- Hourquette d’Ancizan (1538 m) – 9.9 km climb to 7.5 % – Category 1 – Km 141.5
- Col du Tourmalet (2115 m) – 17.1 km climb to 7.3 %c – Category H – Km 175.5
- Luz-Ardiden (1715 m) – 1.3 km climb to 7.4 % – Category H – Km 211.0
Today stage in the tour de france starts the race for he GC. The high mnountains will quiten down all the big men from the sprint department and bring the small and thin to the front. Looking at the profile for todays stage it should be possible for the sprinter to collect the points for the green jersey at the intermediate sprint as this will be their last chance for a number of days.
GC rider such a Evans, Contador and Schleck will no doubt be holding hands on the climbes today and it will be interesting to see how everones form is. Evans remained rather quite throughout the first week alhough he lost no time and had no problems. The same can be said for Schleck. Contador on the other hand has lost a number of minutes to his rivals what with crashes and bad luck so it will be interesting to see if he tries to get this time back asap. In the Giro he put time into his rivals at the first oppertunity on Mt Etna so today will be a good tell.
Diet and hydration are a major issue goin forward over the next few days for the GC guys. As the roads narrow and restrictions placed on team cars in various places along the route a rider can be left without his car for 15 – 20 mins and if he is short food or drink without team mates around he could suffer the consequenbces. We’ve see Contador bonk at Paris-Nice a number of yeard ago and also Evans has done it in the past. Riders will be heading towards 8 – 10 biddons and 5000 – 6000 calories consumed on todays stage.
Bike setup will also have changed overnight with gearings being reduced. 39 front ring could be changed to 35 with anything up to 27 sprockets being ftted to the rear. Some riders may fit a compact chainset like the mountain bikers would use. Bike weight will also be at the allowed minimum by the UCI of 6.8kg.
You can view the telemetry for a number of riders live!
The Athlete Clinic 