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| Stage 13 profile |
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| Stage 13 on the map |
Stage 13 is a rolling 169
kilometers, which looks at first glance like a sprinter’s stage. But the
profile might be slightly misleading. The most outstanding characteristic on
the profile is the climb that comes 115 kilometers into the stage. The category-1
Alto del Rat Penat rises 460 meters over 4.3k for an average gradient of a
painful 10.6% and a max of 16%, but it tops out with about 50k to go to the
finish. It should produce some splits in the peloton, probably dropping some of
the sprinters, but 50k is a lot of road to pull back an escape.
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| The cat-1 climb profile |
Ten KOM points are available
at the summit of the category-1 Alto del Rat Penat climb, in addition to the
three points up for grabs on the early cat-3 climb. While that is no windfall
of mountain points, it could still be significant enough in a tight polka dot
jersey race, to tempt a persistent jersey hunter like maybe Cofidis’ Nicolas
Edet, or Saxo’s Tomas Marczynski, to get into the break.
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| The final 5k ends with a short slope up |
The finale should prove to
be the deciding factor when the riders speed in to Castelldefels on the
Balearic Coast near Barcelona. 15 flat final kilometers lead up to a four
hundred meter slope up to the line. The hill gets steeper toward the top, so
this is not exactly ideal for the sprinters. But the stronger, punchy finishers
should like the look of the finale.
Expect Philippe Gilbert and
Edvald Boasson Hagen to go for it again tomorrow. I would also expect to see
Rinaldo Nocentini, Michael Matthews, Gianni Meersman, maybe Stybar or Flecha,
and possibly several of the top GC riders take a shot at that final kick up to
the line. I would not be surprised at all to see Fabian Cancellara take another
shot at a stage win on Friday.
My pick to win stage 13: I
really like Nocentini, Gilbert, and Boasson Hagen for stage 13. Yesterday I
picked Gilbert to win stage 13, but then he won stage 12 today. So I am going
to go with Edvald Boasson Hagen of
Team Sky for the win on Friday.
My dark-horse pick goes to
Warren Barguil of Argos Shimano.
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