TDF 2020 - Stage 15: Lyon - Grand Colombier 174.5 km *Spoilers*
blazing_saddles
Posts: 21,534
Stage 15: Lyon - Grand Colombier 174.5 km
The Tour de France presents an interesting concept in stage 15. Starting in Lyon, the race runs to the Grand Colombier to tackle the pass in the Jura mountains from three different sides.
The route is 175 kilometres long and, obviously, the race finishes atop the Grand Colombier. The final climb of the mountain, the one where it won’t be possible to hide will start in Culoz. The battle promises to be intense on the eve of the second rest day!
Climbing the same mountain several times, it is not very common on the Tour, although not entirely new. The 18th stage of the 2013 Tour of France tackled the climb to Alpe d’Huez twice. On the 13th of September three of the four access roads up the Grand Colombier will be covered. The last ascent goes all the way to the summit, which will be a first for the Tour.
The first part of the race is nothing special. On rolling roads the riders travel east until hitting the Montée de la Selle de Fromentel with 57 kilometres remaining.
Amounting to 11.1 kilometres at 8.1%, the climb hold its trump cards up its sleeve until the last three kilometres. Respectively, these go up at 11.5%, 14.5% and 12.5% – on average!
The riders plunge down into the valley and shortly the Col de la Biche appears. The first kilometres are nothing special, but the Col de la Biche bares its teeth after 3 kilometres. The actual climb is 6.9 kilometres long and the average gradient sits at 8.9%. The middle section is toughest with double digit gradients for 2 relentless kilometres.
With the preliminary climbs of the race done we should be able to pinpoint whether or not the stage winner is part of the breakaway. If the gap is big enough, yes, but when the GC riders are approaching rapidly the Grand Colombier stage could easily turn into a huge battle for the yellow jersey. Whatever the scenario, the finish climb is going to be brutal.
The last ascent goes all the way to the top of the Grand Colombier. The haul up begins in Culoz and amounts to 17.4 kilometres, in which the riders conquer an elevation gain of 1,244 metres. The average slope is 7.1% with some stretches peaking out to 12%. The last 400 metres are especially interesting as this section rises at 10%.
Thibaut Pinot and Primoz Roglic climbed to victory on these slopes in the Tour de l’Ain of 2019 (Pinot) and 2020 (Roglic).
The race to the Grand Colombier will be a strong indicator of the contenders to wear the yellow jersey into Paris. So what about Thibaut Pinot. Is he going to put his loss in the GC to good use on a mountain he loves?
Favourites 15th stage 2020 Tour de France
*** Thibaut Pinot, Primoz Roglic, Egan Bernal
** Mikel Landa, Tadej Pogacar, Nairo Quintana, Richie Porte
* Daniel Felipe Martínez, Miguel Ángel López, Guillaume Martin
Grand Colombier
Summit (1,531 m) of the Jura massif in Ain (01)
No previous stage, site visited four times in the course of a stage.
GRAND COLOMBIER AND CYCLING
Tackled for the first time by the Tour de France in 2012 after being for a long time the main ascent in the Tour de l’Ain, Grand Colombier is about to become a classic climb of the Tour, especially after this first finish at the top. Considered as one of the most difficult climbs in France, it was reached in the front by Thomas Voeckler in 2012, Rafal Majka in 2016 and by Warren Barguil in 2017. Peaking at 1,501 metres, it has always crowned the future winner of the KOM jersey. Five stages of the Tour de l’Ain finished at the top of Grand Colombier, the last two won by Frenchman Thibaut Pinot in 2011 and 2019. The first summit finish was held in the 1980 Tour de l’Avenir, and was won by Russian legend Sergei Soukhoroutchenkov.
Specialties: Diots au marc du Bugey (sausage), truffle of Bugey, salé (walnut and onion tart). Cheese (Tome de Belley, Pavé d’Affinois, Comté in Arvière-en-Valromey). Sugar tart. Wines of Bugey (AOC), Kario distillery plant liquours, wines of Seyssel AOP (Altesse « Roussette » and Molette), AOP Roussette de Savoie cru Frangy.
The Tour de France presents an interesting concept in stage 15. Starting in Lyon, the race runs to the Grand Colombier to tackle the pass in the Jura mountains from three different sides.
The route is 175 kilometres long and, obviously, the race finishes atop the Grand Colombier. The final climb of the mountain, the one where it won’t be possible to hide will start in Culoz. The battle promises to be intense on the eve of the second rest day!
Climbing the same mountain several times, it is not very common on the Tour, although not entirely new. The 18th stage of the 2013 Tour of France tackled the climb to Alpe d’Huez twice. On the 13th of September three of the four access roads up the Grand Colombier will be covered. The last ascent goes all the way to the summit, which will be a first for the Tour.
The first part of the race is nothing special. On rolling roads the riders travel east until hitting the Montée de la Selle de Fromentel with 57 kilometres remaining.
Amounting to 11.1 kilometres at 8.1%, the climb hold its trump cards up its sleeve until the last three kilometres. Respectively, these go up at 11.5%, 14.5% and 12.5% – on average!
The riders plunge down into the valley and shortly the Col de la Biche appears. The first kilometres are nothing special, but the Col de la Biche bares its teeth after 3 kilometres. The actual climb is 6.9 kilometres long and the average gradient sits at 8.9%. The middle section is toughest with double digit gradients for 2 relentless kilometres.
With the preliminary climbs of the race done we should be able to pinpoint whether or not the stage winner is part of the breakaway. If the gap is big enough, yes, but when the GC riders are approaching rapidly the Grand Colombier stage could easily turn into a huge battle for the yellow jersey. Whatever the scenario, the finish climb is going to be brutal.
The last ascent goes all the way to the top of the Grand Colombier. The haul up begins in Culoz and amounts to 17.4 kilometres, in which the riders conquer an elevation gain of 1,244 metres. The average slope is 7.1% with some stretches peaking out to 12%. The last 400 metres are especially interesting as this section rises at 10%.
Thibaut Pinot and Primoz Roglic climbed to victory on these slopes in the Tour de l’Ain of 2019 (Pinot) and 2020 (Roglic).
The race to the Grand Colombier will be a strong indicator of the contenders to wear the yellow jersey into Paris. So what about Thibaut Pinot. Is he going to put his loss in the GC to good use on a mountain he loves?
Favourites 15th stage 2020 Tour de France
*** Thibaut Pinot, Primoz Roglic, Egan Bernal
** Mikel Landa, Tadej Pogacar, Nairo Quintana, Richie Porte
* Daniel Felipe Martínez, Miguel Ángel López, Guillaume Martin
Grand Colombier
Summit (1,531 m) of the Jura massif in Ain (01)
No previous stage, site visited four times in the course of a stage.
GRAND COLOMBIER AND CYCLING
Tackled for the first time by the Tour de France in 2012 after being for a long time the main ascent in the Tour de l’Ain, Grand Colombier is about to become a classic climb of the Tour, especially after this first finish at the top. Considered as one of the most difficult climbs in France, it was reached in the front by Thomas Voeckler in 2012, Rafal Majka in 2016 and by Warren Barguil in 2017. Peaking at 1,501 metres, it has always crowned the future winner of the KOM jersey. Five stages of the Tour de l’Ain finished at the top of Grand Colombier, the last two won by Frenchman Thibaut Pinot in 2011 and 2019. The first summit finish was held in the 1980 Tour de l’Avenir, and was won by Russian legend Sergei Soukhoroutchenkov.
Specialties: Diots au marc du Bugey (sausage), truffle of Bugey, salé (walnut and onion tart). Cheese (Tome de Belley, Pavé d’Affinois, Comté in Arvière-en-Valromey). Sugar tart. Wines of Bugey (AOC), Kario distillery plant liquours, wines of Seyssel AOP (Altesse « Roussette » and Molette), AOP Roussette de Savoie cru Frangy.
"Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.
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No spectators on the climbs, I think I heard on the telly earlier. Shame, but definitely the right call.
This is a brute, some will lose a lot of time here.
All 4 routes would be about 115 kms and 5000 meters. The one from Culoz and that from Anglefort join so far up on the east side of the mountain, and on the west side coming from Artemare, at Virieu-le-Petit there is a fork, one road zig-zags east and is shorter and steeper, the other road does a longer N-E-S route and is less steep, these two roads coming together again before the summit.
The most spectacular ascent, or at least its lower part, is the one to be done in this stage, up Les Lacets du Grand Colombier, as shown on the photo (looking to the south, from 2016?) in Blazing's review above.
Here a view from above, looking to the east:
Maybe their "green" mayor has clamped down on good food too?
He does seem to be a right killjoy after all.
I mean, heaven knows what this is:
Other options I had was fancy egg and bacon:
A pork pie:
Or a nuclear explosion in chocolate.
It is the sauce which makes it special - traditionally made from pike fillets pushed through a sieve, so no longer whole, mixed with cream, several beaten eggs, and cayenne pepper (which gives it the slight red colouring). Occasionally chicken may be used instead of the fish (cheaper version).
Food from the Lyon area could have included andouillettes (tripe sausages) but I suspect I'm one of the few who would be happy with that choice (me being a tripe-eater).
The 'sausages in a puddle' aren't andouillettes but are diots – coarsely-ground pork sausages – and the puddle is an onion/wine sauce. Diots are more associated with Savoy, which the Tour won't reach today (although only by a stone's throw, the border is the Rhone river, just east of the flat stretch they cover before the final ascent).
Higuita crashed for a second time trying to get back on.
- @ddraver
Higuita then swung out.
I am not sure. You have no chance.
- @ddraver
The Sporza boys weren't impressed.