11-07-2022, 23:05
With typical good timing, I managed to miss all yesterday's action and now when I'm at home all day, it's the second rest day. Today saw the circus (sorry, the TdF entourage) travel the 38 kms to Morzine. Quite a easy transfer considering the first rest day involved a 805 km journey from Denmark to NE France. The only real changes in the classifications saw Simon Geschke take the Polka Dot Jersey on 18 points. One point behind is yesterday's winner, Bob Jungels, with Thibault Pinot a further 4 points behind. No doubt there will be many more changes in the next few days.
Tomorrow's 148km stage from Morzine Les Portes du Soleil to Megeve heads north to Lake Geneva at 48kms then south to the finish at the altiport. It involves 4 categorised climbs culminating in a Category 2 climb immediately after the sprint at 124kms. It seems safe to include Pogacar (but he might save himself for the next two mountain stages) in every prediction and you could add Matej Mohoric and Michael Woods in an unchallenged breakaway, or even Lennard Kamna, who won't be considered as a challenger for the Yellow Jersey.
Megeve is one of the posher parts of the region with expensive real estate and sky-high prices generally and is west of Mont Blanc. There are about 450kms of ski-runs in the immediate area, attracting celebrities like Paul McCartney and Brigitte Bardot.
Albertville to Col du Granon Serre Chevalier is the 151km stage on Wednesday, when we have a sprint at only 16kms when just about anybody could claim points, then a Category 2 climb followed by the Category 1 Col du Telegraphe at a fairly steady 7% gradient, then Category HC Col du Galibier at a 10% gradient at the top, finally ending up on a long and winding road to the finish on Col du Granon, also a Category HC with a middle section of over 10%. Pogacar, Primoz Roglic, Geraint Thomas and Aleksandr Vlasov should be there or thereabouts.
A word of warning to tourists - the local website guides make great store of the region's multitude of wildlife to be spotted. What they don't mention is that half the wildlfe consists of nasty, hungry horseflies.
I might be back for Thursday's 165km stage from Briancon to Alpe d' Huez, but I'll leave this anyway. There is an even earlier sprint at 12kms, which is followed by an ascent of Col du Galibier from a different direction (I'd have thought they would have seen enough of it yesterday, but apparently not) and using approx 70kms of the same roads, followed by another HC climb at Col de la Croix de Fer, which looks slightly easier, but is 29km long. Then after all that the last climb is yet another Category HC to the finish, 14kms long but easing off to 5% over the last 3kms.
Time for another photo -
the 21 hairpin bends on the last climb
![[Image: 220px-Lacets-Alped-Huez.jpg]](https://i.postimg.cc/zXb50hHt/220px-Lacets-Alped-Huez.jpg)
Finally, Thursday 14 July is Bastille Day, so expect a determined effort from the French climbers. David Gaudu and Romain Bardet would be my picks, but there are others to consider including Pogacar, Roglic, Thomas and Jonas Vingegaard.
Tomorrow's 148km stage from Morzine Les Portes du Soleil to Megeve heads north to Lake Geneva at 48kms then south to the finish at the altiport. It involves 4 categorised climbs culminating in a Category 2 climb immediately after the sprint at 124kms. It seems safe to include Pogacar (but he might save himself for the next two mountain stages) in every prediction and you could add Matej Mohoric and Michael Woods in an unchallenged breakaway, or even Lennard Kamna, who won't be considered as a challenger for the Yellow Jersey.
Megeve is one of the posher parts of the region with expensive real estate and sky-high prices generally and is west of Mont Blanc. There are about 450kms of ski-runs in the immediate area, attracting celebrities like Paul McCartney and Brigitte Bardot.
Albertville to Col du Granon Serre Chevalier is the 151km stage on Wednesday, when we have a sprint at only 16kms when just about anybody could claim points, then a Category 2 climb followed by the Category 1 Col du Telegraphe at a fairly steady 7% gradient, then Category HC Col du Galibier at a 10% gradient at the top, finally ending up on a long and winding road to the finish on Col du Granon, also a Category HC with a middle section of over 10%. Pogacar, Primoz Roglic, Geraint Thomas and Aleksandr Vlasov should be there or thereabouts.
A word of warning to tourists - the local website guides make great store of the region's multitude of wildlife to be spotted. What they don't mention is that half the wildlfe consists of nasty, hungry horseflies.
I might be back for Thursday's 165km stage from Briancon to Alpe d' Huez, but I'll leave this anyway. There is an even earlier sprint at 12kms, which is followed by an ascent of Col du Galibier from a different direction (I'd have thought they would have seen enough of it yesterday, but apparently not) and using approx 70kms of the same roads, followed by another HC climb at Col de la Croix de Fer, which looks slightly easier, but is 29km long. Then after all that the last climb is yet another Category HC to the finish, 14kms long but easing off to 5% over the last 3kms.
Time for another photo -
the 21 hairpin bends on the last climb
Finally, Thursday 14 July is Bastille Day, so expect a determined effort from the French climbers. David Gaudu and Romain Bardet would be my picks, but there are others to consider including Pogacar, Roglic, Thomas and Jonas Vingegaard.
Cabbage is still good for you