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- Published on Wednesday, 11 July 2018 20:54
TDF 2018 Stage 6
Brest / Mûr de Bretagne
Thursday 12th July, 181kms
Back to the Mur de Bretagne, a stage finish that I remember fondly with a 1-2 in stage 8 in 2015, when Alexis Vuillermoz won for me at 33/1, with Dan Martin chasing him home in 2nd place.
Vuillermoz did it perfectly that day for us, Martin not so, getting boxed in on the barrier at just the wrong time and was unable to launch his chase of Vuillermoz until it was too late. Alejandro Valverde came home in 3rd with the main GC contenders 10" later, but Vincenzo Nibali lost 20" and Romain Bardet lost 31". They'll need to do better this time to try to avoid losing more time after the TTT.
It was also used as a finish in the 2011 TDF, when Cadel Evans out-powered Alberto Contador on the run to the line to take the stage win, with Vinokourov in 3rd, Uran in 4th and Gilbert in 5th. So you get all sorts doing well on this finish, the punchy climbers, the out-and-out climbers, and the just plain powerful puncheurs.
This time around though there is a little extra twist - they climb the Mur twice. They pass the finish line for the first time with 16kms to go, and bar a kick-up to the B Bonus sprint point, it's mostly downhill back to the town of Mur de Bretagne, where there is a little hill through the village before they take on the final climb, which averages 7.1% for 1.9kms.
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