2023-07-08 08:00:14
The profile of the eighth stage of the Tour de France 2023. ASO
“The sprints can follow each other, but do not necessarily resemble each other”, warns the director of the Tour de France, Christian Prudhomme. After a flat session, Friday, between Mont-de-Marsan (Landes) and Bordeaux, place, Saturday, July 8, at an eighth stage with a rugged profile. On the menu of the day for the peloton: 201 kilometers of racing between Libourne (Gironde) and Limoges (Haute-Vienne).
After a warm-up and an intermediate sprint at kilometer 79, the riders will have a lot to do in the last seventy terminals, where the three listed climbs will follow one another: the Côte de Champs-Romain (2.8 km at 5, 2%, 3rd category), the coast of Masmont (1.3 km at 5.5%, 4th category) and finally the coast of Condat-sur-Vienne (1.2 km at 5.4%, 4th category). “Where Limoges can hold surprises, the finish of the day will be rather open to the most explosive sprinters, capable of taking a short but difficult climb up the stairs to win the final”summarizes the boss of the event.
From the capital of porcelain – which has already appeared fifteen times on the map of the Grande Boucle –, the followers remember Lance Armstrong crossing the line of the 18th stage of the 1995 edition alone, fingers pointing skyward in tribute to his Italian teammate Fabio Casartelli, who died a few days earlier in the descent of Portet-d’Aspet (Haute-Garonne). That year, the Texan was not yet a contender for the yellow jersey, a cancer survivor or even a runner convicted of doping…
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