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The Tour de l'Aude gets underway tomorrow (Friday). I posted the route details up in a thread a while ago, so I'll paste that in here and add the stage profiles (although they're not great because they aren't scaled well):
The prologue individual time trial in Gruissan is 3.9km and flat:
Stage one is the longest of the race (117km), and is pretty much made for the sprinters:
Stage two will begin to develop the GC. It's a team time trial, and a pretty decisive one at 34.5km:
Stage three sees a couple of second category climbs tackled half-way through a stage which otherwise shouldn't worry the sprinters:
Stage four, starting and finishing in Osseja, is where things get interesting as the climbing begins:
Chaos de Targassone (uncategorised) - 6.9km at 4.9% (finishes with 82km to go)
Col de Calvaire (hors category) - 2.0km at 11.3% (68km to go)
Col de Creu (hors category) - 3.0km at 6.8% (44km to go)
Col de la Llose (hors category) - 10.0km at 4.3% (30km to go)
Yeah, they shouldn't be hors category climbs, but we're used to that with the Tour de l'Aude by now. A nice little chain, though. And on top of that, although uncategorised, the final four kilometres are a gentle uphill run (2-3%) which could invite late attacks:
Stage five features more climbs. The first is the most severe, but the latter two could provoke a bit of damage:
Col de Corsavy (first category) - 7.0km at 7.4% (95km to go)
Col Xatard (first category) - 20.0km at 2.6% (38km to go)
Côte de la Borne (second category) - 5.5km at 3.1% (3.5km to go)
That final climb isn't much to shout about in and of itself, but coming so close to the end (and at a point when the group should have been quite depleted by the first two climbs) it's not the worst way of setting up a good finish:
Stage six is more like breakaway material, I think - the very steep Fanjeaux comes about 30km from the end, but most of the favourites should find each other on the way home if they lose touch on the climb:
Côte de Fanjeaux (second category) - 2.5km at 10.4% (28km to go)
Côte Puy de Faucher (second category) - 2.0km at 3.5% (17km to go)
Stage seven looks to be the toughest on paper, with the Dent certainly appearing to be the most decisive climb:
Col du Portel (first category) and Col de Coudens (second category) (classified separately but basically the same climb) - 13.5km at 4.4% (67km to go)
Col de Dent (hors category) - 14.0km at 5.8% (26km to go)
Côte d'Espezel (second category) - 2.9km at 7.2% (5km to go)
The remaining five kilometres after the Espezel are flat. Coming late in the day, off the back of the Col de Dent, and having a fairly sharp gradient for its admittedly short duration, the Côte d'Espezel could split apart any riders still together:
Stage eight is a little more serene. The Col du Font de Razouls might kick a few off of the back, but shouldn't be of much significance with 50 mostly flat kilometres still remaining, and a bunch sprint (or at least a partial bunch sprint) isn't out of the equation:
Col du Font de Razouls (first category) - 8.8km at 4.0% (50km to go)
Côte de Villardebelle (third category) - 1.0km at 8.0% (40km to go)
Stage nine finishes the race with a turn in the countryside and a couple of climbs of little importance before five laps in the beautiful walled city of Carcassonne for the sprinters to fight over:
Team GB were down to ride, but the recent training accident put paid to that. There was a rumour that Nicole Cooke would ride this race in the colours of MTN, but she's not on the start list. Here are the teams, with the main riders to look out for:
Cervélo: Claudia Häusler, Lizzie Armitstead, Regina Bruins, Sharon Laws, Emma Pooley, Carla Ryan
Noris: Trixi Worrack, Angela Hennig
Nederland Bloeit:: Marianne Vos, Loes Gunnewijk, Annemiek van Vleuten
RedSun: Emma Johansson, Ludivine Henrion, Emma Silversides
Lotto: Grace Verbeke, Vicki Whitelaw
HTC: Ina Teutenberg, Chloe Hosking, Luise Keller, Evelyn Stevens, Linda Villumsen
Valdarno: Tatiana Guderzo, Tatiana Antoshina, Marta Vilajosana
Tibco: Ruth Corset, Brooke Miller
United States: Mara Abbott, Carmen Small
Leontien: Chantal Blaak, Andrea Bosman
Fenixs: Svetlana Bubnenkova
Gauss: Martine Bras, Julia Martisova, Edita Pucinskaite
Safi: Rasa Leleivyte, Eneritz Iturriagaechevarria
Michela Fanini: Edwige Pitel, Carly Hibberd
MTN: Trine Schmidt, Carla Swart
Germany: Lisa Brennauer, Hanka Kupfernagel, Martina Zwick
Vienne Futuroscope: Christel Ferrier-Bruneau, Julie Beveridge, Audrey Cordon
ESGL 93: Béatrice Thomas, Mélanie Bravard
Besides Nicole Cooke, other notable absentees are Kirsten Wild and Giorgia Bronzini.
