Tour de France 2018 stage 6: Brest > Mûr de Bretagne 181 km

Inquitus

Stage 6 of the Tour takes us from Brest to the Mûr de Bretagne.

Map:



The start goes in Brest, a city and harbour, which shares some similarities with Lorient in terms of maritime tradition and culture. Brest has been visited by aircraft carriers and the like, because of its harbour, that is able to get visits from Captain Jack Sparrow's dinghy and the USS Nimitz as well. Below the harbour vividly painted by Louis-Nicolas Van Blarenberghe in the 18th century:



https://www.pictorem.com/41063/Brest%20harbour,%20with%20a%20ship%20having%20her%20rigging%20installed.html

Speaking of the harbours, Brest's maritime culture is exemplified by the Brest International Maritime Festival...



...which takes place every four years (latest edition 2016, next 2020), where over 1000 naval vessels, such as tall boats, historical replicas, working boats, exotic boats and yachts, is exhibited, and admired by the hundred of thousands visitors.
If you are drawn to this place and find yourself in need of something to eat, avoid the McDonalds and try the local cuisine; it might be your only visit to Bretagne



This crêpe bretonne is said to originate from a clumsy wife, who spilt buckwheat porridge onto a flat, hot stone. This crêpe with buckwheat, max. 30% wheat flour, water and salt is the "salty" variant, but sweet crêpe made of flour, eggs, sugar and milk is also available.

The riders probably won't get to enjoy this, because one delicious crêpe can quickly turn into many! Instead they must focus on the stage profile, which looks like this:



..and zoomed in the last 20 kilometers, where the Mûr is climbed twice:



Mûr de Bretagne itself:



In 2011, stage 4 of that Tour, Alberto Contador, coming fresh (or so it seemed) from the Giro, thought he was the first to win on top of Mûr de Bretagne...

.. but Cadel Evans actually won after a photo finish, edging out the Spaniard, but couldn't distance Thor Hushovd with the single second he needed to take the yellow jersey from him. In the end, what matters is who is in yellow in Paris, and Evans' perseverance in the mountains and his time trialling skills secured him the top spot on the podium in Paris as the first Australian Tour winner.

When the Tour returned to Mûr de Bretagne four years later, Alexis Vuillermoz took his first Tour de France stage victory with a late attack in front of Dan Martin and the peloton lead by Valverde, since he wasn't a threat for Chris Froome's yellow jersey anyway.



How will Mûr de Bretagne be ridden today? Will we see the top guns battle for the stage win, like 2011, or act more hesitating, allowing an oppurtunistic punchy rider to go for glory?


General classification before tomorrow:

1. Greg Van AVERMAET (BMC)
2. Tejay van GARDEREN (BMC) + 2''
3. Philippe GILBERT (Quickstep) + 3''
4. Geraint THOMAS (SKY) + 5''
5. Julian ALAPHILIPPE (Quickstep) + 6''
6. Bob JUNGELS (Quickstep) + 9''
7. Tom DUMOULIN (Sunweb) + 13''
8. Søren KRAGH ANDERSEN (Sunweb) st. *
9. Rigoberto URAN (EF-ED) + 37''
10. Rafal MAJKA (Bora) + 52''
* Youth classification leader

Polka-dot jersey competition before tomorrow:

1. Toms SKUIJNS (Trek) 4
2. Sylvain CHAVANEL (Direct Energie) 4
3. Lilian CALMEJANE (Cofidis) 3

Points jersey competition before tomorrow:

1. Peter SAGAN (Bora) 180
2. Fernando GAVIRIA (Quickstep) 147
3. Alexander KRISTOFF (UAE) 78
4. André GREIPEL (Lotto-Soudal) 69
5. Sonny COLBRELLI (Bahrain) 52

Weather forecast at the Mûr de Bretagne



The Bookies take on today

Allaphiippe 3/1
Juraj Sagan 4/1
Valverde 9/2
Dan Martin 12/1
Simon Yates 12/1
Phil Gil 14/1
Sonny Colbrelli 16/1
GVA 25/1

Borrowed from here

TheBlaaMan

You'd have to think that QS will try hard to nick the jersey from GVA, but he should be there or thereabouts on this sort of finish. Surely Sky will also try to get Thomas in to the jersey, but they are very unlikely to succeed in getting back the time needed to do so - unless they manage to do so via intermediate sprint bonuses...?

