July 05, 2024
Despite being categorised as a flat stage, the route features 2,334 metres of elevation and five categorised climbs
Date: Saturday July 6, 2024
Distance: 183km
Start location: Semur-en-Auxois
Finish location: Colombey-les-Deux-Églises
Start time: 13:05 CET
Finish time (approx): 17:19 CET
This year’s Tour de France takes place amid a political earthquake, in the middle of a snap election called by Emmanuel Macron just three weeks before the race began. So it seems appropriate that stage eight, taking place the very day before the public goes to the polls to decide their president, pays homage to Charles De Gaulle, the man whose legacy looms larger than any other political figure of the 20th century. If a new president is elected, they will succeed him in becoming the eighth of the Fifth Republic, that De Gaulle himself founded in 1958
The small town of Colombey, where stage eight finishes after heading north out of Côte-d’Or and into Haute-Marne, is small and innocuous, and the Tour wouldn’t have any reason to visit were it not for being where De Gaulle spent much of his life. He escaped to its seclusion in between his various stints in power; first in 1946, after having helped lead the Resistance against the Nazis, and briefly chaired the Provisional Government; then later, having returned to office in 1958 in light of the Algerian War crisis, he came back home once more in 1969 in the aftermath of the worker and student protests of the year before, until his death in 1970. The large, 44 metre Cross of Lorraine stands in Colombey to commemorate him.
Although the parcours looks flat at a cursory glance, closer inspection reveals plenty of details to suggest it might not be a sprinter who triumphantly uncorks a bottle of the champagne sourced from the nearby vineyards at the finish. There are five classified climbs in total, and, though none last longer than 3km, and the two hardest (Côte de Villy-en-Auxois and Côte de Verrey-sous-Salmaise, both rated category three) are tackled early on in the stage, there are steep enough gradients and enough of them to wear away at the legs all day. And there are plenty of undulations that go unaccounted for, too, amounting to a total of 2,400m elevation gain, twice as much as any of the previous flat stages this week.
The real kicker comes at the very end,…