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2016 Tour de France: Stage 12 preview

13th July, 2016
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Chris Froome.(Source: Team Sky)
Roar Guru
13th July, 2016
2
1615 Reads

Bastille Day presents another epic stage of this year’s race, with Stage 12 travelling from yesterdays finishing point in the city of Montpellier, to the summit of the brutal Mont Ventoux, a further 184 kilometres down the line.

This stage has a similar parcour to that of the last time the riders completed the climb of Ventoux at the Tour, back in 2013, where Chris Froome rode away from Quintana in the final few kilometres to solidify his GC lead.

In 2013, Stage 15 to Mont Ventoux was 242 kilometres and featured much more climbing in the first half of the stage, however, the second part of the stage is fairly similar to this year’s edition.

The stage is pancake flat for the first 120 kilometres of the stage, with the intermediate sprint coming at 102.5 kilometres completed in the town of Molleges-Gare. From then on, the next 20 kilometres incorporate two of the three classified climbs on the days stage, with the third category climb of the Cote de Gordes, and the fourth category climb of the Col des Trois Termes.

The third category climb is crested at 48.5 kilometres to go, and the road now descends into the valley before moving along flat roads towards the start of the Hors Category climb up to the finish at Mont Ventoux.

The climb of Mont Ventoux is absolutely brutal, with the riders heading up towards the famous lighthouse at the top of the peak for 16 kilometres as the roads averages out at over 8.5 per cent.

The steepest sections come in the first few kilometres of the climb, and in the last few kilometres, meaning a brutal finish is in store for the riders.

One of the key attributes of the climb is the fact that first ten kilometres are quite sheltered, with trees lining the roads to protect the riders from the strong wind that is expected. We are still not far away from Montpellier, which yesterday was extremely windy, so expect the run into the climb and the climb itself to be windy.

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The last six kilometres of the climb is where the problems commence, as the riders will pop out from the trees through the town of Chalet Reynard and be confronted with the dry, baron almost desert like landscape.

It is an incredible change in scenery over a matter of 100 metres, and it will greatly affect the race.

Such landscape allows for the wind to hit the riders, with no protection from the trees, which makes it quite likely that the stage will finish in Chalet Reynard as previously mentioned.

It has been reported that the climb has had winds of over 100 kilometres per hour at the summit over the past few days. It is a genuine safety issue, as this video demonstrates.

The wind for mine will be the major issue tomorrow; we could see poorly positioned general classification favourites dropped before we even start climbing tomorrow if certain teams attempt to split the race, if the wind speed and the direction are in the correct position to do so.

This could be one of the most chaotic stages in recent Tour history if the wind is up.
It should be another duel on the slopes on Mt Ventoux, and I expect both Chris Froome and Nairo Quintana to animate the race, as they did on this mountain back in 2013.

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Other riders to look out for include Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), Daniel Martin (Etixx-Quickstep), Fabio Aru (Astana), Rafal Majka and Roman Kreuzinger(Tinkoff), Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale), Bauke Mollema (Trek Segafredo), Richie Porte and Tejay Van Gardaren (BMC), Warren Barguill (Giant-Alepcin), Thibaut Pinot (FDJ), Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) and Adam Yates (Orica Bike-Exchange).

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