Tour de France 2024: discover the profile and timetables of the 19th stage, the queen stage to ensure Pogacar's final victory ?
Le Maillot Jaune Tadej Pogacar pourrait accentuer son avance au général. MAXPPP - GUILLAUME HORCAJUELO
l'essentiel "Là-haut on respire avec une paille": le Tour de France va tutoyer le ciel vendredi lors de l’étape-reine entre Embrun et Isola 2 000 qui sera l’une des dernières chances de Jonas Vingegaard de renverser Tadej Pogacar.
2 802 meters : this is the altitude to which the peloton will climb during an extraordinary 19th stage with no less of three peaks above the two thousand mark in a country where oxygen is scarce.
To warm up, there is the Col de Vars (2 109 m). To complete the final ascent to Isola 2,000. And in the middle, the summit of the Bonnette, the highest paved road in France, surpassed in Europe only by the Otztal glacier road in Austria and the Pico Veleta in Spain, knowing that these roads do not connect two valleys , which opens a debate for purists.
The stage profile. FREE NOON
"We can't go any higher. This is an extreme stage for climbers. Already above 2,000 it starts to be complicated. At 2 800 you breathe through a straw", underlines Thierry Gouvenou, the architect of the course.
The history of the summit is original. A mule trail at the start, which became an imperial road under Napoleon III, the road stopped until the 1960s at the Col de la Bonnette, at 2,715 m.
"It’is far"
A 1.2 kilometer loop at 7.3% average was then added "solely with the aim of beating Iseran (2 764 m) which was at the time the highest asphalt road in Europe", says the director of the Tour de France, Christian Prudhomme.
Despite the beauty of the place, in a setting of black rock in the heart of the Mercantour Massif, the summit of Bonnette is not often on the Tour de France program, this will be the fifth passage only after 1962, 1964, 1993 and 2008, because it’is "very southeast, very far away and therefore not easy to fit into a route"< /em>, explains Christian Prudhomme.
The configuration of the 2024 edition with a final finish on Sunday in Nice, due to the Olympic Games in Paris, favored its return to the Tour map. The place is magnificent but looks like a trap for Tadej Pogacar, yellow jersey with a 3’11 lead over Jonas Vingegaard in the general classification.
"If there is an imbalance between Pogacar and Vingegaard, that's where it can get back into line because all the The world does not have the same reaction to altitude and it may be hot. There is a way to break down as he had broken down in the Granon", underlines Gouvenou.
Pogacar "adores"
In fact, in recent years the Slovenian has shown signs of weakness at high altitude, systematically beaten by the Dane, whether at Ventoux in 2021, at Granon in 2022 or at the Col de la Loze last summer. At the presentation of the course in October, Vingegaard curled his mustache and said: "I am very happy with what I’ saw".
But Pogacar says he no longer fears what was one of his weaknesses, as he readily admits. The UAE leader changed trainers this winter to do specific work of adapting to the heat and altitude.
"I’love the Bonnette", assures "Pogi" who climbed it for the first time last August, a long ascent of 22.9 km at 6.9%. He also knows perfectly the climb to Isola 2 000 where he spent three weeks on training just before the start of the Tour.
It remains to be seen how he will digest the sequence of these three passes at high altitude, a remark which also applies to Remco Evenepoel, third overall. And if that's not enough, another Maousse stage awaits the riders the next day between Nice and the Col de la Couillole with four new climbs, including three first category.
Actual departure from Embrun at 12:30 p.m., arrival at Isola 2:000 around 4:45 p.m.
About The Author
