Friday 25: 13:30โ13:40 โ 17:15โ17:45
This is the second and last alpine stage. There is a little bit less elevation gain than on the previous day, but the stage is very short and therefore there is even fewer flat sections. A breakaway paradise?
Mountain classification
- T. Pogatchar ๐ธ๐ฎ UAE โ 105 pts
- J. Vingegaard ๐ฉ๐ฐ Visma โ 89 (-16)
- L. Martinez ๐ซ๐ท Bahrein โ 72 (-33)
- T. Arensman ๐ณ๐ฑ Ineos โ 65 (-40)
- B. O'Connor ๐ฆ๐บ Jayco โ 51 (-54)
Are available tomorrow, in order of apparition:
- 5 points at Hรฉry/Ugine;
- 10 points on the Col des Saisies;
- 20 points on the Col du Prรฉ;
- 5 points on the Cormet de Roselend;
- and 20 points in La Plagne.
That's a maximum of 60 points.
There will still be 9 extra points to grab on the hills the day after, and 5 more on the final Paris stage.
BREAKING NEWS
For a ludicrous reason, the stage will be shortened by 40 km.
The first 2 climbs are cancelled! (and the Sprint is either moved or cancelled too.) They will go straight from Albertville to Beaufort by a valley road. If you have good eyes, you can see Beaufort on my map; if you haven't, you can see it on the profile ๐
The start will be postponed by one hour โ 14:30 French Time.
Therefore, there won't be 60 mountain points to grab but only 45.
edit: here are the new map and profile:
As you can see, there will be an Intermediate Sprint after 12 km (therefore in a type of location very similar to the original one).
What was the reason given for the shortening of the stage?
There is an epidemic amongst cows. Cattle breeders / milk farmers are ~~unhappy~~ angry (unhappy is their normal condition, when they attack at night green and left-wing party offices with the blessing of police forces which just watch them without stopping them, without bringing them in, without even registering IDs or vehicle plates). When farmers are angry, they attack anything that vaguely looks related to the State, or common good. The State refuses to apply law and order when it is about farmers, the State just caves in (unless it happens in Paris, where suddenly they find their gas canisters and truncheons again). If there was a left-wing demonstration, the Police / riot squad would just spray teargas everywhere, beat 'em up and cuff the whole lot; but they let those Poujadist, semi-fascist, semi-mafia organisations do whatever damage they wish to do and often grant them what they want (rinse and repeat).
So, as the Police will not do its job, the Tour has to go somewhere else.