulty.
Despite utilising the tourist roads up to the Ski Resort, the 18.2 kilometre-long slog up to our finishing line for the day features an average gradient of 7.3 percent. With the gradient once again rarely dipping below the fabled six percent mark and soaring higher than 11 percent, anyone feeling the after affects of the Col de Palaquit could be in trouble on the Montée de Chamrousse.
With no time bonuses on offer in the Tour de France and many of the King of the Mountains contenders out of the running in the General Classification we could see a breakaway go all the way tonight. However, given the severity of the climbs and the length of the stage the breakaway will likely need a strong advantage to stay clear of the peloton to ensure victory.
Should the other teams of the General Classification riders seek to put Team Astana and Vincenzo Nibali under pressure then we could see the stage contested by the contenders for the Malliot Jaune. With Team Sky’s Richie Porte alone required to bridge a time deficit of 2’23”, the Italian’s rivals cannot afford to dally much longer.
Should the General Classification contenders be fighting for the stage victory and unable to lose each other we can expect Alejandro Valverde to be a prime favourite to claim the stage thanks to his explosive acceleration. My dark horse for tonight’s stage is compatriot Joaquim Rodriguez of Team Katusha, who is targeting the Polka Dot jersey this year, with a massive 50 points in King of the Mountains classification going to tonight’s stage winner.
Join The Roar from 10:30pm (AEST) for tonight’s live blog of the thirteenth stage of the 2014 Tour de France.
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