Tour de France 2018 - Stages 12 - 14

Introduction
After a tough few days for the sprinters it's finally time for more bunch sprints as the Tour heads towards the south coast. Before that though there's one final day in the Alps. As much as they might want to, the overall favourites can't ignore this stage, the final climb of the Col du Vence is seriously hard and it could unhitch many of the GC guys. After that it's two stages that look deceptively easy on paper but in reality will be very difficult if the conditions are just right.

Stage 12 - Briancon - Grenoble - 144.1km
It's ranked as a medium mountain stage but there's still 2,800m of vertical ascent in less than 100 miles of riding. The first 28km are all uphill as the peloton climb the Col du Lautaret. The Lautaret is not one of the most beautiful climbs in the Alps, it's a main road up a valley which is straight for almost its entire length. It trends downwards at the top though for the best part of 70km so there is a benefit to the initial climb. The peloton will enter Grenoble with 30km to go and oh how they will wish that they can just nip one street over to the finish line. Unfortunately they have to leave Grenoble to climb the Col du Vence. The road is narrow and the climb is incredibly steep so don't expect any more than 10 riders to fight it out in the final sprint.

Stage 13 - Valence - Nimes - 145.3km
It's not totally flat today but there's only two categorised climbs on the whole route so it should be a large bunch sprint. We're following the Rhone river today all the way into Nimes. The whole day is custom built for sprinters, it's towards the coast so expect a headwind to push the breakaway group back towards the sprint teams. The finish is also built for a sprint. The last 2km are made up of two 1km straights with a 90 degree bend between them. The next few days are great for the sprinters and it will be a race for the green jersey until the Basque country where the overall contenders will come back to the front.

Stage 14 - Montpellier - Perpignan - 189.5km

It looks like the easier stage of the entire race, there's barely 700m of climbing in the whole day. It will be the easiest day as well, unless the wind blows. There's a tiny amount of the route which doesn't hug the coastline so if there is a wind expect the race to be blown to pieces. If there's no wind though, this will be another opportunity for the sprinters to get a stage win. The one minor obstacle actually comes in the last kilometer. Although the stage has been pan flat up until this point, there's a 15m rise after the red kite. This shouldn't prevent the sprinters from winning but it will mean that they have to time their efforts much better. If you go for a long one then expect your legs to die far before you hit the line.

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