NANTUA CHAMBÉRY

DISTANCE 181KM TERRAIN MOUNTAIN

If the Tour’s opening salvo in the Jura didn’t live up to Prudhomme’s promise of steeper, there’s no debate about this stage – probably the most demanding course of the entire race. Climbing from Kilometre Zero out of Nantua, the first of three hors category climbs comes with the Col de la Biche (10.5km at 9 per cent). Then it’s the familiar Grand Colombier from an unfamiliar – indeed unprecedented – direction for the Tour. Picking the climb up in Virieu-le-Petit, the road averages 9.9 per cent for 8.5km, despite a couple of easy kilometres at the start and in the middle. The fifth kilometre, at 14.5 per cent, will do damage, while the equally imposing Mont du Chat (8.7km at 10.3 per cent), last seen way back in 1974 with a titanic tussle between Eddy Merckx and Raymond Poulidor, will make the peloton feel as though they’re contesting the vertiginous Vuelta a España. Tired bodies and minds will reach the summit knowing they’ll need their wits about them on the descent into Chambéry. Any fearless descender looking to gain time will have to balance the fact that there remains a flatter 10km into the line. There will be a full recce in the next issue.