EYMET PAU

DISTANCE 202KM TERRAIN FLAT

Pau, the city that’s behind only Bordeaux (and Paris, obviously) in the number of starts or finishes it’s staged, takes its tally to 70 in 2017 with another couple. It’s a popular rest day location too, given its size and proximity to the Pyrenees, and although that’s not the case this year the sprint finish into town brings up the curtain on a big few days in the area, the third of the five mountain regions of this year’s race. Pau, incidentally, got an unfortunate reputation in the first decade of this century as the site of several in-race drug-related busts – most notably the rest day ejection of race leader Michael Rasmussen, who was fired by Rabobank after lying about his whereabouts.