Preview - Tour de France 2022 stage 9

At long last the race reaches the Alps. There will be four stages raced in the region, and the ninth day is the first with true high mountains involved. A long day with 193 kilometers on the menu in the Tour de France, most of them on Swiss territory before the finish in Châtel just across the border.

The start of the stage, as almost all days, is flat. It will be in Aigle, the headquarters of the World Cycling Center, and do a loop over the mountains east of Lac Léman before returning to the Rhône valley and towards France.

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The Col de la Croix will come with 61 kilometers to the finish and is a decent ascent. With some strong pace the peloton can shed quite some riders, but mostly it can be used to deal some damage and prepare an attack for later in the day. The descent will be long and somewhat technical, down Villars-sur-Olon – which the riders climbed in a MTT at the Tour de Romandie.

The stage will be decided in the final set of climbs. The first of which is Pas de Morgins, 15.4 kilometers at 6.1%. The best climbers in the world can fly up this, but truly it has to be said the ascent is 12 kilometers long at an average of 7% as that’s where the attacks can come, afterwards moves should be easy to cover. The ascent summits with 10 kilometers to go, and antecedes a short descent before the rise to the line.

The ascent into Les Portes du Soleil isn’t hard, however further gaps can be extended if they’re made beforehand. The climb is 4 kilometers long at 4.6% average gradient and should see an exciting finale.

CyclingUpToDate prediction:

**** Tadej Pogacar

*** Jonas Vingegaard, Lennard Kämna

** Primoz Roglic, Geraint Thomas, David Gaudu

* Romain Bardet, Adam Yates, Daniel Martínez, Enric Mas