Blagnac / Rodez

Stage 14 - Saturday, July 15th - 181.5 km

< Stage 13 - Stage 15 >

The Stage

Today we start at the home of Airbus and the European aerospace industry.

This is stage 3 all over again. A day for the GC men to take it relatively easy and for the spring classics riders to show us what they are made of. In 2015 Greg Van Avermaet beat Peter Sagan here and I would not bet against these two puncheurs to contest the win again today. Add Gilbert, Valverde, Matthews, and a few more to the list of favorites. That 570 metres closing climb at 9.6% is going to be fireworks.

Who will run away with the win today?

Winner: Michael Matthews

Tour Touristique

The Chemin de Fer Touristique du Tarn (CFTT), or Tarn Light Railway, is a narrow-gauge light railway near the village of Saint-Lieux-lès-Lavaur. It is run as a heritage railway by a French association, the ACOVA (Association pour la Conservation Occitane de Véhicules Anciens ). It operates on a 500 mm (19 3⁄4 in) gauge and the line was reconstructed from 1974 over a length of 3.5 kilometers (2.2 mi) on the trackbed of the former line from La Ramière to Saint-Sulpice which operated only from 11 April 1925, to 20 June 1931.

The line starts from the Saint Lieux-lès-Lavaur terminus at the former station ex-TVT and follows the streets of Saint-Lieux till a 132-metre (433 ft) long viaduct over the river Agout. Then it runs in the Tarn countryside and woods before arriving at the present terminus at les Martels.

The ACOVA owns five steam locomotives, among which three are operating and four are considered as Monument historique. One of them is coming from New Caledonia and was originally in the 500mm gauge (Decauville 0-4-0T) and the others have been adapted from 600 mm (1 ft 11 5⁄8 in) gauge hardware.

View attached image.

View attached image.

View attached image.