STAGE 10
By the time the dust has settled atop the Hautacam climb on Stage 10, the true contenders of this year's Tour will have played their first cards and a few podium dreams will have died. Starting in Pau, where the 2007 Tour was first rocked by doping scandal, the route swings over the east face of the hallowed Col du Tourmalet, this year's first "hors catégorie" climb, and then finishes on the Hautacam.
The Tourmalet is the most-ridden mountain in Tour history, but it has only hosted a handful of stage finishes (three at the La Mongie ski station mid-way up, and one at its narrow summit in 1974). Usually, the Tourmalet acts as a gateway to other climbs that finish at ski stations and can more easily accommodate the fanfare of a Tour finish.
Hautacam is a much younger Tour mountain than Tourmalet, having hosted three stage finishes since 1994. Each of these visits to the mountain has produced a different stage winner than overall leader--that is, the man who won the stage wasn't a true contender for overall victory. The scenario may play out in similar fashion this year with the remnants of an early breakaway holding on for a win as the favorites exchange blows further down the mountain.
No matter what plays out, this stage will be a pivotal one for team tactics and individual fitness. The combo of Tourmalet (and its super-hairy descent) and Hautacam is bound to rip the peloton and create big time gaps. A few contenders for the polka-dot jersey, the best climber in the Tour, will shake out too.
This stage falls on Bastille Day, the French National Holiday, a sure sign that French riders will be highly motivated to make it into a successful breakaway. These Frenchman will have to contend with a bevy of Spanish and Basque riders who will likely be motivated by thousands of their countrymen who flock to the Pyrenees from nearby Spain and Basque country.
MORE TOUR de FRANCE MAPS
Stage 1 |
Stage 2 |
Stage 3 |
Stage 4 |
Stage 5 |
Stage 6 |
Stage 7 |
Stage 8 |
Stage 9 |
Stage 10 |
Stage 11 |
Stage 12 |
Stage 13 |
Stage 14 |
Stage 15 |
Stage 16 |
Stage 17 |
Stage 18 |
Stage 19 |
Stage 20 |
Stage 21
Google Earth Flyover: 2008 Tour de France
See more race coverage at
bicycling.com/tourdefrance.
Photo 4
Location: Unknown
The scenery returns to green lower down in the valley, but more Pyrenean climbs loom in the mist.
Photo 2
Location: Unknown
Tourmalet looming in the clouds
Loucrup
Location: 43.116774°, 0.071755°
Category 3 climb
Photo 3
Location: Unknown
10K to go
Photo 1
Location: Unknown
A close-up view of the roadside monument to the Tour
Photo 0
Location: Unknown
A monument to the Tour in the Pyrenees at a nearby rest stop off the auto route
Photo 6
Location: Unknown
Hautacam sports kilometer markers similar to those on Tourmalet.
Photo 5
Location: Unknown
Nowhere to go but up on Hautacam
Location: 42.977369°, -0.011759°
Location: 42.941093°, 0.213375°
Location: 42.916819°, 0.188184°
Location: 42.973538°, -0.027380°
Location: 42.906400°, 0.154667°
The Hautacam climb begins
Location: 43.004239°, -0.079136°
The final switchback
Location: 42.976898°, -0.008240°
In 1996, Bjarne Rijs obliterated his rivals around this final broad switchback, seizing the yellow jersey and wearing it all the way to Paris.
Sprint point
Location: 43.085439°, 0.135441°
The run-in to Hautacam
Location: 42.928525°, -0.042207°
The run-in to the final climb of the day is a long one, but it won't be easy for riders in arears to catch on to leading groups: the winds down in the valley are often stronger than at the summit.
Sainte-Marie-de-Campan
Location: 42.983302°, 0.227623°
The gateway to the Tourmalet climb, this sleepy Pyrenean town is rife with Tour history.<p>
It was here in 1913 that French rider Eugene Christophe, racing in the the lead, stopped to repair a broken fork. Christophe would finish the stage but lose his lead and even get penalized by the officials for receiving outside assistance from a local forge.<p>
As fate would have it, <a href="http://www.bicycling.com/tourdefrance/30moments/6.html" target="blank">six years later</a>, Christophe was en route to Tour victory when he was again derailed by a broken fork.
Hautacam
Location: 42.974197°, -0.009956°
The second 'hors catégorie' climb of the day, Hautacam is a much younger mountain than Tourmalet, having only hosted three Tour finishes.<p>
The last time the Tour finshed here in 2000, Lance Armstrong seized the yellow jersey here. <p>Every time the race has finished on Hautacam, the man wearing yellow at the end of the day held it all the way to Paris.
Location: 42.893825°, 0.055361°
Col du Tourmalet
Location: 42.908663°, 0.145397°
The most-ridden mountain in Tour history, this year, the Tourmalet is the race's first 'hors categorie' climb.
La Mongie
Location: 42.910989°, 0.179129°
La Mongie has hosted three stage finishes in the Tour. Most recently, Ivan Basso outdueled Lance Armstrong in a somewhat controversial finish in 2004. Two years earlier, Armstrong won here.
Sprint point
Location: 43.176891°, -0.111923°
Côte de Benejacq
Location: 43.184402°, -0.166168°
Category 3 climb
Location: 42.972533°, -0.022402°
Location: 43.001885°, -0.068493°
Location: 42.972627°, -0.018110°
The Tourmalet descent
Location: 42.913252°, 0.137072°
This year, the Tour route descends Tourmalet on its more technical side. Roads in the Pyrenees are narrow and riders will pay dearly for any mistakes they make here.
