July 06, 2024
The much anticipated gravel stage will present a valuable opportunity for the Classics riders, but potential panic for the GC contenders
Date: Sunday July 7, 2024
Distance: 199km
Start location: Troyes
Finish location: Troyes
Start time: 13:15 CET
Finish time (approx): 17:49 CET
The Tour de France might not visit Paris this year, but they’ll still enjoy the familiar sight of the Seine while in Troyes for both the start and finish of today’s stage, one of the cities to the south-east of the capital that the river also flows through. It will also be the northernmost point of this year’s route, and pretty much as close to Paris as they get. And though Troyes is far from the bustling metropolis that Paris is, it still attracts tourists with its beautifully preserved medieval houses, impressive Gothic cathedral, and wealth of local champagne. And it’s no stranger to the Tour de France, having hosted several stages in the past, most recently in 2017, when Marcel Kittel came from seemingly impossibly far back to take victory in a sprint from Arnaud Démare and André Greipel.
Kittel didn’t have to deal with the gravel roads that make today’s stage unique, not just in the context of this year’s Tour, but any in recent years. Such gravel roads featured briefly at the 2022 Tour when the riders climbed to the unpaved peak of La Super Planche des Belles Filles (at the end of a stage won by Tadej Pogačar), while there have been occasional forays onto cobblestones, but today’s stage poses a whole new kind of challenge. There will be 14 sectors in total, spread out over the course of 199km, some of them uphill. No section lasts especially long, unlike at the Strade Bianche classic that has made these kinds of roads so in vogue, amounting to 32km in total spent on gravel but they come thick and fast enough throughout the day for potential carnage.
Debate always rages about the suitability of stages like this at Grand Tour. The case against them is twofold: on one hand there is a fear for the riders’ safety, with the risk of crashes so amplified on such rough surfaces. And then there is the dislike of how great the element of chance is, with it being a lottery as to which riders do or don’t sustain mechanicals. Unpaved roads are hotbeds for punctures, as was the case during a stage at the 2022 Tour de France Femmes…