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2016 Tour de France: Stage 18 live race updates, blog

21st July, 2016
Stage type: Mountain (ITT)
Start: Sallanches
Finish: Megeve
Distance: 17km
TV: Live SBS and SBS HD from 10pm (AEST)

Top 10 General Classification
1. Chris Froome (Sky) @ 77:25:10
2. Bauke Mollema (Trek) + 2:27
3. Adam Yates (Orica) + 2:53
4. Nairo Quintana (Movstar) + 3:27
5. Romain Bardet (Ag2r La Mondiale) + 4:15
6. Richie Porte (BMC) + 4:27
7. Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) + 5:19
8. Fabio Aru (Astana) + 5:35
9. Daniel Martin (Etixx-Quickstep) + 5:50
10. Louis Meintjes (Lampre-Merida) + 6:07
Is the TDF becoming boring? (Image: Sky).
Editor
21st July, 2016
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With a gruelling 17 days already under the belt, the peloton will be hit with the first mountain individual time trial since 2004 at the Tour de France, in what could be a deciding day. Join The Roar from 10pm (AEST) for live coverage of Stage 18.

At just 17 kilometres in length, it’s more than half the distance of the other time trial in the tour, but it will no doubt take longer, with climbs left, right and centre.

An opening 4 kilometres of flat road greets the riders coming out of Sallanches, but it all goes uphill from there for the men in lycra.

The next 11 kilometres though, will be some of the most gruelling riding the peloton have had to do all tour – with no one to latch onto, no teammates to back them, and one tough ascent by themselves.

The Côte de Domancy is the first part of the climb, coming in at 9.4 per cent for two and a half kilometres, it is the steepest section of the route.

At 810 metres above sea level, the ascent begins to flatten out a little bit, turning into a much more gradual rise at 5 per cent for the next 4 kilometres, towards the point of Côte de Chozeau.

Almost like a pair of steps heading into the Côte de Chozeau, the climb steepens sharply then flattens out twice before the peak, reaching up towards 8 per cent during some sections.

Finally, after the pain and leg burning of the climb, the final two kilometres of the time trial are all downhill.

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Dropping 124 metres, the final descent into the finish is fast, straightforward, and a lifeline for the riders quads.

Chris Froome is still holding onto the leader’s yellow jersey by 2 minutes and 27 seconds coming into the day, following an eventful final portion of Stage 17.

This won’t be a day for the traditional time trial specialists, and the mountain men should find themselves higher than the normal individual events.

It’s hard to see Froome losing yellow, but there is a fair few general classification riders that are at risk of falling behind on the tough steep climbs without support.

The gradient is a rollercoaster for today, with the per centage swinging from anywhere between one and nearly ten at any point of the short ride, meaning rider rhythm and pacing could, and should, be a tough one to control.

Prediction
This one is hard to pick, simply because you don’t know how the variants will affect what riders, and how they’ll adapt to a style of time trial most aren’t used to.

Froome should ride well and pick up a strong finish, but someone like Tom Dumoulin has a lot of potential to push for the win.

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Nairo Quintana’s name is being thrown around as a possible stand out today, but his tour has been a little underwhelming considering the hype surrounding him.

I’ll go with any of those three.

Join The Roar for live coverage from 10pm (AEST).

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