The Tour de France launches an attack on a ‘monster’ during the 17th race on Wednesday.e Stage between Saint-Gervais and Courchevel, with the terrible Col de la Loze where the gaps could be huge in case of failure, also for Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar.
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This is only the second time the Grande Boucle has taken this “21st Century Galibier”, made possible by the fact that the last seven kilometers from the Altiport of Méribel were paved a few months before the Tour’s first passage in 2020.
And it’s a real “monster” that the mountain has produced with a 28.1km climb at 6% that gets really scary in the last five kilometers averaging more than 10% on irregular gradients.
A hellish series of bumps and little flats, a slide into suffering.
As we approach the summit, we even reach percentages of 24%, enough to practically fall backwards, at an altitude (2,304 m, highest point and Henri Desgrange souvenir of this 110th edition) where the rare oxygen can confuse the brain.
“It’s one of the most difficult climbs in the world,” summarizes Tadej Pogacar, who was third at the top three years ago behind Colombian winner Miguel Angel Lopez and his Slovenian compatriot Primoz Roglic.
This time the finish will not be judged at the top, but 6.5 km below, in Courchevel, after an extremely technical descent that led the organizers to install mattresses used during the World Ski Championships to avoid a tragedy like this one not to experience again that Gino Mäder won the Tour of Switzerland a month ago.
At the end of the descent, the ordeal will not be over. At the Courchevel Altiport there are still about 500 meters to be completed at 18%, the final difficulty of an incredibly difficult 165.7km stage.
“The hardest thing I would have done in my life,” even French climber David Gaudu expects.
Before approaching Loze, where 8.5 and 2 second bonuses are awarded at the summit, riders must tackle three more passes: Les Saisies (13.4km at 5.1%) and Cormet de Roselend (19.9km). at 6). %) and the coast of Longefoy (6.6 km at 7.5%).
“It’s clearly the king’s stage of this tour. If only because it is the highest elevation at 5,100 meters. And in the chain of passes I see a lot of failures on the last kilometers of the Loze. Everyone will be in their place,” emphasizes Thierry Gouvenou, the tour tracer.
Departure from Saint-Gervais at 12h20 (departure at 12h30), arrival in Courchevel at 17h22 (timetable calculated on an average speed of 34 km/h).