Stage Details

Stage 18 - Friday, July 26: Cluses - Bourg-en-Bresse

Distance:	176.5km
Start Location:	Place Charles-de-Gaulle, Cluses
Start Time:	Flying Start 12:27 p.m. on D.19 exit to Cluses
Description:	Course: Just when it seemed safe for the sprinters to emerge from riding in the “laughing group” of back-markers, they are tricked. The Alps are behind them and the opening 20km of stage 18 are completely flat. But ahead of them is a profile shaped like the mouth of a shark, with 10 jagged “teeth” marking the hills and valleys of the pine-forested Jura region. The organizers have categorized seven of them and even discovered a new Cat. 1 climb, the Col de Richemont (11km at 6 percent), halfway through the 176.5km stage from Cluses to Bourg-en-Bresse. In all, there is 8580 feet of climbing. Admittedly, it’s not alpine in nature, but the constant ups and downs, mostly on back roads, make this another difficult day — especially for the sprinters. History: Not only has the Tour not crossed this part of the Jura before, but a stage has never finished at Bourg-en-Bresse, a city of 40,000 famed for its special breed of chickens. The closest similar stage to this came in 1991, when stage 19 into nearby Mâcon was won by Russian Viatcheslav Ekimov after a final-kilometer attack. Favorites: The race leaders won’t be battling for the stage win in Bourg-en-Bresse because there is the final time trial coming up the next day. But the climbers that are not in contention should join the more enterprising “flatland” attackers in a long-distance breakaway. The stage could go to a rider like Switzerland’s Sven Montgomery, Germany’s Jens Voigt, Australia’s Brad McGee or Belgium’s Mario Aerts.