{"id":2039032,"date":"2026-07-11T15:15:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T12:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2039032"},"modified":"2026-07-11T15:15:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T12:15:08","slug":"tour-de-france-stage-9-preview-a-bruiser-before-the-first-rest-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2039032","title":{"rendered":"Tour de France Stage 9 Preview: A Bruiser Before the First Rest Day"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/stage-9.jpg&#8221;]<\/p>\n<div class=\"content-wrap fp-contentTarget\">\n<div class=\"article-body\">\n<div class=\"mb-base-loose flex flex-wrap gap-(--spacing-base)\">\n<div class=\"fp-remove flex items-center justify-start gap-(--spacing-base-tight)\"><span class=\"font-utility-2 font-bold text-primary\">Shane Stokes<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"pub-date font-utility-2 text-secondary\">Published July 11, 2026 09:15AM<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"o-rte-text u-spacing--and-half c-content__post js-fitvids\" data-fitvids-processed=\"true\">\n<p><strong>Malemore \u2013 Ussel: 185.5km \/ 3300m+<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Tour de France\u00a0stages are always aggressive affairs but this is even more so the case just before a rest day. Riders know they can empty the tank a little more than usual, with caution thrown to the wind. Sore legs the following morning? Not such a big deal.<\/p>\n<p>The race to Ussel is not a major mountain stage but it still racks up over 3,000 meters of climbing. Things are lumpy early on, but not too extreme: the day\u2019s sprint is located 45km after the start but may well be mopped up by a breakaway, unless the sprinters\u2019 teams are particularly focused on scrapping it out there.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ad-placeholder-wrapper relative w-full border-t border-b border-border-light col-span-full my-3 md:col-span-10 md:col-start-2\">\n<div class=\"mb-[30px] min-h-[30px] text-center\"><span class=\"font-utility-4 font-medium tracking-[1px] text-neutral-500 uppercase\">ADVERTISEMENT<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Whether or not a group has snapped the elastic by then, there is ample opportunity after that for time to be gained. The category 3 C\u00f4te de Naves and the cat. 2 Suc au May are perfect platforms for aggressors to build a buffer, while the later cat 3. C\u00f4te de la Croix du Pey and the cat 4 ramp of Mont Bessou will enable the strongest of those to thin things out if the group is not pulling as one.<\/p>\n<p>The final 24km is downhill to flat, enabling any resilient sprinters to try to get back on terms. It certainly won\u2019t be an easy day for the fastmen, though, with punchy riders most looking forward to this kind of parcours.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"u-text-transform--upper u-font-weight--bold u-letter-spacing--1\"><strong>Start<\/strong>:\u00a07:35 a.m. ET<\/li>\n<li class=\"u-text-transform--upper u-font-weight--bold u-letter-spacing--1\"><strong>Est. Finish<\/strong>:\u00a011:47 a.m. ET<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\">\n<div class=\"mb-base-loose flex flex-wrap gap-(--spacing-base)\">\n<div class=\"fp-remove flex items-center justify-start gap-(--spacing-base-tight)\"><span class=\"font-utility-2 font-bold text-primary\">Shane Stokes<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"pub-date font-utility-2 text-secondary\">Published July 11, 2026 09:15AM<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>[analyse_source url=&#8221;https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/tour-de-france\/tour-de-france-stage-9-preview-2026\/&#8221;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/stage-9.jpg&#8221;] Shane Stokes Published July 11, 2026 09:15AM Malemore \u2013 Ussel: 185.5km \/ 3300m+ Tour de France\u00a0stages are always aggressive affairs but this is even more so the case just before a rest day. Riders know they can empty the tank a little more than usual, with caution thrown to the wind. Sore [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-2039032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2039032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2039032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2039032\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2039032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2039032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2039032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}