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By David Hunter Montmelian – Saint Gervais Mont Blanc 155km 155km, with 5 cat 1 climbs and a cat 3 climb. Jesus Christ!!! What were the organisers thinking? From the point of a view of a fan, what a stage!
By David Hunter The racing returns to Switzerland, for the last “big” race, before the TDF. We have the usual mix of demanding sprint stages, high mountains and TTs. The race is dominated by a monster mountaintop finish and a 38.4km ITT. You must be a good TT rider to win this race. The opening stage…
By David Hunter Saint Bonnet en Champsaur – Villard de Lans 183km After the fireworks of today, we have another big day. Team Sky, blew Nibali and Valverde away but Froome lost ground to Van Garderen. He must have been feeling very strong, to attack from that distance. It now looks like an error, as it…
By David Hunter Digne les Bains – Pra The cat Loup 161km The sprinters have had their last chance, it’s now time for the GC riders to come out to play. This stage, is an exact copy of stage 17, of the TDF. Riding this, gives an advantage to Froome and Nibali, over Contador and Quintana….
By David Hunter Anneyron – Sisteron 228km The longest stage in the race, in fact, the only stage over 200km. A long and mostly boring day in the saddle. The boredom is punctuated by 3 classified climbs and a long, unclassified bump.
By David Hunter Roanne – Montagny 24.5km I’ll start with a weather update. There is a good chance of rain and thunderstorms, between 11am and 1pm. The wind is coming from the North, so will be a crosswind for most of the stage. It slightly strengthens throughout the day, so favours the earlier starters. Given the…
By David Hunter Le Bourget du Lac – Villars les Dombes 173km The stage opens with an immediate climb, not something the peloton usually likes. The Col du Chat is 2.8km at 6.8% and means that you need to be a solid climber, to enter the morning break. With a cat 2 and cat 1 climb…
By David Hunter Ugine – Albertville 131.5km The race begins with a demanding day in the saddle. The stage is short but the lap circuit, in Albertville, will ensure plenty of attacking.
By David Hunter A week has passed since the Giro and now it’s just 4 weeks until the Tour de France. This represents a last “hit-out” for many of the top contenders for Le Tour. The organisers have decided to rip up the rulebook and completely change the route of the course. The reason, is that…
By David Hunter Torino – Milano 178km At last we are heading to Milan! The race draws to a close, with a processional stage and a sprint finish, in Milan.
By David Hunter Saint Vincent – Sestriere 199km The final mountain stage is here. After one of the hardest grand tours in living memory, the peloton will be happy and scared, all at once. Happy because they are nearly in Milan, but scared of the Colle Delle Finestre. It’s the highest peak of the 2015 edition,…
By David Hunter Gravellona Toce – Cervinia 236km For me, this is the hardest stage in the race. After 18 stages, good weather, bad weather, crazy tactics, wheelgate, short stages, long stages, brutal climbs and crashes galore we reach the Queen stage. At 236km, this stage is long and packs a real punch. The last 85km…
By David Hunter Melide – Verbania 170km A bit of a strange stage. The opening 120km is very easy, but the Monte Ologno, awaits the riders. This is another difficult climb, with steep gradients.
By David Hunter Tirano – Lugano 134km In such a mountain heavy week, this stage is a dream for the peloton. It’s only 134km and doesn’t feature much climbing. The cat 3 climb is 7.4km at 6.5% and comes at the start of the race. If the climb was near the end of the stage, it…
By David Hunter Pinzolo – Aprica 174km After a rest day, this is the last thing the riders want to see. Another relatively short stage, with zero kilometres of flat and five categorised climbs. The weather isn’t going to be kind either, with rain in the morning and showers at the end of the stage. This…
By David Hunter Marostica – Madonna di Campiglio 165km After 2 weeks and 14 stages, time for the first “real” stage. That might be unfair on what we’ve seen already, but the GC battle starts and maybe finishes here. We have another short stage but very, very difficult. The climbing starts from the beginning of the…
By David Hunter Treviso – Valdobbiadene 59.4km I’ll start with the weather report….rain and lots of it! This is not what the GC riders wanted to hear. This stage is hugely important to the overall standings and the wet weather is going to increase the difficulty, considerably. There are plenty of corners and we are bound…
By David Hunter Montecchio Maggiore – Jesolo 147km One of the shortest and certainly the most boring looking profile, of the whole race. A very easy day for the peloton, as the GC riders begin to focus on the ITT. Beware though, we usually get crashes on days like this. This stage is all about the…