Does Tadej Pogacar still have a chance to get closer to the Jonas Vingegaard yellow jersey?
Will a Frenchman finally win a stage?
Where will David Gaudu and Romain Bardet finish?
Who will get the polka dot jersey?
There are still many questions for this 18th Lourdes-Hautacam stage (143.5 km), the last high mountain – and therefore the most decisive – before Paris.
A sixth arrival in Hautacam
The long and steep climb to Hautacam was discovered on the Tour de France 28 years ago.
She had crowned a Frenchman, Luc Leblanc, in 1994. Since then, the Pyrenean resort has welcomed an arrival from the Grande Boucle in 1996, with the triumph of Bjarne Riis (tarnished by his doping confessions afterwards), in 2000 at the start of the sad Armstrong years, in 2008 with another troubled period (success of the Spaniard Cobo finally ruled out pure doping with all his Saunier Duval team a few days later).
The last passage of the Tour dates back to 2014, with the domination of Vincenzo Nibali, winner at the top with the yellow jersey, a few days before his coronation in Paris.
Three summits in 80 km to designate the best climber
The dessert of the surviving runners in the Pyrenees will be copious.
After about sixty relatively flat kilometers from Lourdes and a detour via the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, the peloton will attack, 80 km from the finish, the terrible Col d'Aubisque, classified out of category, which will be linked with the col de Spandelles (10.3 km at 8.3%, 1st category), before the last non-category climb to Hautacam.
That's no less than 50 points to be distributed at the Grand Prix de la Montagne.
This is one of the additional issues of this Tour.
The polka dot jersey is still worn by Simon Geschke (64 points).
The German Cofidis will do everything to glean a few extra points in the Aubisque to take shelter.
Because if not behind the leaders Vingegaard (52 points) and Pogacar (46) could win the bet if successful at the top.
Favorite: Jonas Vingegaard
This is not good news for the breakaway attempts, but it is to be expected: the mano a mano will undoubtedly last.
He announced it, he will do it: Tadej Pogacar wants to "attack hard" Jonas Vingegaard in this last mountain stage.
But it's hard to imagine a new feat from his teammate Brandon McNulty, exceptional on Wednesday towards Peyragudes to accompany the two leaders.
The Slovenian therefore risks finding himself alone more quickly than yesterday.
Opposite, the Yellow Jersey will undoubtedly seek revenge after its defeat in the sprint at Peyragudes.
His team is more substantial (5 teammates against 3 at Pogacar).
He might want to ensure his success on the Tour with a second great victory at the top, after that of the Granon.
Pogacar could end up getting tired on the long climb to Hautacam.
And Vingegaard would be happy to take advantage of it.
The Dane, who would win here in yellow like his compatriot Bjarne Riis 26 years ago (he mentioned this memory on Wednesday evening), has the means.
The eye of Thierry Gouvenou, course manager
“For me, after the Granon, this will be the best stage to create very big gaps at the top of the classification.
We made sure to rework the final finish in Hautacam.
Previously, it was quite easy.
Sometimes, we came from the Col du Tourmalet but there was 20 km of valley before a steep climb.
This time, we managed to make a nice sequence with a new pass, the Spandelles pass.
It is a very rough Pyrenean pass.
I have known him for a long time because I lived in Pau for twelve years.
And I climbed it during my training.
But there was no possibility of taking it because the descent was really too accident-prone.
There, it was reworked by the Hautes-Pyrénées department.
Now we can go there.
Please note that the Tour caravan will not use it.
This will therefore give us an incredible sequence.
We can therefore attack either in the Col de l'Aubisque or in the Col de Spandelles.
It won't necessarily be harder than exhausting yourself in the valleys.
No, really, we can imagine a reversal of the Tour on this kind of stage.
It's really very attractive.
If someone has weaknesses in the 3rd week, on this kind of ground it will be fatal.
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