The 2019 Tour de France's first foray into the high mountains for stage 12 on Thursday passed by without so much as a whimper, with the main bunch rolling home nearly 10 minutes behind the breakaway. The summit finishes on the Col du Tourmalet and Prat d'Albis, looming large on the weekend horizon, surely contributed to the detente, but Friday's individual time trial in Pau was perhaps at the very forefront of everyone's minds.
Such is the importance of the so-called 'race of truth' in the modern Tour. The organisers have steadily chipped away at the number of kilometres ridden against the clock in recent years, only for them to have just as big a say in shaping the general classification.
By placing the Pau ITT after the opening Pyrenean stage, the organisers sought to interrupt the first mountain 'block', but if they were trying to coax climbers to gain time in advance of their time trial losses, it had the opposite effect. With the time that can be won and lost against the clock these days, the 30km run from the Hourquette d'Ancizan down to Bagneres-de-Bigorre was considered too much of a gamble, and the GC battle was put on hold.
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Apart from 800 metres of action at the very top of La Planche des Belles Filles on stage 6, the greatest developments GC-wise came in the crosswinds on stage 10. The stage 2 team time trial gave the standings some definition, but the stage 13 individual time trial will go further. When it's done, the relatively low number of time trial kilometres at this Tour will be out of the way, before a high mountain has been raced in earnest. It will set the tone and form the framework around which the race will unfold in the Pyrenees and Alps.
The course
The stage 13 individual time trial is a circuit course starting and finishing in Pau and measuring 27.2 kilometres. The opening kilometre takes them through the centre of Pau before they head over the river and south away from the city. They continue south on undulating roads before turning west to Gan and back north towards Pau. They head over a different bridge and into the city before a final steep ramp takes them to the finish at the Place de Verdun.
Groupama-FDJ's Mathieu Ladagnous is a Pau native, who has already ridden the course a number of times, and he took us through the challenge.
Damage limitation
Van Aert and co
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