Cheering for Cavendish, and A Look at Stages 14 & 15 - Pyrenees, We're Finally Here!

OMG, I really hope you were able to watch the finish of yesterday's stage. Hats off and all happiness to Mark Cavendish for tying Eddie Merckx's title of 34 Stage Wins at Le Tour de France. What's even better is that he still has the street of Paris to come, so we possibly might have one more opportunity. If you noticed the seas were a bit higher and more frenzies, it was all of those people on the Isle of Mann and in the British Isles jumping up and down collectively while Cavendish approached the finish line and as soon as he passed it in First place. 

With a brilliant ride by his lead-in man (who came in 
second on the stage), Mark Cavendish has now managed 
to tie the Stage Win record set by the legendary rider, 
Eddie Merckx. 

Today's stage will be a bit different. We're at the "foothills" of the Pyrenees, getting ready to enter them tomorrow, so the flat stages are gone until the streets of Paris. Let's look at the map. 

Looking at today's stage, it's a rather strange little stage, from 
Carcassonne to Quillan. These are the foothills of the 
Pyrenees, and today we'll have two Cat 3 and three Cat 2 
climbs to get over. The final peak, Cat 2 Col de Saint-Louis 
has a totally wicked profile. I'll post it below. 

Taking a close look at the map, you'll see a rather crazy little squiggle at the bottom right. That's today's route and it's no piece of cake. It might be the foothills of the Pyrenees, but those mountains can be super intense. They're not the big mountains of the Alps. They're younger, often steeper, and with much narrower roads. We're in for some great days of bike racing. 

Stage 14 is designated in the Tour descriptions as "Hilly". I 
think this many peaks certainly qualifies for that label. 
Take a look at the final peak on the cutaway. The Col de 
Saint-Louis has an extremely steep entry leading to a 
rather pleasant ride down. Of course, everyone will 
be going at breakneck speed (as much as possible), so 
nothing will be pleasant about it. 

Let's look at the profile for today's stage. The mountains are steep, the roads will be narrow, and the scenery should be outstanding. Don't expect anything from the sprinters today. Today will be reserved for the King of the Mountain contenders and they've been chomping at the bit to get back to the slopes. Speaking of slopes, take a look below. 

So here you have the final steep slope of today's 
stage, the Col de Saint-Louis. It's far from an 
easy climb with that section of 12% gradient 
in the mix. This will push the riders, and they have 
one more day in the Pyrenees tomorrow before 
finally getting a well-deserved rest day on 
Monday. 

Now ... after today's stage, we come to Sunday's mountains. Here's the stage profile. 

Sunday's stage is the first stage in the Pyrenees proper. These 
aren't the foothills any more. We've got big peaks, steep 
descents and lots of crowds to contend with. Sunday sees 
only a single Cat 2, but three Cat 1 peaks. Ooof! 

As you can see, we're going from the "hills" of the foothills into the true mountains on Sunday's ride from Ceret to Andore-LaVielle. As we begin entering the mountains between Spain and France, you'll get a really good idea of why mountains are so often used as national boundaries. There's a limited number of ways through them, they're certainly visually daunting, and they'll slow any army down. Of course, now that we fight battles from the air and remotely, natural boundaries almost seem passe. We'll have three more days in the Pyrenees next week before an Individual Time Trial on Saturday and the entry to Paris next week Sunday. 

I hope you enjoy your weekend. I know I'll be watching Le Tour happily. DH has already put in a request for eggs on "Le Tour Sunday" when we ride into Paris next week, so I'll make sure to pick up six when I'm at the store next week. Eggs make me ill, so I won't be partaking unless I hard boil some. (For some odd reason, hard boiled seem to be OK for my digestion. Weird, right?) Have a great weekend and please, be kind and stay safe. I'll be back on Monday, which will be a well deserved "Rest Day" for the riders.