Not long/hard enough for Dan, I think, but the list of likely winners is a long one: take a pick from GVA, Gilbert, Valverde, Alaphillipe, Martin, Sagan, ANOther etc.

Alaf FTW......

There are no bonus seconds on the finish line, are there?

Mefistofelino

TheBlaaMan wrote: »

There are no bonus seconds on the finish line, are there?

10, 6 and 4 seconds for all stages in the race except the TTs

There are also bonuses of 3,2 and 1 seconds about 3km after the first passage of the Mur at the top of a kick to Saint Mayeux (just to keep the lads on the boil). If a small group gets and stays away on the first ascent, someone could theoretically pick up 13 seconds.

Decuc500

Anybody but Valverde today. If Martin doesn't win I'd like to see Uran win it.

MPFGLB

Decuc500 wrote: »

Anybody but Valverde today. If Martin doesn't win I'd like to see Uran win it.

I agree ...any but Vakverde and SKY for me

But think Dan Martin coudl do it


Gosh what an opening thread post by Inquitis ..even the food section ..brilliant

Zzippy

Hoping it's Dan but probably Valverde.

dastardly00

That's a great OP!

dastardly00

Here is the top-10 from that stage in 2015:

CrowdedHouse

A tweet showing it's windy at the finish.

There's an Irish flag but the gom has a Celtic crest on it - i.e a British football team - hate that.


https://twitter.com/LeTour/status/1017389740482617344

retalivity

Can you have an echelon going up a hill??

Mefistofelino

It would be nice to see Gaudin do well today - he was incredible in Tro Bro Leon this year. An object lesson in never giving up!

Mefistofelino

When I last rode up the Mur (in 2015 I think), I seem to recall a large cut-out billboard on the road near the finish with a big picture of a smiling Bernard Hinault holding a stuffed badger (which he may have probably just punched to death minutes earlier).
Mind you, I was in severe oxygen debt so it could have just been a hallucination.

circler

Like a Rás line-out now.

Macy0161

Echelons!

GetWithIt

Dan-watch?

Oh a split, turn my back for 5 minutes and it kicks off.

Boscoirl

Just turned it on with the sound down, anyone caught in the split?

retalivity

Dan in 2nd group according to letour website

Valverde and Quintana I think

Keeks

GetWithIt wrote: »

Dan-watch?

UAE not chasing so assuming he made the split

Tockman

The breakaway group has covered 40.6km in the second hour. Average speed so far: 41.7km/h. The second group including Fuglsang, Quintana, Nibali, Dan Martin and Zakarin has made it across to the first peloton.

So looks like hes back in front group

MPFGLB

Dan in front group but nearly all Lotto NL Jumbo seem to be in chasing group inc Roglic

MPFGLB

QS making the race hard benefits Dan Martin

WinnyThePoo

Was the 'Mur' a category two climb ? in previous years.

dastardly00

WinnyThePoo wrote: »

Was the 'Mur' a category two climb ? in previous years.

It was Cat. 3 in 2015. Not sure about 2011

EDIT: It was Cat. 3 in 2011 also

Mefistofelino

dastardly00 wrote: »

It was Cat. 3 in 2015. Not sure about 2011

Cat 3 in 2006 as well

coco0981

https://twitter.com/ukcyclingexpert/status/1017409483507564546?s=19

WinnyThePoo

Nerves for Dan. Fuglesang had a bike change I think. Struggling to get back.

Puncture for Demoulin

dastardly00

Where is the rest of Sunweb?

WinnyThePoo

Bardet also had a bike problem