Stage 14 - The Pyrenees Begin.....

Revel - Ax-3 Domaines, 184 km

 

The Tour’s decisive stages start with a tough test that begins easily enough but has two tasty peaks to spice up the closing kilometres.  The Port de Pailhères didn’t feature before 2003 but has become a Tour favourite with this being the 3rd time the riders have been up it in the last 8 years. It ramps up severely over a series of hairpins towards the summit, where the last 5km of the Pailhères switchbacks up a 10-foot-wide “road.”  After a rapid descent into Ax-les-Thermes the riders will reach the the foot of the final climb.  Ax-3 Domaines isn’t long and but has a gradient exceeding 10% in some sections - this should result in some significant time gaps

 

Climbs

• Km 155.5 - Port de Pailhères - 15.5 km climb to 7.9 % - Category H
• Km 183.0 - Ax-3-Domaines - 7.8 km climb to 8.2 % - Category 1

This is another cracking stage, a summit finish preceded by a HC climb.  I think we will see a breakaway get a few minutes down the road with the riders looking to give them selves every possible chance of staying away and collecting maximum KOM points.  It won't happen.  Astana and Saxo Bank will shred the Peloton at the base of the Pailhères and the GC group of 20 or so will fight up the slopes.  A few lower down the order might look to take advantage of Schleck and Contador marking each other and summit first with the chance to take some risks on the descent and start the final climb ahead of the big names.  After Andy Schleck  showed some fairly ordinary technical skills going down the Col du Madeleine the other day it may be Contador that chooses to attack on the first climb rather than the second and use the descent to put even more time into Schleck.  The group will be whittled down up the first climb, come back together on the downhill and be torn apart again by the second climb.  The high percentage gradients favour Contador - i think we will see Schleck and him go head to head on both mountains - but the damage will be done on the second and i think Contador might come out with a Yellow Jersey.

Whatever happens, the race starts in earnest here.  The next four stages are epic and this is not to be missed.