After five mountain stages, the race regains its calm with a day designed to show off the sprinters
After five stages of hard battle in the Jura and, above all, in the Alps, and of strong sensations, the Tour de France recovers its calm with the return of flat terrain in the first of the two transitional stages, which are designed so that the “sprinters“Seek victory.
The 184.9 kilometers between Moûtiers and Bourg-en-Bressetotally flat, they race out of the Alpine massif and head north, where the last important day of the race will take place on Saturday, in the Vosges.
On this occasion, the organizers have avoided any mountainous difficulty that the route would put within their reach and, even, a tunnel will be taken so as not to ascend the Mont du Chat.
The end is in slight descent and the entrance to Bourg-en-Bresse along wide avenues with a long straight line that will favor maximum speed.
All calculated to favor a massive arrival that allows the “sprinters” who have survived the high mountain to compete a new stage.
Among them stands out the Belgian Jasper Phillipsenwhich has won four of the five “sprints” in this edition.
The green jersey of regularity has seen how the Alps They eliminated some rivals from their route, the last being the German Phil Bauhaus, twice second and once third, who got off his bike during stage 17.
Before they had done the Australian Caleb Ewan, the dutch Fabio Jakobsen or the british Mark Cavendish.
Among Philipsen’s main rivals are the Danish Mads Pedersen, the only one who has managed to beat him in the sprint on this Tour, the Belgian wout van aertwho already has four podiums, the Dutchman Dylan Groenewegen, second in Moulins, the Eritrean Biniam Grimaythird in Bordeaux or French Bryan Coquard, twice quarter.