Binche Épernay
The peloton leaves Belgium for France in a stage with a punchy, hilly final 50km in champagne country
The Regional Natural Park of the Montagne de Reims is a plateau of chalky rock which rises a few hundred feet above the surrounding flatlands of champagne country. ‘Montagne’ is a hyperbolic description of the topography – the highest point comes at 288m above sea level, though the locals justify the name by referring to the steep slopes around the edge of the plateau. It’s a comparatively uncultivated and forested area, bordered to the south, east and north by the champagne vineyards, the effervescence of whose product the Tour organisers hope will be reflected in the combative possibilities of the puncheurs.
The 2019 Tour peloton is not quite being given the chance to settle in to a rhythm. When stage 1 is a flat one, as in 2019, it’s always nervy and crackling with kinetic energy. Too much is at stake in the team time trial for it to be routine. And stage 3 will see the riders skirt the Montagne de Reims in the final quarter of the stage, over the undulations and folds of its western and southern fringes. There’s enough to work with here to at least eliminate the bigger sprinters, with an uphill though unclassified rise to the finish line as well. ASO have been routinely putting
in stages like this during the first few days of recent Tours, to give the classics riders a chance in between the sprinters’ stages and the climbers’ stages.
The route is also cycling nerd heaven. The start town Binche also hosts the Memorial Frank Vandenbroucke, and the stage passes through the French town of Fourmies, home of the eponymous Grand Prix. Reims has been a regular fixture on the route of the Tour.
The noted cultural critic and philosopher Jean Baudrillard, whose most notorious work is the 1991 book The Gulf War Did Not Take Place, is one of the most famous sons of Reims. With half a dozen short, steep climbs on the route today, the riders’ legs will be sore enough to confirm to them that stage 3 of the 2019 Tour de France definitely did take place.