Montelimar to Mont Ventoux - Stage 20
Didn’t that come quickly? The penultimate stage of the 2009 Tour de France is upon us. Montelimar, Nougat capital of the world, sees the riders depart on a 167km route to the summit finish as HC mountain, Mont Ventoux - The Giant of Provence.
I’ve already explained a little of Mont Ventoux’s history and significance in Le Tour, so I won’t delve too far into that again, but suffice to say this is the bad boy and will separate the men from the, well, lesser men.
Your Ventoux round up will hopefully be bought to you by a very special guest writer as I will be in Paris awaiting the final stage, and with no internet connection. This does mean that you’ll hopefully (if I can figure out how to do it from my phone) be receiving exclusive updates and photos from the finish line. Huzzah!
So, what do the experts have in mind for Stage 20?
“Ouch this is a finish which is going to hurt, even if you are in the grupetto there’s no way up to the top of the Ventoux without lots of suffering being involved. Contador only has to control the situation then maybe this is the chance for Lance to show he can still win mountain stages. So if Astana keep the race fairly tight on the way to the last climb then the usual escape group will get toasted by the GC guys. An interesting battle will take place for the podium places specially if the time trial has left only small gaps between those involved, there’ll be some desperate faces and lots of courage showing today.”
