Stage 8 is the hilly prologue to the first true mountain stage on Sunday. The course starts in Dole and travels 187.5 km to the Station des rouses atop the Cat 1 Cote de la Combe de Laisia-Les. The first 30 km are flat before the course starts its lumpy trek upward toward the Cat 3 Col de la Joux at 101.5 km and the Cat 2 Cote de Viry at 138.5 km. The final 11 km of the race to Station des rouses are flat so there is not a true mountain top finish.
| Stage Type | |
|---|---|
| Stage Distance | 187.74 km |
| Estimated Time | 04:46:29 |
| Avg. Peloton Speed | 39.32 km/h |
| Avg. Pulling Power | 344.16 watts |
| Avg. Pulling Yaw | 1.55 ° |
Temperatures will be hot early and with a primary tail wind heading towards the mountains. Once the riders make the turn towards Cote de la Combe de Laisia-Les the wind will be in front of them and the temperatures will drop a bit as they start to climb. The last 11 km is forecasted to be a light headwind, but after the hard category 1 climb it might feel stronger.
It seems everyday there is a break early and we would expect one here as well. With the hilly positive gradient and a slight tail, a break could put some significant time into the peloton. The climbs are longer, but not nearly as steep as Stage 5 so we would not expect any big GC moves. Sky may be happy to actually let the Jersey go if a break really wanted to work hard with the first true mountain stage looming on Sunday. If a rider wanted to try to solo in from a break a steep section of over 14% from 168-169 km could be the deciding move, but with 11 km of flat to the finish there is a lot of real estate to be pulled back in.
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 8 Race Plan: https://www.bestbikesplit.com/client/71760