The queen stage did a number on many of the riders going into the rest day. The relatively short/flat Stage 10 from Périgueux to Bergerac will be a welcome day back for most of the teams. The course features two category 4 climbs but the final 30 km are very flat. The sprint on this stage will be tricky with two sharp left turns under 1 km with the last with about 500 meters from the line.
| Stage Type | Flat |
|---|---|
| Stage Distance | 178.02 km |
| Estimated Time | 04:05:45 |
| Avg. Peloton Speed | 43.46 km/h |
| Avg. Pulling Power | 349.24 watts |
| Avg. Pulling Yaw | 2.31 ° |
Temperatures should be in the mid 20s for most of the ride which will be a bit of relief over the previous week where temps were often over 30. The winds are low but primarily out of the west. With the course layout this means the first 100 km of the course will be a mix of tail and cross winds where breakaways could get some big time gaps; however, the last 70 km should be into a headwind.
We would not expect any breaks to stick here. With Demare out of the race, another big win for Kittel could start to lock up the Green Jersey points competition. If the forecast holds the headwind section would make it hard for a break to stay away from any concentrated effort by the peloton. The final sprint into Bergerac is very tricky and favors positioning and big accelerations. Getting position and back up to speed after the sharp left hand turn at 500 meters could make or break the sprint. Michael Matthews narrowed the Green Jersey point gap a bit with a huge push for the intermediate sprint on Stage 9. He will need another huge effort and a bit of luck to take out Kittel tomorrow.
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 10 Race Plan: https://www.bestbikesplit.com/client/72115