“The sprints can follow each other, but do not necessarily look alike,” warns Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme. After a flat session, Friday, between Mont-de-Marsan (Landes) and Bordeaux, place, Saturday, July 8, at an eighth stage with a rugged profile. On the menu of the day for the peloton: 201 kilometers of racing between Libourne (Gironde) and Limoges (Haute-Vienne).
After a warm-up and an intermediate sprint at kilometer 79, the riders will have a lot to do in the last seventy terminals, where the three listed climbs will follow one another: the Côte de Champs-Romain (2.8 km at 5, 2%, 3rd category), the coast of Masmont (1.3 km at 5.5%, 4th category) and finally the coast of Condat-sur-Vienne (1.2 km at 5.4%, 4th category). “Where Limoges can reserve surprises, the finish of the day will be rather open to the most explosive sprinters, capable of cashing in a short, but difficult climb in stairs to win in the final”, sums up the boss of the test.
From the capital of porcelain – which has already appeared fifteen times on the map of the Grande Boucle –, the followers remember Lance Armstrong crossing the line of the 18th stage of the 1995 edition alone, fingers pointing skyward in tribute to his Italian teammate Fabio Casartelli, who died a few days earlier in the descent of Portet-d’Aspet (Haute-Garonne). That year, the Texan was not yet a contender for the yellow jersey, a cancer survivor or even a runner convicted of doping…
