If it was known that the 2023 Tour de France would be defined in the mountains, it was necessary to look for one of the most fearsome to give the penultimate touch to the general classification, the ascent to the Col de la Loze, the roof of this edition, considered by the runners as a hell.
In the shadow of Mont Blanc, where the Gallic rounds have deposited their luggage on their alpine journey, the 165.7 kilometers between Saint-Gervais and Courchevel They propose a typical mountain landscape, with the snowy colossus reigning over the roads.
And after having already passed 16 tough stages, with an average of over 42 km/h, this Tour is heading to enter the list of the most frantic and the peloton faces what for many is the queen stage, a day after having sought the limits in the demanding Combloux time trial.
There is no rest and the bicycle will have to roll again through impossible slopes in a day that exceeds 5,000 meters of positive slope, crossing two ‘firsts’, the Col de Saliseswith 13.4 kilometers at 5.1%, that of Roselend, 19.9 kilometers at 6%, and the most modest of Longefoy6.6 kilometers at 7.5%.
They will not be more than opening acts those destined to mark the future of the stage facing the final showsplendid, which promises an intense battle, the kind that hardly leaves the general indifferent.
With the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar forced to come back, after the exhibition of the Danish Jonas Vingegaard in the time trial, the climb to the Loze appears as a battlefield in which third place will also be settled, separated only by 5 seconds between the British Adam Yates and the Spanish Carlos Rodríguez.
The Col de la Loze promises a fight, because it combines distance and hardness, distributed unevenly up to the 2,304 meters of altitudewhich are reached by a final stretch of the most impossible that cycling proposes.
Total, 28.1 kilometers at 6%, data that is not very relevant, that hides a different reality, because if the first part is laid, even with a descent zone, the last six, once you enter Meribel, the road enters the dimension of mountaineering.
24% wall
There begins hell, a slope that does not fall below 10% but it contains a wall in 24, where the bicycle does not go up if the cyclist does not support all his weight on the pedal and where it is difficult to exceed 10 kilometers per hour.
You can barely ride on that road, to which is added the fatigue of more than two weeks of competition and the charged environment of an atmosphere above the 2.000 metroswith the scarcest oxygen to feed the lungs.
The Loze is a newcomer to the tour Legend, because there was no road that led to that inhospitable place. It was an unpaved road used by ski resort employees for slope maintenance, but it was decided to put tar on it in 2019.
An initial test in Tour of the Future of that year and, immediately, the race of the majors fell at his feet, enraptured by the extreme.
That first edition, the Tour placed its goal above and the Colombian Miguel Angel Lopez inscribed his name on top, while the Slovenian Primoz Roglic he strengthened his yellow jersey stalked by his compatriot Pogacar.
The world discovered a colossus that has only taken three years to return, although this time in another version, with a slightly longer slope, although the hellish section is the same, and a descent to Courchevel, which gives the stage other ingredients.
Once at the top, where an exceptional bonus of 8, 5 and 3 seconds for the first three Once they cross it, there will be just over six kilometers to go to win the stage, in a frantic descent down a narrow road towards the city before crashing into the last kilometer of ascent to the altiport that houses the finish line.
An additional incentive to turn the stage closest to heaven into a whole hell.
Stage 17: Saint Gervais Mont Blanc – Courchevel, 165.7 km
Salida: 12.30pm (10.30 GMT)
Expected arrival: 17.22 hours (15.22 GMT)
Mountain:
Col des Saisies (1a), 13.5 km at 5.1%, 137.3 from the finish line
Cormet de Roselend (1a), 20 km at 6%, 99 km from the finish line
Cota de Longefoy (2a)6.7 km at 7.5%, 60 from the finish line
Col de la Loze (E), 28.4 km at 6%, 6.6 from the finish line.
2023-07-19 06:00:18
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