TDF 2019, Stage 13: Pau > Pau 19/07/2019 - 27,2 km ITT *Spoilers*

blazing_saddles

TDF 2019, Stage 13: Pau > Pau 19/07/2019 - 27,2 km ITT

Stage 13 on the Tour de France is an out-and-back ITT in Pau. It is the only chance for time trialists to shine this edition. The distance is limited though - only 27.2 kilometres. Pau has welcomed two individual time trials in the past. In 1939, a stage won by Swiss rider Karl Litschi and in 1981, when Bernard Hinault took the win on his way to overall victory.



Pau is the most visited location in Tour de France history. In the past nine editions, the race visited the town in the Pyrenees foothills nine times. The last two arrivals both boiled down to a bunch sprint with Arnaud Démare (2018) and Marcel Kittel (2017) storming to victory.



The Tour de France serves its only ITT on a course of 27.2 kilometres that’s characterized by a number of gently rolling uphills, while the more punchy Côte d’Esquillot is the biggest hurdle. The 1.1 kilometres ramp slopes at almost 8%. The Esquillot may be the biggest hurdle, the finale holds a steep surprise up its sleeves. In the last few hundred metres the riders hit a 17% ramp. Short but hard, especially since the kick up begins right after a tight turn onto the Rue Mulot and the speed will be relatively low.



Intermediate time checks are at kilometre 7.1 (after a rolling uphill), at kilometre 15.5 (atop the Esquillot), and at kilometre 21.9 (in the vineyards of Jurançon).



Favourites 13th stage 2019 Tour de France

World time trial champion Rohan Dennis would have started as favourite in the only ITT of this year's Tour de France, but with his abandon yesterday, the stage becomes a more open affair.
The length and profile of the Pau ITT is similar to the ITT during the Critérium du Dauphiné last month. Belgian time trial champion Wout Van Aert outclassed his rivals and he won the race 31 seconds ahead of Tejay van Garderen and Tom Dumoulin. Almost all GC contenders on this Tour de France, with the exception of Geraint Thomas and Egan Bernal, were in the Dauphiné. Steven Kruijswijk finished best of the bunch, in fourth, 49 seconds behind his team mate Van Aert.


***** Wout Van Aert
**** Geraint Thomas, Chad Haga, Kasper Asgreen
*** Yves Lampaert, Tony Martin, Stefan Küng
** Wilco Kelderman, Søren Kragh Andersen, Luke Durbridge
* Steven Kruijswijk, Maximilian Schachmann, Tom Scully

Pau > Pau On the road

Km 9
Uzos (Pop: 730)
Uzos is home to one of the most famous jam manufactures and shops in France, created by Francis Miot, who died in 2015 after being crowned jam and marmalade world champion three times in his career. On the site was created the Feerie Gourmande museum, dedicated to the art of sweets. Francis Miot also created several sweets like the “coucougnettes”, voted the best sweets in France in 2000.



Côte d’Esquillot
A classic of cycling races finishing in Pau, the Esquillot climb will play a leading role in the 2019 edition of La Course as riders will ride up it five times in their 135-km circuit.

Km 21

Jurançon (Pop: 7,100)
Jurancon owes its worldwide reputation to its white wines (a dry one AOC since 1975 and a sweet one AOC since 1936). Jurancon wines were favourites of King Henry IV and of novelist Colette. Legend has it that Henry IV was baptised with jurançon and garlic. The leading grapes used in the making of jurancon are Small and Large Manseng.



Pau
70 previous stages

Population: 77,600 habitants. 162,000 for the 31 communes of Pau Béarn Pyrenees.

Pau has been the start or finale of all types of stages, as the winners list confirms. Climbers like Rene Vietto or Fausto Coppi, attackers like Pierrick Fedrigo or sprinters like Sean Kelly, Erik Zabel or Robie McEwen all raised their arms in the capital of the French Pyrenees. Last year, France’s Arnaud Demare clinched his second Tour de France stage victory in town. With so many starts and finishes on Boulevard des Pyrenees, the Tour could not fail to create cycling vocations and many riders were born in or around Pau. It was the case for Victor Fontan, winner of two stages in 1928 and a yellow jersey holder in 1929, or 1956 team time-trial Olympic champion Arnaud Geyre and more recently Stéphane Augé, who rode the Tour eight times, Mathieu Ladagnous, with six participations, and Team Ineos DS Nicolas Portal, who lives in Pau and also rode six Tours.



