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Stage 16 - Le Tour du Pin to Villard de Lans - 164km - Tuesday, September 15
Stage 16 brings the Tour out of its second rest day with the first of three days in the Alps, a 164-kilometer stage with five categorized climbs and an uphill finish at Villard de Lans.
As we’ve seen over the past few days, the stage should begin fast with both Deceuninck - Quick-Step and BORA-hansgrohe going on the attack to try and set up Sam Bennett and Peter Sagan for the day’s Intermediate Sprint in Saint-Joseph-de-Rivière, 44.5km into the stage. Quick-Step needs to be careful: there’s a Category 4 climb only 12.5K into the stage, and if Bennett tries too hard to stay with Sagan (as he did on the Category 4 climb right before the Intermediate Sprint on Saturday’s Stage 14), he could blow up entirely, thus putting him at risk of not making the time cut and therefore losing his green jersey for good. The serious climbing begins soon after the sprint, with two Category 2 ascents in somewhat close succession, followed by a lumpy descent down to the valley floor.
The real action should go down on the Category 1 Montée Saint-Nizier-du-Moucherotte, which climbs from the valley outside of Grenoble up to a ridge along the eastern edge of the Vercors plateau. The road then descends for about 18km on the top of the plateau, before a Category 3 climb to the finish line in Villard de Lans.
This is the easiest of the final week’s three Alpine stages, and should serve as more of an appetizer than an entree, especially with a high-altitude summit finish looming in Méribel the next day. So we suspect another breakaway filled with talented but out-of-contention climbers to find success, while the Tour’s GC contenders ride tempo, saving themselves for Wednesday’s showdown.
Riders to Watch
This is a great stage for a puncheur like Quick-Step’s Julian Alaphilippe, who would love to take another stage in this year’s Tour. It also presents another opportunity for some of the riders we tipped for Sunday’s Stage 15: BORA’s Max Schachmann and Lennard Kämna and Team Sunweb’s Tiesj Benoot and Marc Hirschi (who won Stage 12).
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When to Watch
The leaders are expected to hit the base of the Moucherotte at around 10:30 a.m. EST, about an hour before the stage should conclude. The final hour should be exciting, but with two tougher stages still to come, you might want to budget your time accordingly. After all, it’s a work day!
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Tour de France Stage 16: The Peloton Enters the Alps - Bicycling
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