14.07.2019.
Saint-Étienne – Brioude
(170,5 km)Bastile Day. The day, when everybody is waiting for a French stage win. Especially this year, when the stage is going to finish in Romain Bardet’s hometown.The 170 km long route has an interesting program starting with a category 1 climb and finishing with a 3rd category one. (There are a total of two 3rd categroy ascents today).The 3,2 km long Mur d’Aurec-sur-Loire starts at 137 km to go. Not long, but quite steep, it has an average of 11% slope. Ideal place to build a breakaway group for the rest of the day.
Côte des Guillaumanches has its top at 64,5 km to go. It is the longes climb of the day, 7,8 km to go, but only has an average 4,1% steepness.
It looks like the mountain time bonuses were worth to invent, the idea to get bonus seconds on a hill can make the race more exciting, and fortunatelly there are riders in the peloton, who like to play this game. The 3rd category Côte de Saint-Just (3,6 km à 7,2%) is the place for it today.
The ascent is 3,6 km long and 7,2% steep. It’s top is 13 km before the finish. If there isn’t any breakaway group or solo rider already, here can be one successfully establish for the rest of the stage. The descent of this climb can make the race more interesting, meanwhile the last km is mostly flat.
Although the world is waiting for a French win, it’s most likely a stage for the battle between Peter Sagan (BORA.hansgrohe) and Michael Mattews (Sunweb). Matteo Trentin (Mitchelton-SCOTT) showed his good form in several moments already, as did Greg van Avermaet (CCC) too. Of course, the man is the yellow jersey, Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuininck Quick Step) can show, who is the boss in the peloton, and at last don’t forget Romain Bardet (Ag2r) Other possible protagonists: Tim Wellens (Lotto-Soudal), Matej Mohoric, Sonny COlbrelly (Bahrain-Merida), Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma)
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