‘Savage’ climb awaits riders in next stage
STATION DES ROUSSES, France — After nearly 900 miles in eight days of racing, the suffer-fest Tour de France turns the pain dial up a notch, or five. How does scaling half the height of Everest in one day sound?
That’s the challenge lurking Sunday for the 193 tired and sunbaked riders who have made it this far.
For the moment, when race leader Chris Froome of Great Britain looks over his shoulder, he sees a gaggle of challengers hot on his heels. Just 61 seconds separate him from 10th-place 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 Sunday — three of them so tough they defy categorization on cycling’s sliding scale of climbing toughness. “A monster stage” is how Froome described it.
Total elevation, when all the ascents are added together: 15,000 feet. That’s just shy of the height of western Europe’s
highest peak, Mont Blanc, and belly button height on 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 percent 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.
“That climb is savage,” Froome said. “I imagine it’s going to blow the general classification right open.”
Complicating matters: Saturday’s stage, also in the Jura mountains, was far from easy.
Froome’s teammates at Sky had to push hard to make sure that those 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 it Sunday and run out of juice on the 112-mile Stage 9 from Nantua to Chambery in the Alps, arguably the most grueling of the Tour’s 21 stages.
Grinding away from pursuers on a small mountain road more suited to goats than riders, Frenchman 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.
Froome rode in 50 seconds after Calmejane — plenty close enough to retain the yellow jersey — in a group with the other top contenders for overall victory in Paris on July 23.
Calmejane held off Dutch rider Robert Gesink, hot on his heels, on the final climb and rolling finish. Cramping from his effort, Calmejane had to slow and rise off his saddle to stretch his legs in the final section and then gritted his teeth and pedaled onward.
“I gave myself a huge fright,” Calmejane said of his cramps. “It would have been so sad to lose the stage like that.”