Tour de France 2020 Route stage 15: Lyon

Tour de France 2020 Route stage 15: Lyon - Grand Colombier

Sunday 13 September - The Tour de France presents an interesting concept in stage 15. Starting in Lyon, the race runs to the Grand Colombier to tackle the pass in the Jura mountains from three different sides. The route is 175 kilometres long and, obviously, the race finishes atop the Grand Colombier.

Climbing the same mountain several times, it is not very common on the Tour, although not entirely new. The 18th stage of the 2013 Tour of France tackled the climb to Alpe d’Huez twice. On the 13th of September three of the four access roads up the Grand Colombier will be covered. The last ascent goes all the way to the summit.

The shortest route from Lyon to the Col du Grand Colombier is 110 kilometres and the riders don’t waste much time to reach the foot of the climb. Subsequently, they ride up and down the mountain twice to conclude the race with a final haul up.

The first ascent is Montée de la Selle de Fromentel. Amounting to 11.1 kilometres at 8.1%, the climb hold its trump cards up its sleeve until the last three kilometres. Respectively, these go up at 11.5%, 14.5% and 12.5% – on average!

The descent runs onto the next climb. The first kilometres are nothing special, but the Col de la Biche bares its teeth after 3 kilometres. The actual climb is 6.9 kilometres long and the average gradient sits at 8.9%. The middle section is toughest with double digit gradients for 2 relentless kilometres.

As said, the last ascent goes all the way to the top of the Grand Colombier. The haul up begins in Culoz and amounts to 17.4 kilometres, in which the riders conquer an elevation gain of 1,244 metres. The average slope is 7.1% with some stretches peaking out to 12%. The last 400 metres are especially interesting as this section rises at 10%.

Thibaut Pinot and Primoz Roglic must be happy men. The Col du Grand Colombier is a climb to their liking. They climbed to victory on these slopes in the Tour de l’Ain of 2019 (Pinot) and 2020 (Roglic).

The first three riders on the line gain time bonuses of 10, 6 and 4 seconds.

Another interesting read: results 15th stage 2020 Tour de France.