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After some brilliant days in the hills, it's time for something a little more sedate today, and perhaps time to reward the sprinters for their efforts getting over the peaks.
The 19th stage on the Tour de France offers a chance for fast men who have survived the Pyrenees, Jura and Alps to showcase their talents. The 160 kilometres race travels from Bourg-en-Bresse to Champagnole.
Located in the foothills of the Jura Mountains, Bourg-en-Bresse hosted several Tour de France stage starts in recent years. In 2016, the race went to Culoz, where breakaway riders Jarlinson Pantano and Rafal Majka battled it out for the stage win. The retired Colombian – after a positive test for EPO last year – took the spoils. Two years prior to that the riders left Bourg-en-Bresse to head for Saint-Étienne and Alexander Kristoff outsprinted Peter Sagan and Arnaud Démare.
Those races went south, but the riders head north this time to follow a route on undulating terrain. The finish is in Champagnole – also known as the Pearl of the Jura -, which is a small town on the River Ain. The Mont Rivel is nearby, but the sprinters are treated to a fairly straightforward finish.
The first three riders on the line gain time bonuses of 10, 6 and 4 seconds.
Stage 19 of Le Tour starts at 13.30 and the race is expected to finish around 17.40 – both are local times (CEST).
Where they're going
The profile
The finish route
And the final 5km
Who to look out for?
The Contenders: the route looks hilly on the profile but it’s suitable for the sprinters. There are two questions, first is whether their teams all agree with this, they’ve probably not ridden the course so they might think otherwise when glancing at the roadbook. The second is what all the non-sprinters think, instead of the usual “4×4” where four riders get four minutes, today is the last chance for the 12 teams who haven’t won a stage to try something so expect more of a battle at the start the terrain in second half is much harder for a team to chase.
For the breakaway there must be a hundred riders up for it. Oliver Naesen (Ag2r La Mondiale) , Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo), Greg Van Avermaet (CCC), Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) , Søren Kragh Andersen (Sunweb) look like riders who can go clear and get the job done in the finish, and maybe Michael Valgren (NTT) and Daryl Impey (Mitchelton-Scott) but these two have been discreet until now. Maybe Matteo Trentin (CCC) goes in the break too but he’s possibly one of the fastest sprinters left as he won’t be smarting from three days in the mountains as much as others. As for Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) this could be his stage but he’s struggling, he hasn’t win an intermediate sprint all race and even Michael Mørkøv has been outfoxing him so a stage is now a big ask.
Otherwise for the sprint it’s not obvious. There’s not much climbing but enough to make life harder for riders already aching from three days in the mountains. So Trentin is a contender if he’s sat tight and Caleb Ewan (Lotto-Soudal), Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quickstep) are the fastest… and of course the mini-cannibal Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), currently 19th overall but he’s got his eye on the final three stages.
Yesterday, yesterday was a stunner, to many good pics to choose from, go and look yourselg here.
Morning Lunge. Nearly there ! (and thanks again)
Wow, looks quite a bend at 1km or so from the line. Hopefully a breakaway rather than a mass lead-out (but I doubt it somehow)
WVA isn't it? He's crazy enough to go for it
Yawn. Don't get me wrong, I'll sit in front of the TV and do that yawning. But still yawn.
Breakaway win, surely? Winner possibly someone whose been in break(s) already but not yet won.
VdP in the breakaway on what will be a rest day preparing for the TT.
Thomas de Gendt.
Has to be.
Final roll of the dice for Bora Hansgrohe?
The terrain looks lumpy enough to detach the pure sprinters if Bora put together a big train.
20 points for the intermediate and 30 points for the stage win for Sagan.
Seems unlikely to be fair.
The terrain looks lumpy enough to detach the pure sprinters if Bora put together a big train.
Yes, was thinking it might be a big day out for Bennett
I agree with @richmtb
One last all-or-nothing, do-or-die from Bora-Hansgrohe to try and wrestle the green jersey back for Sagan.
Trentin is only about 9 points behind him in the competition though so it might end up being a race between 2nd and 3rd in the points.
Anything interesting happened yet?
No access to the stream today.
Anything interesting happened yet?
No access to the stream today.
Not really.
A lone DQS rider (Cavagna) up the road, presumably some sort of attempt to draw out a big breakaway and mop up the sprint points but he's being kept on a very tight leash.
70km to go overall, 20km to the intermediate sprint.
You'd think Bora are going to close him ?
Does Cavagna over the Cat 4 confirm the KoM jersey? Lead of two and only one point left?
Assuming Carapaz gets to Paris.
Just thinking about the fact that wva could win any (or all) 3 final stages makes my head hurt.
Planche de belles filles is a cat 1 so there's 10-8-6-4-2-1 points available there, and there's also a solitary point on a cat 4 on Sunday.
Think the TT KOM points is timed thing on just the climb, so while Pog has to do his best overall TT to try and snatch yellow in the event Rog has an off day, Carapaz can chill for the first half of the TT and nail it up the climb, so he has a slight advantage.
Suddenly this has got very exciting! Turned into a proper green jersey race at the front. Bennett should just be able to sit there and watch the moves so long as its not Trentin or Sagan going.
OK, not yawn. Wrong again. Like a mini classic now.
Who thinks Matt Winston will be off to Ineos next year to fill the void left by Portal?
The cycling calendar is so confusing this year. They’ve put the classics on DURING the tour.
Planche de belles filles is a cat 1 so there’s 10-8-6-4-2-1 points available there, and there’s also a solitary point on a cat 4 on Sunday.
I didn’t think KoM points were being awarded as it’s an ITT.
Edit - appears I’m wrong. Timed over 6km 8.5%. The KoM contenders get to poorly up to the bottom of the climb I suppose.
Sunweb.
Brilliant.
Thanks again for doing these Lunge, I'm not kidding when I say that I don't bother with looking anywhere else for reports of last stage and the route for today's. Marvellous effort.
The non gc stages this year have been great fun to watch.
Anyone else expecting carapaz to ditch the tt bike a way before the start of the climb and then hammer up it on an ultralight climber?
Me. Except I’m wondering if the TT bike gets ditched before the start ramp.
Can carapaz pull up at the start of the climb, possibly have an hour in a mobile sensory deprivation tank to achieve zen like focus and then a deep leg massage, followed by a nice espresso. Perhaps a roadside **** ? If that does the trick?
then hammer up it on an ultralight climber?
Bolide for the first bit, then hop on to this for the climb
There’s a time limit based on the winner’s time plus 25% for TTs iirc, so he can take it easy, but not *too* easy!
Boardman and Kennaugh were discussing if they might use a set of clip on bars on a normal bike, but boardman said it would just be easier to switch.
if he did it on a climber the whole way round would he be within the time limit?
looks like its going to be a headwind tomorrow, i reckon most will stay on TT bikes
WvA ftw