Tour de France 2014 Route stage 8: Tomblaine

Tour de France 2014 Route stage 8: Tomblaine - Gérardmer

Saturday, July 12th – a 161 kilometre ride, leaving Tomblaine and finishing in Gérardmer. A flat stage before 3 tough climbs in the last 20 kilometres and the first summit finish of the Tour. (Slideshow route/profile)

Tomblaine is located in the northeastern part of France. The town hosted stage 7 in the 2012 Tour de France, a ride to La Planche des Belles Filles (which features this year in stage 10). Chris Froome won the stage that year and Bradley Wiggins took the yellow jersey, which he kept all the way to Paris.

Today’s finish is more to the north of the Vosges. The ride is mainly flat, but then kicks up in the last 19 kilometres. The ski village of La Mauselaine marks the first summit finish of the 2014 Tour.

There are two climbs before that last one however. First up is the Col de la Croix des Moinats, an ascent of 7.6 kilometres with an average gradient of 6%. A relatively smooth introduction…

Next is Grosse Pierre. A short, steep climb, just 3 kilometres long but extremely tough. The max gradient is 16%, situated near the top of the climb.

The final climb is similar, from Gérardmer to La Mauselaine. It’s 1.8 kilometres long with an average gradient of 10.3% and max 13%. One for the puncheurs maybe.