There is no rest for the weary at the Tour de France, and after a brutal day in the mountains to the Col de la Loze on Thursday, the peloton will tackle another daunting day of racing on stage 19 into La Plagne on Friday.
The stage was originally 129.9km from Albertville to La Plagne, but has been rerouted and shortened to 95km, bypassing the Col des Saisies, due to the discovery of an outbreak of contagious nodular dermatitis affecting cattle in a herd located in that area.
It marks the second day of racing in the Alps for the peloton. Even shortened, it promises an unrelenting day in the saddle for the riders, especially with their tired legs after stage 18.
They would have covered a total of five categorised ascents, which has now been reduced to four, but two of them are hors categorie: Col du Pré and La Plagne, in what yellow jersey wearer Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) called the 'second queen stage' of the race.
The riders will line up for a ceremonial start in Albertville, and after a 7km parade, they will then enter the D925 for the official start.
They will race up the category two Côte d’Héry-sur-Ugine (11.3km at 5.1%) but bypass the category one Col des Saisies (13.7km at 6.4%).
They will then reach the hors catégorie Col du Pré (12.6km at 7.7%), which leads into the category two Cormet de Roselend (5.9km at 6.3%). Another section of downhill then brings the riders into Bourg-Saint-Maurice, where they will begin the 13km-long valley road to the foot of the final climb.
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Despite not featuring at the Tour de France since 2002, the ascent to La Plagne is steeped in history, evoking memories of Stephen Roche emerging from the clouds in 1987 to limit his losses to Pedro Delgado before going on to win that year’s edition.
The climb itself will be a true test of which riders have kept enough in reserve for the end of the third week, as many will be focusing on just making it to the finish and one step closer to Paris.
Pogačar heads into this stage as the overall leader with a 4:26 advantage over Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) and 11:01 over Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe).
There are still three more stages at the Tour de France, which will conclude on Sunday in Paris, but Pogačar's almost unassailable lead means that he is set to win his fourth title, to go along with his other victories in 2020, 2021 and 2024.
“It looks very good. Today was the Queen stage, tomorrow is the second Queen stage. Let’s go for it, and we’ll see how it goes. Now, it is three more stages left, and then we can go for a vacation," he said
Joseph Lycett is a freelance writer for Cyclingnews and has been covering professional cycling since 2022, writing for outlets such as GCN and Cycling Weekly. Joe is also a keen cyclist himself, regularly racing in his local crit races and time trials.
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