Col du Galibier

So it's kind of like, think back to the Granol stage.

The gradual, relatively shallow section of the Galibier, probably lower percentage than we have here, but still the same perspective still locks in here.

The reason that Roglic and Jonas were attacking Pogacar not on the climb, but on the shallower section beforehand, is because that's a less steep segment, and therefore draft matters more.

So if one rider attacks the second, rider can sit in the wheel of quote-unquote Pogacar, or in this case, Butrago, while Butrago closes, let's say, Glog.

As the journey moves south, the green of summer will gradually give way to the yellow, orange and copper colours of autumn.

Before we begin exploring the route, however, it's worth noting that several parts of this journey cross very high mountain passes, including the Col de Lisanne at 2,764 metres, the Col de Galibier at 2,642 metres and the Col de Lizard at 2,361 metres.

These are very much seasonal roads and can close following early snowfall or sudden deterioration in conditions, so it's always worth checking in advance before setting off.

For the best chance of completing the full route, it's recommended to do so between the final week of August and the middle of September.

A couple of people, a couple of listeners reminded me of this.

Very famously in the states of the Galibier in the 2011 Tour de France, he had the likes of Maxime Monfort down the road.

Maxime Monfort, who was in the podcast yesterday, because he's now a direct sportive of Little Trek.

And that was a stage-winning and indeed race-winning move as well in 2000.

Oh.

And you can see from the course profile that most of that elevation is coming, of course, from the infamous Col du Galibier.

Uh, leading into that, there's, there's one other climb, but to be honest, it's pretty minor.

It's 1.4 kilometers long.

So actually any sprinters who maybe don't have a team role to play could mop up those sprint points early on, um, because the, the third sprint comes much later.

It comes at 24.3 kilometers.

Um, and that will be the kind of probably the final, uh, checkpoint for the kind of pure sprinters, uh, going into that Col du Galibier, and then it's gonna be every woman for herself, I think, after that point.

Um, so yeah, I'm, I'm really excited to see this-

Yeah.

And so I think that's what you, that's been the big change for Pogačar as well from 2022 when he got cooked maybe on the heat and on the top of the Galibier, and now you just never see him overcook, even when he...

That's why he's doing these long solos even though his body temperature's ra- rising, I assume, as his intensity rises, he's able to tolerate it.

And you'll see core body temperature sensors attached to a lot of riders.

But, um, yeah, I had a couple spells of not drinking for sort of four, six weeks at a time, and that was the real time when I did shed weight, which obviously helps, 'cause it w- it was the... an Alpe d'Huez stage.

I think it was similar to this year's Etap, but we did, uh, Galibier, Col du Fer.

Yeah, and then Alpe d'Huez.

Can't remember.