TDF 2024:-Stage 4: Pinerolo – Valloire, 139.6km ***Spoilers***

blazing_saddles
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edited July 1 in Pro race

TDF 2024:-Stage 4: Pinerolo – Valloire, 139.6km

July 2nd.

Start Time: 12-05BST.

The 4th stage of the Tour de France travels from Pinerolo to the French Alps. The finish is situated in Valloire after the descent from the Col du Galibier. The race is 139.6 kilometres long and the elevation gain add up to 3,600 metres. Before crossing the Italian-French the riders climb to Sestriere. The ascent is 40 kilometres long and sloping at 3.7%.

So, it's only stage 4, but it’s mountains. Not just any mountains either, it’s the Galibier and probably the race’s earliest ‘Souvenir Henri Desgrange’ prize, although it won’t be the highest summit of this year’s race.

Valloire saw only one Tour de France stage finish until now. In 2019, Nairo Quintana soloed to victory from the breakaway.

Profile.

Map

The Climbs.

Sestriere (Cat. 2)


Col de Montgenèvre (Cat. 2)


Col du Galibier (HC)

Climbing 3600m.

Final Kms.

The run from the top of the Galibier to Valloire is recently best remembered for Tom Pidcock's hair raising descending, on his way to victory atop Alpe d'Huez. So, needless to say that these kilometres are technical, at least initially.

What to Expect.

It’s difficult to predict how the race will unfold. Quite possibly a battle among the GC riders, with Pogacar as the main instigator, meaning the others will have no option but to join in. On the other hand, as strong break could make it, but it will depend on how much time can be lost during the first two stages: the smaller the time losses, the less likely a break can make it to the finish.

Pinerolo

Municipality of Piedmont

Stage town for the second time.

Population: 36,000

PINEROLO AND CYCLING

Pinerolo has already been visited by the Tour de France in 2011, when this border town hosted the finish of a stage from Gap, the town with which it is twinned. Norwegian Edvald Boasson-Hagen clinched one of his three stage victories in the Tour. It was in 1949 that the town witnessed its greatest cycling exploit, a long-distance breakaway by Fausto Coppi that gave him his second victory in the Giro d'Italia and the first Tour-Giro double that same year.

Specialities: Torta Zurich (cake), panettone bas Pinerolese glazed with hazelnut, Tomino di Talucco and Seirass (cheeses), mustardela (cold meats), bagna caoda (garlic and anchovy sauce), bollito misto à la piémontaise (meats), génépi, Pinerolese wine.

Vitello tonnato

Vitello tonnato (or vitel' tonné) is a typical Piedmontese dish, served fresh, made from slices of veal, covered with a sauce of tuna, egg yolks, anchovies, capers, olive oil and lemon juice. It is often eaten on summer terraces.

Torta 900

The decadent, chocolate-laden Torta Novecento (cake nine hundred), was created by a renowned Canavese master pastry chef Ottavio Bertinotti to celebrate the turn of the 20th century – hence the name. This seemingly simple cake, consisting of a mousse-like chocolate filling sandwiched between two layers of cocoa-flavored sponge cake.

Valloire

Stage town for the 4th time

Savoy mountain resort

Population: 1,150

VALLOIRE AND CYCLING

The Tour de France has not only passed through Valloire, it has also stopped here three times, the first in 1972 for a short 53-km half-stage from Briançon, won by Eddy Merckx ahead of Joop Zoetemelk, who broke away with him in the final. In 1975, the peloton headed from Valloire towards Morzine-Avoriaz, where Spaniard Vicente Lopez-Carril won. In 2019, Nairo Quintana won a stage from Embrun. It was the Colombian's third and most recent Tour de France victory.

Specialities: diots de Valloire (made with carrots, beetroot and beef), farçons valloirins (a white cabbage dish with sultanas, prunes and apples). Cheeses: Borgé (made from raw cow's milk), Tomme de Valloire (recommended by Gault & Millau). La Galibier beer (France's highest quality craft brewery) has won numerous international awards.

Diots de Valloire

Diots are sausages found throughout Savoie, but Valloire diots have the following composition: cabbage, carrot, onion, beetroot, beef and pork fat. 


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