Tour de France 2020 Favourites stage 16: Alpine race with punchy finale

The first ascent that stands out is the Col de Porte, which is a climb of 7.4 kilometres at 6.7% with its peak 66.5 kilometres into the race. Straight after the (long) descent the Côte de Revel appears. This 6 kilometres climb at 8% leads onto an intermediate phase with mostly downhills and some false flat sections.

The biggest hurdle of the day begins with some 35 kilometres remaining. The Montée de Saint-Nizier-du-Moucherotte is 11.1 kilometres long and the average gradient sits at 6.5%. So at the top there are still 20 kilometres left to the finish. This runs predominantly false flat downhill until the final 2.2 kilometres rise at 6.2% to the line in Villard de Lans.

The course lends itself perfectly to set up a successful breakaway, although it is also a viable option for GC teams to control the race and go for the stage win and bonus seconds. The first three riders over the Montée de Saint-Nizier-du-Moucherotte earn 8, 5 and 2 seconds. So why not attack on the flanks, be the first to crest the summit, and push on hard to the finish line – Jumbo-Visma in particular has the firepower to do so with their mix of climbers with time trialing skills.

On the other hand, why would they? Pogacar outgunned Roglic in the last two uphill sprints. So from a Jumbo-Visma perspective it would be an option to let the breakaway battle it out for the stage win and time bonuses.

Favourites 16th stage 2020 Tour de France

*** Michal Kwiatkowski, Julian Alaphilippe, Sepp Kuss, Marc Hirschi
** Primoz Roglic, Tadej Pogacar, Richard Carapaz, Adam Yates
* Thomas De Gendt, Alejandro Valverde, Pavel Sivakov, Tom Dumoulin

Take a look at the route of the 16th stage on the Tour de France.