Every day during this Tour de France 2020, we invite you to decipher the stage to come with three things, essential or not, to know about the course and its characteristics.
This Tuesday, after the rest day, the peloton snorts, for the 10th stage, between two islands: that of Oléron then that of Ré.
A first between two islands, a second at Oléron
This is the second time in its history that the Tour has arrived at Île d'Oléron.
During the 1983 Tour, he hosted the 7th stage between Nantes and Oléron and it was an unknown Italian, Riccardo Magrini (Metauromobili-Pinarello) who won.
But it is in any case the first time that a stage will join two islands.
A wish from Christian Prudhomme, the boss of the event.
The most complicated stage for the postponement of the Tour
When, at the start of the confinement, the organizers of ASO, the owner of the Tour, decided to postpone the event (initially scheduled for June 27 to July 19), they first thought of having it contested in the month of 'August.
A priori, nothing was against this and all hotel reservations for teams and followers (around 3,500 people) could be postponed.
Except that of the 10th stage.
In the middle of August, in a very touristy area, it was impossible to reserve thousands of rooms.
Faced with this pitfall, the organizers have therefore decided: the Tour will take place in September.
The return of the sprinters
Run at ocean level, the stage is flat and promised to the sprinters.
The wind will decide if the race is wait-and-see or more complicated.
Just like the 7th stage between Millau and Lavaur, where the main sprinters (Cadel Ewan and Sam Bennett) were trapped by the Bora team in the green jersey Peter Sagan.