The day after the Grand Colombier, the peloton continues with an alpine gala stage, Saturday, between Annemasse and Morzine.
Haute-Savoie as a new playground. After Michal Kwiatkowski’s victorious breakaway on Friday July 14, the peloton has an appointment in the Alps with a high-flying 14th stage between Annemasse and Morzine on Saturday July 15. With five listed climbs and a total of 4281 meters of elevation gain to climb, the 152 runners still in the race on this Grande Boucle will have a lot to do.
What is the profile?
No time to breathe. The day after the ascent of the Grand Colombier, the alpine triptych of this 2023 edition continues with this time a succession of passes to climb. On the menu, some 151.8 kilometers and almost none of the flat since even the intermediate sprint will be judged at the top of a bump.
From the start in Annemasse, the race will take the direction of the Col de Saxel for an appetizer (4.2 km at 4.6%), before aligning three top category peaks: the Col de Cou (7 km at 7.4%), the Col du Feu (5.8 km at 7.8 km) and the Col de la Ramaz (13.9 km at 7.1%) alternating false flats and slopes up to 11, 5%. There will then remain the regular Col de Joux Plane (11.6 km at 8.5%), classified out of category and without a flat meter, before a descent of 12 terminals to the line in Morzine.
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Who are the favourites?
If the arrival of the day before seemed to be promised to a fight between Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard, the breakaway ended up being crowned. The profile of the day suggests that the fighters will still be rewarded. Wearer of the best climber’s jersey, the American Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) and its main competitors, the Austrian Felix Gall (AG2R Citroën) and the Norwegian Tobias Johannessen (Uno-X), could slip up front to increase their points total.
Taken over by Michael Woods as he headed for victory at the Puy de Dôme, Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar) could have his card to play, just like his Portuguese teammate Ruben Guerreiro or the Italian Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek). Unless the bonus seconds allocated to the first three at the top of Joux Plane give the yellow and white jerseys the desire to swoop down on the front of the race from Samoëns, at the foot of the pass.
What are the schedules ?
12:58 p.m.: start of the broadcast on France 3 and france.tv
1:05 p.m.: fictitious departure from Annemasse
1:20 p.m.: real departure (changeover to France 2 at 3 p.m.)
5:33 p.m.: scheduled arrival (at an average of 36 km/h) in Morzine