Anyone want to embarrass themself with a prediction:
I'll go:
GC: (1) Claudia Häusler (2) Evelyn Stevens (3) Tatiana Guderzo
Points: Marianne Vos
Mountains: Mara Abbott
Young rider: Lizzie Armitstead
Hot spots: NO-ONE CARES ABOUT THE BLOODY HOT SPOTS
The prologue individual time trial in Gruissan is 3.9km and flat:
Stage one is the longest of the race (117km), and is pretty much made for the sprinters:
Stage two will begin to develop the GC. It's a team time trial, and a pretty decisive one at 34.5km:
Stage three sees a couple of second category climbs tackled half-way through a stage which otherwise shouldn't worry the sprinters:
Stage four, starting and finishing in Osseja, is where things get interesting as the climbing begins:
Chaos de Targassone (uncategorised) - 6.9km at 4.9% (finishes with 82km to go)
Col de Calvaire (hors category) - 2.0km at 11.3% (68km to go)
Col de Creu (hors category) - 3.0km at 6.8% (44km to go)
Col de la Llose (hors category) - 10.0km at 4.3% (30km to go)
Yeah, they shouldn't be hors category climbs, but we're used to that with the Tour de l'Aude by now. A nice little chain, though. And on top of that, although uncategorised, the final four kilometres are a gentle uphill run (2-3%) which could invite late attacks:
Stage five features more climbs. The first is the most severe, but the latter two could provoke a bit of damage:
Col de Corsavy (first category) - 7.0km at 7.4% (95km to go)
Col Xatard (first category) - 20.0km at 2.6% (38km to go)
Côte de la Borne (second category) - 5.5km at 3.1% (3.5km to go)
That final climb isn't much to shout about in and of itself, but coming so close to the end (and at a point when the group should have been quite depleted by the first two climbs) it's not the worst way of setting up a good finish:
Stage six is more like breakaway material, I think - the very steep Fanjeaux comes about 30km from the end, but most of the favourites should find each other on the way home if they lose touch on the climb:
Côte de Fanjeaux (second category) - 2.5km at 10.4% (28km to go)
Côte Puy de Faucher (second category) - 2.0km at 3.5% (17km to go)
Stage seven looks to be the toughest on paper, with the Dent certainly appearing to be the most decisive climb:
Col du Portel (first category) and Col de Coudens (second category) (classified separately but basically the same climb) - 13.5km at 4.4% (67km to go)
Col de Dent (hors category) - 14.0km at 5.8% (26km to go)
Côte d'Espezel (second category) - 2.9km at 7.2% (5km to go)
The remaining five kilometres after the Espezel are flat. Coming late in the day, off the back of the Col de Dent, and having a fairly sharp gradient for its admittedly short duration, the Côte d'Espezel could split apart any riders still together:
Stage eight is a little more serene. The Col du Font de Razouls might kick a few off of the back, but shouldn't be of much significance with 50 mostly flat kilometres still remaining, and a bunch sprint (or at least a partial bunch sprint) isn't out of the equation:
Col du Font de Razouls (first category) - 8.8km at 4.0% (50km to go)
Côte de Villardebelle (third category) - 1.0km at 8.0% (40km to go)
Stage nine finishes the race with a turn in the countryside and a couple of climbs of little importance before five laps in the beautiful walled city of Carcassonne for the sprinters to fight over:
Team GB were down to ride, but the recent training accident put paid to that. There was a rumour that Nicole Cooke would ride this race in the colours of MTN, but she's not on the start list. Here are the teams, with the main riders to look out for:
Cervélo: Claudia Häusler, Lizzie Armitstead, Regina Bruins, Sharon Laws, Emma Pooley, Carla Ryan
Noris: Trixi Worrack, Angela Hennig
Nederland Bloeit:: Marianne Vos, Loes Gunnewijk, Annemiek van Vleuten
RedSun: Emma Johansson, Ludivine Henrion, Emma Silversides
Lotto: Grace Verbeke, Vicki Whitelaw
HTC: Ina Teutenberg, Chloe Hosking, Luise Keller, Evelyn Stevens, Linda Villumsen
Valdarno: Tatiana Guderzo, Tatiana Antoshina, Marta Vilajosana
Tibco: Ruth Corset, Brooke Miller
United States: Mara Abbott, Carmen Small
Leontien: Chantal Blaak, Andrea Bosman
Fenixs: Svetlana Bubnenkova
Gauss: Martine Bras, Julia Martisova, Edita Pucinskaite
Safi: Rasa Leleivyte, Eneritz Iturriagaechevarria
Michela Fanini: Edwige Pitel, Carly Hibberd
MTN: Trine Schmidt, Carla Swart
Germany: Lisa Brennauer, Hanka Kupfernagel, Martina Zwick
Vienne Futuroscope: Christel Ferrier-Bruneau, Julie Beveridge, Audrey Cordon
ESGL 93: Béatrice Thomas, Mélanie Bravard
Besides Nicole Cooke, other notable absentees are Kirsten Wild and Giorgia Bronzini.
Anyone want to embarrass themself with a prediction:
I'll go:
GC: (1) Claudia Häusler (2) Evelyn Stevens (3) Tatiana Guderzo
Points: Marianne Vos
Mountains: Mara Abbott
Young rider: Lizzie Armitstead
Hot spots: NO-ONE CARES ABOUT THE BLOODY HOT SPOTS
