From Bourg-d’Oisans to Le Grand-Bornand. Stage 19 covers the stretch of 204.5km length which the riders have to travel in another Alps stage. With the thrills in climbing the Alpe-d’Huez twice, Stage 19 can create the havoc in the general classification or individual standing once again.
The ascending and descending parts of Stage 19 can bring difficulties to the riders as the climbs inside the 60km gets harder for the peloton to swallow. Nonetheless, it’s the battle of who is the best in the mountains again for the yellow jersey contenders.
With all the indications so far of who is the strong man, it seemed that gc classification leader Chris Froome increased his lead over his rivals in the last two stages. Despite getting 20 seconds penalty by receiving food late in the climb to Alpe-D’Huez, he still is the rider to beat in this latter stage of the tour. With the lead of 5’11″ over his challenger Alberto Contador, it’s not safe yet for him because of this Stage 19 route that will bring him into the defensive.
The accelerations of Froome are indescribable in this Tour that even Contador cannot keep up. Thus, Froome has all the advantages in winning the Tour de France but he has to commit himself once again in attacking Contador in the final ascent of the stage.
The unsuccessive flights of attacks by Contador could be the cause of his lack of preparations or it’s just that Froome is the stronger rider this year.
Stage 19 starts with the first climb to Col du Glandon which is 5.1 percent in gradient with the length of 21.6 km. Expect for the stage breakaways to be started in this ascent but the contenders will not bite the notion of giving so much energy on it. They will just ascend with a normal pace.
After 64km, the riders will climb the Col de la Madeleine with the gradient average of 7.9 percent while the length with 19.2km. Contador might be thinking about attacking early in this climb while Froome’s team will be in front just pacing up to negate those attacks. Just a relaxing descent for the riders after the Col dela Madeleine, they will face the three summits that determines the winner.
The breakaway group will face the ascent to Col de Tamie which is 8.6km in length and the gradient average is 7 percent. The next ascent will be the Col de l’Epine which is 6.1km in length with gradient of 7.4 percent. The last ascent of the riders will be the Col de la Croix Fry which is 12km in length and gradient average of 7 percent. After reaching the summit, the riders will descend a 12 km long to the town of Le Grand-Bornand.
Tour de France 2013 stage 19 results can directly affect the overall standings. Tour de France 2013 TDF standings will be available here. The tv channel for Tour de France is on NBC Sports Network formerly Versus.
