The dust has barely had time to settle on the 2019 Tour de France's only individual time trial on Friday afternoon before this year's race route dives back uphill for a second helping of the Pyrenees this weekend. And unlike on Thursday's brief incursion, it will be hoped that this time around the GC gloves will be off with a vengeance when the roads start to steepen.
It's an interesting blend of the ancient and modern elements for the Tour's Pyrenean weekend, with, first up, a very short stage culminating in a summit finish on the Col du Tourmalet on Saturday.
To call the Tourmalet a part of the Tour's furniture would be a mistake; it's more like one of its foundations, a keystone of the race, virtually from the year dot. As the Tour's first HC climb in its history back in 1910, the Tourmalet ushered in the era of major mountain climbing.
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The Tourmalet has rarely failed to figure since then, to the point where, with 82 ascents in the Tour in its back catalogue, the 19-kilometre climb has featured more than any other. And there have been some years, too, like in 1974 and 2010 – the years of the Tour's two previous summit finishes on the Tourmalet – when the race has gone over it not once but twice on consecutive stages.
Sunday's second summit finish in 24 hours, on Prat d'Albis, above the eastern Pyrenean city of Foix, meanwhile, is a total newcomer to the Tour. But in contrast to the modern-day trend for short, punchy mountain stages, the Tour's new Pyrenean climb on the block forms the culmination of a classic, long, rollercoaster stage along the mountain range, with a category-2 climb and three first-category ascents as the high points of four or five hours of relentlessly undulating roads.
Pessimistic fans predicting few fireworks this weekend can point to the fact that Thursday's incursion into the high mountains via the Peyresourde and the Hourquette d'Ancizan saw the GC battle flat-line completely.
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