Tour de France 2023, the decisive stages for Vingegaard and Pogacar: what are they – Corriere.it

After 62 hours and 34′ of racing only ten seconds separate them. The Tour de France
110 is, as never before in the recent past, an exclusive challenge between two champions for climbing records in the Pyrenees, Massif Central and Alps. The ten seconds that separate Jonas Vingegaard in yellow jersey (already winner in 2022) e Tadej Pogacar who won the race in 2020 and 2021 are the sum of attacks and counterattacks, bonuses won and lost, small crises and big stretches. After two weeks of competition, arriving at the rest day in the Alps, the two challengers know that the most uncertain Tour of the new millennium will be played on three key stages of the last week.

An abnormal chrono

After a rest on Monday, the riders will tackle on Tuesday the 22.4 kilometers of Passy-Combloux, the only time trial of this edition. A short stage with a complicated altimetry where the most difficult thing will be to find the right pace due to the continuous ups and downs. The last five kilometers are very hard uphill. The Danish and Slovenian are superfine time trialists with Pogacar slightly more quoted but on paper such a discontinuous path could favor Vingegaard, even if the gaps should be very limited: at the end of the day the result could count more from a psychological point of view than from a chronometric point of view.

The hardest climb of the Tour

La Saint-Gervais – Courchevel on Wednesday, 166 kilometres, over four thousand meters in altitude, it will perhaps be the key stage of the 2023 Tour. Three well-distributed climbs in the first part (watch out for the Cormet de Roselend, at 2,000 metres) and then the ascent to Courchevel which for many is the toughest climb of the Tour. Divided into three parts, it measures the beauty of 34 kilometres. The first 17 up to Meribel are regular and without major difficulties. Very different speech for the portion that leads to the Col de la Loze: a thousand meters in altitude in just over ten kilometers with a very severe last section where peaks of 24% are touched, practically walls. This is followed by 4 kilometers of very fast descent and the notorious, terrible ramp that leads to the Courchevel altiport where you reach 18%. Difficult to hypothesize an arrival at the photo finish on these slopes.

A different last Saturday than usual

The last Saturday of the Tour, on the eve of the Parisian catwalk, is usually reserved for a time trial. This year it changes. La Belfort – Le Markstein (we are in the Vosges) is a short mountain stage (135 km) with the beauty of six gpm. The combination between the last two, the Petit Ballon (relatively easy) and the Col du Platzerwasel with its six kilometers at 8.4% and several sections above 10% is striking. If the Tour hadn’t been decided yet, this is the space for the last attacks.