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“Friday, 14 July The 13th stage of the Tour de France starts in Châtillon-sur-Chalaronne and ends after 137.8 kilometres on the Grand Colombier. The Tour of France has never been to Châtillon-sur-Chalaronne, a village about 50 kilometres above Lyon. The yellow caravan moves eastwards, penetrating the Jura. The last stop is the Grand Colombier, a mountain that was part of the Tour for the first time in 2012. Since then, the colossus has been climbed four times. The last time was in 2020, when the finish line was also there. Back then, the peloton got to see all the corners of the Grand Colombier. Literally. The riders climbed the colossus from several sides before finally making it to the top. One after the other, the riders worked the Montée de la Selle de Fromentel (11.1 kilometres at 8.1%), Col de la Biche (6.9 kilometres at 8.9%) and Grand Colombier (17.4 kilometres at 7.1%) that day. On the last climb, Jumbo-Visma used the old Sky tactics and rode so hard at the front that nobody even thought of escaping. Then Roglic won... er, Roglic was beaten in the sprint by Pogacar. A blot on the impeccable tactics of the yellow and black platoon. Although expectations were high at the time, the stage turned out to be pretty boring. Perhaps that inspired the organisers to change the course now. There are no obstacles on the route - apart from a long and anything but steep climb to the La Lèbe observatory. Once at the observatory, the riders descend to Artemare and more than 10 kilometres later the final climb begins in Culoz. This is the same as in 2020, i.e. 17.4 kilometres long and with an average gradient of 7.1%. On the last 3.4 kilometres, the road climbs at 9.2%. The Grand Colombier reaches an altitude of over 1,500 metres. As it is not surrounded by any higher mountains, there is a 360-degree panoramic view of the summit.“ ( & Routes 'n' Maps 'n' Flags) Creating cycling stage animations requires a lot of work and computing power. You are welcome to support me with a donation:
