A glorious fight for the breakaway is in the pipeline. Folowing a rolling section of 15 kilometres the riders enter the Col des Saises, which is a climb of 13.3 kilometres at 5.3%. The route descends to Beaufort only to return to climbing. The Cormet de Rozelend is 19.9 kilometres long and averaging 6%. Let’s see how the breakaway rolls by now.
Following a prolonged downhill the duo Côte de Longefoy and Notre-Dame-du-Pré serves a relatively minor obstacle. Still 55 kilometres to go when the riders move through the village.
The Tour descends to Moûtiers and moments later, in Brides-les-Bains, the Col de la Loze opens on a gentle note. The climb totals almost 30 kilometres, but the first half is nothing special. The gradients go up to 7% after Méribel, which is still nothing compared to the last 5 kilometres. This part of the Col de la Loze was first paved in 2019 and it’s extremely irregular. Still, the average gradient of the last 5 kilometres sits at over 10%.
A 6 kilometres downhill, with a short uphill halfway, leads to the last 600 metres. Which is another insane ramp at 10.8%.
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Tour de France 2023 stage 17: route, profiles, more
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