UnknownTDF - Stage 16 - Cévennes

Mont Aigoual in the Cévennes, the main feature of The Rider by Tim Krabbé. Photo by Office de Tourisme Mont Aigoual. Licenced through Creative Commons

Stage 16, the final rest day is behind them and the peloton is on the final stretch to Paris.

With not much climbing, the focus of today’s stage is going to be the heat and also the wind which is blowing from the south. Just after the only categorised climb of the day the race momentarily heads into the Cévennes, a place any fan of Tim Krabbé’s great book, The Rider, will remember well. The venture into the national park though is on a road heading south west and slightly downhill, so it is going to be quick and into a crosswind before a turn out of the park. Will we see an attempt to create splits like we did last week?