Chapter 365 - 186: Never-Say-Die Pursuit, Showdown at Le Lioran!

A climb of this difficulty was, of course, the easiest one on today’s stage.

It was essentially a warm-up for the General Classification contenders.

However, just 10 km past this Fourth Category Climb, at the 89 km mark of the stage, lay the second categorized climb, the Third Category Climb: the Côte de Larodde.

The gradient on this climb wasn’t any steeper, but it was much longer, stretching for 3.7 km.

It had an average gradient of 6% and a maximum gradient of 7.2%.

After these first two appetizer-like climbs and several dozen kilometers of rolling hills in the middle section, the race would hit the 164 km mark. This would signal the start of the great mountain showdown—the most difficult part of today’s race, with less than 50 km to go and featuring four categorized climbs.

The first of these, at the 168.5 km mark, was the first of the four-climb barrage before the finish: the Second Category Climb of Col de Néronne.

This climb was 3.9 km long, with a steep average gradient of 8.7% and a maximum gradient reaching 10.6%.

The summit reached an altitude of 1,238 meters.

Yet, even a climb this steep couldn’t be called the most difficult on today’s stage.

Because a dozen or so kilometers further, at the 180 km mark, lay the most difficult and famous climb of the stage: the First Category Climb of Puy Mary (Pas de Peyrol).

It was 5.3 km long with an average gradient of 7.9%.

Don’t be fooled by the average gradient, which seemed lower than the preceding Col de Néronne. The difficulty of this First Category Climb was distributed completely differently.

The average gradients for its first four kilometers were, respectively:

4.6%, 4.9%, 5.5%, and 9.3%.

But in the final 1.3 km, the average gradient would spike to a horrifying 13.4%.

The steepest sections would even exceed 14%.

Without a doubt, with Stage 11 featuring such a long and steep climb, every team knew that UAE’s commander, Pogačar, would definitely launch another attack.

But whether they could fend him off was anyone’s guess!

After the brutally difficult climb of Puy Mary, although only 31 km remained to the finish, there were still two more climbs to tackle: the Col de Pertus and the Col de Font de Cère.

The Col de Pertus was a Second Category Climb.

It was 4.5 km long, with an average gradient of 8.2% and a maximum of 12%.

This was still a highly difficult climb.

As for the final climb, the Col de Font de Cère, the riders would return to a main road before transitioning onto a narrow mountain path for the final part.

On paper, this climb wasn’t considered difficult—it was just a Third Category Climb.

It was 3.4 km long with an average gradient of only 5.5% and a maximum of just 7.0%.

But as the final climb, it was crucial to remember that the riders would have already endured all sorts of high-intensity attacks and surging paces on the three previous difficult climbs.

Therefore, by the time the riders reached it, it would be nearly impossible to judge its difficulty based on the stats alone.

In fact, it had the potential to be the final straw that broke the top contenders.

After the race started, the first 70-odd kilometers were on relatively flat roads.

Huang Chong, wearing the Yellow Jersey, stayed in front of his Core Commander, Roglič, for the entire duration. However, he could still draft behind his own flat-terrain domestiques, conserving as much energy as possible.

However, in today’s race—whether because the riders were well-rested after a day off, or because all the climbers sensed an opportunity—the pace was incredibly fast right from the start.

Riders constantly attacked, trying to form a breakaway, but the peloton wasn’t letting anyone go.

Visma Team’s Van Aert also attempted a breakaway.

But after riding hard for less than five kilometers, his maximum lead only reached a dozen or so seconds before he was reeled in and swallowed by the peloton.

This process repeated itself again and again.

The UAE Deputy Commander in charge of controlling the peloton, Politt, seemed dead set on not letting any breakaway succeed today.

Whenever a rider tried to accelerate away, he would immediately speed up in pursuit, sticking to them like glue.

Thus, it wasn’t until the first Fourth Category Climb, after the peloton had already covered around 70 km, that a small breakaway group finally managed to get away on the ascent.

EF Education Team sent two of their top breakaway specialists: Ben Healy and Carapaz.

Also joining the breakaway were Lascano from Movistar Team, Grégoire from FDJ Team, Bardet from Team DSM, and Amiel from Decathlon Team, among others.

Clearly, these were all top-tier breakaway artists, each one a formidable rider.

They quickly extended their lead on the climb.

However, the UAE Team’s intentions for the day were all too clear.

The race was now in its second week, and their commander, Pogačar, was still not in the Yellow Jersey—a situation they found unacceptable.

So, after Politt finished his work on the flats, Wellens quickly took his place at the front to continue controlling the pace. On the climb, he was tasked with strictly managing the time gap to the breakaway group.

Huang Chong kept an eye on the small chalkboard held up by the motorcycle commissaires, which displayed the real-time gap to the peloton. He noticed that under the UAE Team’s control, the breakaway’s lead maxed out at just over two minutes.

With the difficult First and Second Category Climbs still to come, that amount of time was definitely not enough for them to stay away.

"Huang, the race is about to enter the final 50 kilometers. Watch for changes in the rhythm."