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“Wednesday, 19 July The 17th stage of the Tour de France starts at the finish of stage 15: Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc. The finish line is at the mountain airfield above Courchevel. Just before it, the brutal Col de la Loze appears on the route. The course is 166.2 kilometres long and includes 5,400 metres of altitude. The route offers enough starting points for a brilliant opening. The route climbs slightly from the start and after the descent, the Col des Saises awaits. This is a 13.4 kilometre long climb with 5.4%. Immediately after the descent, the Cormet de Roselend awaits: 19.9 kilometres at 6%. Let's assume that the breakaways of the day will pretty much form up at the summit. Now we have to wait for the brutal final chord. However, the Côte de Longefoy (6.6 kilometres at 7.5%) and a slightly uphill stretch to Notre-Dame-du-Pré are still in the way. Once the riders have passed through the latter town, they still have 55 kilometres to go. The route leads down to Moûtiers and a little later, in Brides-les-Bains, the Col de la Loze already begins. This is almost 30 kilometres long in total, but the first half doesn't amount to much. After Méribel it starts to look like something with gradients of over 7%, although it is mainly the last 5 kilometres that matter. This section is extremely irregular, but the average gradient is 10%. There are bonuses of 8, 5 and 2 seconds for the first three riders at the front. A 6-kilometre descent with an incline at halfway leads to the last 600 metres. Then it's another 10.8% climb to the finish. In 2020, for the first time in the history of the Tour, the finish line was drawn on the summit of the Col de la Loze, and Miguel Ángel López liked it so much that he snatched victory from under Primoz Roglic's nose. It was a real battlefield with riders crawling over the line one after the other. “ ( & 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:
