Stage 13 did not disappoint with a long range attack from Contador and Mikel Landa pulling himself into the top 5. The top GC riders tried various attacks against Aru but none stuck so they remain unchanged time wise going into the hilly Stage 14. Starting in Blagnac just outside the city of Toulouse the course heads northeast and features rolling terrain with Category 3 climbs on the way to a 7% finish into Rodez.
| Stage Type | Hilly |
|---|---|
| Stage Distance | 181.47 km |
| Estimated Time | 04:16:14 |
| Avg. Peloton Speed | 42.49 km/h |
| Avg. Pulling Power | 349.58 watts |
| Avg. Pulling Yaw | 6.77 ° |
The course is fairly exposed and with a 16-18 km/h cross wind there should be a lot of potential break points throughout the stage. Temperatures will also start creeping back up towards 30 celsius.
Several teams have earmarked 14 as a potential stage win for their classics style riders. Sagan would have been an obvious pick though Van Avermaet out sprinted Sagan into Rodez in 2015. BMC will be looking for a win to help salvage the tour after Porte's big crash, but Michael Mathews, Philippe Gilbert and others will have marked this stage as well. Teams will need to control any breaks and if the crosswind picks up that could prove interesting.
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 14 Race Plan: https://www.bestbikesplit.com/client/72524