The hardest challenge by far during stage 2 at this year's Tour de France is the short final climb in Cherbourg-en-Cotentin. But will the steep, narrow section of around 14 percent mid-way through the ascent be enough to create differences between the top favourites of the Tour?
Perhaps unsurprisingly for an urban finish like stage 2, the first challenge of the Côte de la Glacerie [Mirror-making] - an area of Cherbourg formerly famous for that industry, hence the name - is the approach road. Preceded by a smaller, non-categorised climb, the Côte d’Octeville, with 7.5 kilometres to go, the peloton will then barrel downhill on a fast, technical descent, with one very tricky chicane-like bend half-way down.
The course then flattens out and hooks back inland along a broad inner city highway. The 1.9 kilometre Côte de la Glacerie starts with a slight leftward kink in the same broad boulevard, a typical high street for a city suburb with small shops lining the street on both sides. (One business is, appropriately enough for the Tour, called Anquetil Habitat, although there is no connection between the five-times Tour winner other than the name.)
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The first segment, a gently rising highway that all but loops back on itself is hardly a huge challenge. But when the route veers left after roughly a kilometre of climbing at a big roundabout onto smaller, residential roads, it abruptly gets much more difficult.
Quickly narrowing down to a leafy city back lane and with an average gradient of over nine percent at this point, one steady right-hand bend and a short ‘ramp’ of around 14 percent that follows constitute the hardest challenge.
The climb itself ends a little over a kilometre to the finish, swinging right on another residential lane that leads back down to the main road. Then after this short, fast descent and a nasty little chicane at the bottom past a statue of a glassmaker, the route goes back onto the main ‘drag’, kicking back upwards a steady gradient of around seven percent. By then, the finishing gantry will quickly loom into sight for whoever is in the lead.
What the riders think
Stage 1 Video Highlights
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