Specialties: garbure (soup), poule au pot (hen in the pot),



foie gras, magret and other dishes derived from duck and goose, honey, coucougnettes du Vert Galant (almond chocolate sweets), Verdier chocolates, Francis Miot jam, le « Russe » (The Russian, almond cake with praline), ossau-iraty (cheese), wines (Jurançon, Madiran, Pacherenc).

above_the_cows

above_the_cows

Pau is also the home of a well-known international horse trials, it is the only FEI four-star ranked Three-Day-Event held in France.



Th Pyrennees are also home to the Lourdaise. Named after Lourdes this breed of cow is now critically endangered.

salsiccia1

Above The Cows wrote:

The Pyrennees are also home to the Lourdaise. Named after Lourdes this breed of cow is now critically endangered.

I expect having only three legs isn't helping

FocusZing

Above The Cows wrote:

Fish!

kingstongraham

Salsiccia1 wrote:

Above The Cows wrote:

The Pyrennees are also home to the Lourdaise. Named after Lourdes this breed of cow is now critically endangered.

I expect having only three legs isn't helping

A majestic, rare, beloved beast like that - you don't eat it all in one go.

Lanterne_Rogue

KingstonGraham wrote:

Salsiccia1 wrote:

Above The Cows wrote:

The Pyrennees are also home to the Lourdaise. Named after Lourdes this breed of cow is now critically endangered.

I expect having only three legs isn't helping

A majestic, rare, beloved beast like that - you don't eat it all in one go.

Little known fact - I speak fluent cow and can read their names in the way they stand.

This one is called Eileen.

blazing_saddles

Tomorrow's order of depart.

https://www.tissottiming.com/File/00031 ... FFFFFFFF02

Martin, Haga and Asgreen, 4th,5th and 6th off the ramp. Quite a battle for the hot seat, right there.

I notice all the recognized trialists finished in the laughing group today.

Lanterne_Rogue

Not gonna lie - this looks a bit sketchy:



Credit: https://twitter.com/InsidePeloton96/status/1151924355124858881

daninexile

For some reason I really fancy Asgreen for tomorrow.

above_the_cows

underlayunderlay wrote:

KingstonGraham wrote:

Salsiccia1 wrote:

Above The Cows wrote:

The Pyrennees are also home to the Lourdaise. Named after Lourdes this breed of cow is now critically endangered.

I expect having only three legs isn't helping

A majestic, rare, beloved beast like that - you don't eat it all in one go.

Little known fact - I speak fluent cow and can read their names in the way they stand.

This one is called Eileen.

I think Eileen needs a blanket to cover herself up.

above_the_cows

DELETE

RichN95.

Above The Cows wrote:

I'll never understand why the horse doesn't have the sense just to go around that obstacle. It's not like it's Beecher's Brook and it's a long way around.

gsk82

I'm surprised they have Bernal and Thomas going off one after the other. Are those timings final?

RichN95.

gsk82 wrote:

I'm surprised they have Bernal and Thomas going off one after the other. Are those timings final?

There's no real reason why they shouldn't. Bernal is hardly going to sit up and wait and he's not going to lose two minutes let alone three over 27k.

FocusZing

Is it lumpy enough for Alaphilippe to not drop too much time? The weathers supposed to be good so their shouldn't be any spills. I'd ask Eileen but I don't think she's online.

RichN95.

FocusZing wrote:

Is it lumpy enough for Alaphilippe to not drop too much time? The weathers supposed to be good so their shouldn't be any spills. I'd ask Eileen but I don't think she's online.

Alaphilippe is a good TTer when he needs to be (which is rarely). He'll still be in yellow tomorrow evening.

