After 3 long days in a row Stage 5 is shorter at 160.5 km, but with a brutal mountain top finish up the category 1 La Planche Des Belles Fillies it will not feel any better for the riders. The course starts in Vittel and travels through the Vosges region featuring several hills and a category 3 Cote d'Esmouliers before heading towards the summit finish.
| Stage Type | Hilly |
|---|---|
| Stage Distance | 160.08 km |
| Estimated Time | 03:52:55 |
| Avg. Peloton Speed | 41.24 km/h |
| Avg. Pulling Power | 353.52 watts |
| Avg. Pulling Yaw | 1.85 ° |
At 5.9 km long the final climb up La Planche Des Belles Fillies is not long but it is a steeper than the tour usually tackles at an average grade of 8.5% and featuring several sections of 14-20% grades. Once the grades get over 13% the weight side of watts/kg start to tilt more towards the smaller riders. Larger riders have a hard time maintaining the raw wattage to stay in contact. This is where Porte and Quintana could try taking some time out of Froome. With several sections of steep elevation we could see several attacks on the final climb and the true GC contenders rising from the rest.
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 5 Race Plan: https://www.bestbikesplit.com/client/71388