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After Paris and Bordeaux, Pau is the third-most visited metropolis within the historical past of the boys’s Tour de France, with 67 levels beginning or ending there. Its strategic place on the foot of the Pyrenees makes it an apparent stopping level. Phases to Pau have hardly ever been decisive within the normal classification, however they usually symbolize the calm earlier than the mountain storm.
To have fun its place in Tour historical past, final 12 months the town unveiled its Tour of Giants set up within the Bois Louis park, a collection of aluminum and glass monuments devoted to Tour winners. Guests can study every of the featured riders by scanning a QR code and listening to lyrical tales about their legendary exploits.
The geography of the world surrounding Pau is flexible sufficient that the race organizers can design levels to go well with sprinters, puncheurs or climbers. This 12 months Pau will host the ultimate stage of the Tour de France Femmes Avec Zwift, a race whose historical past is so quick it hasn’t but generated any significant statistics, with a 22-kilometer time trial on the primarily flat roads to the south of the town.
Alo learn: Tour de France Femmes stage 6 culture: From France to the world
The primary three editions of La Course, the predecessor to the Tour de France Femmes Avec Zwift, had been circuit races on the Champs-Élysées. ASO then dragged the race round France, following the boys’s race, as if it wasn’t fairly certain of easy methods to discover the ladies’s peloton a house. In 2019 the boys’s Tour de France arrived in Pau for a 27-kilometer time trial, with the charismatic Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe within the yellow jersey. Alaphilippe was anticipated to relinquish his lead however in some way produced the most effective time trial of his profession, not solely saving the jersey, however successful the stage too. On the identical day and the identical roads, La Course 2019 proved to be equally thrilling.
The circuit was punchy, with two climbs — the Côte de Gelos and the Côte d’Esquillot. Between them the roads had been flat or rolling, and there was a sting within the closing kilometer — the quick however very steep ramp of Rue Mulot, simply 350 meters earlier than the end line. The ladies confronted 5 laps, totaling 121 kilometers. On the primary lap a break of 11 riders shaped, although the peloton by no means allow them to get too far forward. Annemiek Van Vleuten single handedly reeled within the escapees on the third lap, shredding the peloton within the course of.
On the subsequent lap one other group of 11 shaped, this time containing a lot of the favorites. That group then break up into two, and for some time indecision appeared to grip the main riders. There have been many assaults, however none caught. The main riders checked out one another. With one lap to go the Australian Amanda Spratt determined she’d had sufficient of the messy techniques round her. She took off alone and shortly constructed a lead of half a minute. Her assault galvanized a chase from the CCC – Liv and Sunweb groups, although they had been hampered by Spratt’s teammate Van Vleuten enjoying the function of super-domestique.
Spratt fought valiantly on the ultimate flat roads coming again into Pau and it seemed like her lead would possibly simply be adequate for victory. Within the closing kilometer she hit the 17-percent wall of Rue Mulot, giving all the things to take care of as a lot momentum as attainable. However behind her the Biggest Of All Time was able to pounce. Marianne Vos repaid the work accomplished by her CCC – Liv group by leaping away from the group and storming previous Spratt in a cruel show of energy and timing. Behind Vos the remainder of the group had been powerless to withstand the assault. On the line Vos had loads of time to have fun one more win. Leah Kirchmann got here second, Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig third.
The Metropolis of Giants set up celebrates the heroes of the boys’s race. Now it’s time to begin telling the tales of the giants of the ladies’s peloton. Marianne Vos could be the primary monument to be erected.
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