Going gets tough for riders as Tour hits the high spots
STATION DES ROUSSES, France — After 1,400 kilometres in eight days of racing, the suffer-fest Tour de France now turns the pain dial up a notch or five. How does scaling half the height of Everest in one day sound?
That was the monstrous challenge lurking today for the 193 already tired and sunbaked riders who have made it this far.
For the moment, when race leader Chris Froome looks over his shoulder, he sees a gaggle of challengers hot on his heels. Just 61 seconds separate him from 10th-placed Rafal Majka of Poland. More dangerous contenders are closer still to the three-time Tour champion.
All that will likely change on the succession of seven climbs in eastern France’s Jura mountains today — three of them so tough they defy categorization on cycling’s sliding scale of climbing toughness. “A monster stage” is how Froome described it, predicting the race standings will “get blown to pieces.”
Total elevation, when all the ascents are added together, is 4,600 metres — just shy of the height of western Europe’s highest peak, Mont Blanc, and about halfway up Everest.
The last “hors categorie” climb, Mont du Chat, may be named after a cat, but looks on Tour maps like a lion’s fang. With an average 10 per cent gradient, and even steeper than that in parts, it will push riders already exhausted by the previous six climbs to the very limit.
Hearts pounding, legs burning, they will have no time to recover from its hairpin bends before plunging into more fast, twisting bends on the descent.
Clear heads and quick reactions are a must — not easy when body and brain are screaming for rest.
“That climb is savage,” Froome said. “I imagine it’s going to blow the general classification right open.”
Complicating matters is that Saturday’s stage, also in the Jura mountains, was far from easy.
Froome’s teammates at Sky had to ride hard to make sure that riders who rode off at the front of the race, chasing the stage victory, didn’t get too far ahead and take the overall lead away from him. The question now is whether Sky will pay for the effort today and run out of juice on the 181.5-kilometre Stage 9 from Nantua to Chambery in the Alps, arguably the most gruelling of this Tour’s 21 stages.
“It was good to see them pull on the front,” said Australian Richie Porte of the rival BMC team, who is 39 seconds behind Froome overall, in fifth place. “I hope there’s some tired legs among them tomorrow.”
Grinding away from pursuers on a small mountain road more suited to goats than riders, Lilian Calmejane won Stage 8 to the Rousses ski station, for his first victory in his first Tour.
Calmejane, riding for French team Direct Energie, fought cramps after breaking away on the final climb and hung on, tongue lolling, for victory in only the second visit by the Tour to the Rousses, with its cross-country ski trails through dense forests.
It was the second win at this Tour for a French rider, after Arnaud Demare’s on Stage 4.