FocusZing

RichN95 wrote:

FocusZing wrote:

Is it lumpy enough for Alaphilippe to not drop too much time? The weathers supposed to be good so their shouldn't be any spills. I'd ask Eileen but I don't think she's online.

Alaphilippe is a good TTer when he needs to be (which is rarely). He'll still be in yellow tomorrow evening.

I hope he is, it will make a much better race of it with Ineos looking so strong.

RichN95.

If anyone is still in doubt as to who Ineos's leader is (spoiler: it's Thomas), look which following car Portal is in. Not only is he the main DS, but he also lives in Pau so knows the roads intimately.

awavey

not even a mention of La Course ?

blazing_saddles

awavey wrote:

not even a mention of La Course ?

Of course not.
This thread says stage 13 of The Tour, not another Dutch benefit criterium.

Lanterne_Rogue

Blazing Saddles wrote:

awavey wrote:

not even a mention of La Course ?

Of course not.
This thread says stage 13 of The Tour, not another Dutch benefit criterium.

I think the question was aimed at the ASO...

darkhairedlord

underlayunderlay wrote:

Blazing Saddles wrote:

awavey wrote:

not even a mention of La Course ?

Of course not.
This thread says stage 13 of The Tour, not another Dutch benefit criterium.

I think the question was aimed at the ASO...

Not sure if they're on here much these days, might be busy.

Lanterne_Rogue

darkhairedlord wrote:

underlayunderlay wrote:

Blazing Saddles wrote:

awavey wrote:

not even a mention of La Course ?

Of course not.
This thread says stage 13 of The Tour, not another Dutch benefit criterium.

I think the question was aimed at the ASO...

Not sure if they're on here much these days, might be busy.

Not publicising La Course they're not.

Alejandrosdog

underlayunderlay wrote:

darkhairedlord wrote:

underlayunderlay wrote:

Blazing Saddles wrote:

awavey wrote:

not even a mention of La Course ?

Of course not.
This thread says stage 13 of The Tour, not another Dutch benefit criterium.

I think the question was aimed at the ASO...

Not sure if they're on here much these days, might be busy.

Not publicising La Course they're not.

As a time passing exercise I like seeing the local junior riders having a go as I wait beer in hand for the main event.

larkim

So ignoring the stage win, if Thomas is the benchmark, what's the expectation for the rest of the top 20's gains / losses against him? At least +30s for most?

RichN95.

larkim wrote:

So ignoring the stage win, if Thomas is the benchmark, what's the expectation for the rest of the top 20's gains / losses against him? At least +30s for most?

I'd go in the range of 15 seconds (Porte/Kruijswijk if they nail it) to 2 minutes (Martin/Bardet)

m.r.m.

Shouldn't the lumpiness play into Porte's strength of going fast in uphill TT's? Then again it's Porte at a GC so he will probably crash or flat and lose 50 seconds.

larkim

RichN95 wrote:

larkim wrote:

So ignoring the stage win, if Thomas is the benchmark, what's the expectation for the rest of the top 20's gains / losses against him? At least +30s for most?

I'd go in the range of 15 seconds (Porte/Kruijswijk if they nail it) to 2 minutes (Martin/Bardet)

Bernal and Kruijswijk are the key ones I guess, and Alaphilippe just adds added interest as he ought to narrowly retain yellow and should get within 60s of Thomas with the motivation to stay in yellow?

keef_zip

larkim wrote:

RichN95 wrote:

larkim wrote:

So ignoring the stage win, if Thomas is the benchmark, what's the expectation for the rest of the top 20's gains / losses against him? At least +30s for most?

I'd go in the range of 15 seconds (Porte/Kruijswijk if they nail it) to 2 minutes (Martin/Bardet)

Bernal and Kruijswijk are the key ones I guess, and Alaphilippe just adds added interest as he ought to narrowly retain yellow and should get within 60s of Thomas with the motivation to stay in yellow?

He'll not be within 60s of Thomas.

RichN95.

A reminder of the Dauphine TT over a similar distance and terrain. Alaphilippe 7th. A surprisingly good ride by A.Yates in 6th

https://cqranking.com/men/asp/gen/race.asp?raceid=35225