The riders of the Tour de France will face their toughest challenge yet in the high mountains of the Pyrenees on stage 12. Departing from Lannemezan, the 195 km stage will be one to fear for the sprinters, and one to attack for the climbers. The GC contenders looking to dethrone Chris Froome (Team Sky) will need to strike today, to see if the last two days have left him and his team vulnerable.
Team Sky has ridden a near perfect race since the grand départe last week. Chris Froome dominated the first mountain top finish ascending La Pierre- Saint-Martin and stamping his name on the yellow jersey. It seems the heat got the better of his competitors, as they were content to give yesterday to the breakaway, while unable to do much to answer Froome’s attack the day before.
The ‘furious five’ GC contenders have been reduced once more to the ‘fab four’ but this time with Tejay van Garderen who sits in second overall. Vincenzo Nibali lost time after yet another catastrophic day on stage 11. The Italian and his team had increased the pace, leading the yellow jersey group up the Col du Tourmalet, only to fall apart ascending the final climb before the finish. The defending Tour champion now sits nearly eight minutes down on GC, far outside overall contention.
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Facing the hardest day of the race so far, few will be able to hide on the looming mountains. The legs will warm up with the opening second-category climb, the Col de Portet-d’Aspet that has an average gradient of 9.7%. It is also marked as the second steepest climb of the Tour.
Former Olympic Champion, Fabio Casartelli, lost his life during the 15th stage of the 1995 Tour on this descent. Riders however, will have little time to reflect passing his memorial, as they recover the best they can before heading uphill once more.
Continuing the jagged profile, next on the menu for the day are two first-category climbs. The heat being a factor in the previous days, it is set to reach the mid-30s once again. Both Contador and Quintana cited difficulty breathing with the combination of humidity. They will need all the oxygen available to them as they ascend to the finish climbing 15.8 km with up to 10% at times.
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