Starting in Moirans-en-Montagne, France, the course takes the riders 209 km to Berne which is the capital of Switzerland and the home of Fabian Cancellara. The course actually traverses the Jura Mountain range, but there is only one categorized climb on stage 16. That being the category 4, Côte de Mühleberg at 1.2 km and an average grade of 4.8%. The finish could be exciting with its small 600 meter cobbled climb just before the last kilometer and then a completely flat sprint into the finish.
| Stage Type | |
|---|---|
| Stage Distance | 209.04 km |
| Estimated Time | 04:49:13 |
| Avg. Peloton Speed | 43.37 km/h |
| Avg. Pulling Power | 356.62 watts |
| Avg. Pulling Yaw | 2.91 ° |
What little wind there is will be a cross wind for most of the course but will shift slightly to a very low cross/headwind in the last 50km of the race. With wind speeds forecasted under 10 km/h it should not have a significant impact on the stage. Following the trend of the last week of the tour, temperatures will remain high in the mid to upper 20s. Humidity rises throughout the trip into Bern so riders might start to feel the heat more over the long 209 km stage.
With a trip to the home of Cancellara, he may be looking at the best course for a stage win. Though riders like Sagan will be itching to get in a small break to have a chance to win another smaller group sprint. The cobbled section is a little more than a 1.5 km from the finish, so an attack here would have to be decisive to stay away as it flattens out over the last km. Looking at the TIme Analysis tool there are plenty of places for breaks to go, but the peloton should also have a no problem reeling any move in, if they chose to try to set up a sprint. Riders hoping to be in the mix for the stage win will want to be in contact with any leading group over the category 4 Côte de Mühleberg at 183.5km, because it will be hard to make up significant time over the last 25 km.
Analysis was performed by modeling the peloton as a single rider using front of the pack drag characteristics and pulling power targets. Take a look at the entire race plan that was used for this analysis, which includes additional features, metrics and downloadable files.
Stage 16 Race Plan: https://www.bestbikesplit.com/client/44673