After two grueling days in the Alps and a day of rest, the Tour de France peloton is back in the saddle on Tuesday, July 18, with the only time trial of this edition, between Passy and Combloux, in Haute-Savoie. This relatively short individual time (22.4 kilometers) is far from presenting an ideal profile for riders.
For good reason: the Côte de Domancy (2nd category), whose summit points some three kilometers from the finish, will stand on the road of the runners. A 2.5 kilometer long climb – with an average gradient of 9.4% and portions of 15% – and became famous thanks to the title of world champion won here by Bernard Hinault in 1980.
“The fact that there are few time trials will densify the general classification”, argued Mauro Gianetti, the sporting director of Tadej Pogacar’s UAE Emirates team, in the fall of 2022, when the course had been revealed. The Italian was right. After two weeks of racing, only ten small seconds separate the Slovenian, winner of the 2020 and 2021 editions, from the Dane Jonas Vingegaard, yellow jersey in Paris in 2022.
Since the start of the Tour on July 1 in Bilbao (Spain), the two leaders of the peloton have almost always been wheel to wheel. Between Passy and Combloux, on their time trial bikes, Pogacar and Vingegaard will this time be alone against themselves and against the clock. An important point to note: as the leader of the general classification, the Dane will be the last to start, at 5 p.m., two minutes after the Slovenian. He will therefore be able to benefit from the intermediate times of his main opponent and, if he has the means, adjust his effort according to the pace adopted by Pogacar.
Before the start of the Tour, Christian Prudhomme summarized the stakes of the 16th stage as follows: “This is an opportunity for those who will start in yellow to assert their superiority or for their rivals to launch the reconquest likely to spread throughout the week. “The ideal scenario of the boss of the event still holds…
The departure times of the main runners
In bold, the French runners.
