Thibaut Pinot and La Planche, there are dozens of climbs each year in training.
In 2020, when he dragged his misery since his fall on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, he gritted his teeth to compete in the time trial on this climb at home.
He agreed to decipher the particularities of this climb, the end point of the 7th stage of the Tour, of which we will travel for the first time the last kilometer towards the Super Planche des Belles Filles, with passages at 24%.
Place yourself at the entrance
“From the start it will be extremely brutal.
We will arrive at the foot of the Planche after a short descent of almost 4 km and there we will have to be powerful to relaunch in single file.
The peloton will arrive at more than 50 km per hour, it will hurt very, very badly!
If you are not correctly placed at the beginning, it will be very difficult to straighten the bar.
The first ramp will be terrible.
At the end of a terminal, there will only be 30 or 40 runners left.
There, we know very quickly if we are good or not.
Impossible to hide.
It's a somewhat atypical stage because there won't have been any difficulties before.
I know the place well but that didn't prevent me the first time I climbed it on the 2012 Tour from being surprised:
the Sky team had set off at 20 km per hour faster than during my training and I was completely lost.
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The Super Board
“Finishing with a second wall forces you to put on a terrible gasp.
Before, on the classic finish wall, we knew that there were between 30 seconds and a minute left to make a block and then it was over.
Except that there, you will have to start again on an irregular slope, on gravel.
And that will hurt.
The average percentage does not mean much, because there are really flat spots and very hard places.
His attacks will have to be delayed.
I remember Julian Alaphilippe who attacked 500m from the line before getting stuck in the last 100m which are really endless.
All of this will prevent fooling around in the middle of the board.
In addition, it will be the first finish at the top of the Tour, so everyone will want to show themselves, especially the real contenders for the final victory.
Which also goes, in my opinion,
limit deviations on arrival.
And there is very little wind on this climb.
That won't be an excuse.
We are relatively safe for most of the ascent.
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“One of the most beautiful views in the world”
“The first time I climbed it I was around 13 years old.
But I first went there on foot to attend the Tour de Franche-Comté.
In training, during the year, I end up doing it quite a bit because it's a dead end at the finish.
Let's say I have to ride it a dozen times.
No more.
It is a place that I love.
It's also where I learned to ski.
In addition, on a clear day, we have one of the most beautiful views in the world with Mont-Blanc in the background.
If I can choose to win one more stage, it would be this one.
I have already won at Alpe-d'Huez or Tourmalet which are mythical places.
But this one would be even stronger.
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