MADRID, 17 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) –
This Tuesday’s time trial could be crucial in the Tour de France, in the first of the six stages of this last week, after the second day of rest, and with only 10 seconds difference between the current champion Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma ) and Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates), while two mountain stages will be able to add ‘pepper’ to that fight and the battle for third place.
After Pogacar lost about a minute in the fifth stage in Laruns, the Slovenian managed to make up almost all the time lost compared to Vingegaard, but despite the ‘epic’ battles between these two colossi, which are taking their toll on the entire peloton, Nothing seems decided yet and the time trial, of 22.4 kilometers between Passy and Combloux, could bring a lot of light.
In addition, the fight for the third step of the final podium in Paris is still very open, with the Spanish Carlos Rodríguez (INEOS Grenadiers) third after his spectacular victory in the fourteenth stage. He is 5:21 behind the leader and only 19 seconds ahead of the British Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates), Pogacar’s squire.
These last six stages, after the rest day of this Monday, start this Tuesday with that battle against the clock in which the cyclists will ascend the Cote de Domincy, of the second category, with 2.5 kilometers of ascent to an average unevenness of 9.4%, and that could turn the general classification upside down, if Pogacar (winner in 2021 and 2020) wins, or reinforce the current champion.
The seventeenth stage, on Wednesday, will bring the mountains back, with 166 kilometers and two category 1 climbs, Col des Saisies (13.4 kilometers at 5.4% average gradient) and Cormet de Roselend (19.9 km at 6%), one of 2nd -Cote de Longefoy (6.6 km at 7.5%)– before the ascent to the highest point of this edition, the Col de la Loze (28.1 km at 6%, but with ramps greater than 20%) that is crowned at 2300 meters. The goal will be in the descent, in Courchevel.
Stages 18 and 19 will be new opportunities for the sprinters, first on Thursday with the 185 flat kilometers that they will have to cover between Moûtiers and Bourg-en-Bresse and on Friday, the 173 between Moirans-en-Montagne and Poligny, which despite It may be a more ‘broken’ terrain, favorable for a breakaway, but if the sprinter teams work they should control the day.
In the event that the general classification arrives open to the penultimate stage, the 133 kilometers that separate Belfort and Le Markstein, with six ports, one in the 3rd category, three in the 2nd and two in the 1st, the Petit Ballon (9.3 km at 8 1%) and the Col du Platzerwasel (7.1 to 8.4%), for a total of 3,600 meters of accumulated unevenness that will be the last judge of the race.
Finally, the ‘Grande Boucle’ will face a completely flat stage of 115 kilometers between the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome and the Champs Elysées in Paris, in a day that will be decided in a massive sprint, after a circuit through the French capital and that it will be a party for the winner of this 110th edition of the Tour de France, as well as for the rest of the leaders and teams with things to celebrate.