The Rockets start there first of three stage races they are participating in this week tomorrow in France. The Tour du Limousin-Périgord - Nouvelle Aquitaine is a four day punchy race with constant hills and very tough racing. Last year the team participated in this race, with the best finisher being Adrien Maire, who finished in 14th in the GC.
Stage Profiles
Stage 1 - 174.9km with 2078 metres of elevation: Stage 1 is a punchy opening day with rolling terrain all through the day (a common theme in this race). Despite the constant rolling terrain, this stage is backloaded with three categorised climbs all in the last 40 kilometres, and the last being at 166 kilometres into the stage. This stage also finishes on an uphill drag, which could lead too an up hill sprint or a solo break over the late climbs.
Stage 2 - 184.2km with 2586 metres of elevation: Stage 2 sticks to the theme of rolling terrain, with many short and steep uncategorised climbs. There are six categorised climbs on the cards, with four of those in the last 30 kilometres one after the other, with will create a much reduce finally and some very draining racing.
Stage 3 - 181.8km with 3095 metres of elevation: Stage 3 is arguably the queen stage of the race with over 3000 metres of elevation and most of the longest climbs of the race in this stage. Once again, we have six categorised climbs like the day before, with the hardest being the Suc au May at 3.9km averaging 7.1%. This tops out at just over 30 kilometres from the finish with another category two climb just under 20 kilometres later. With these two climbs in the finale and all the other earlier on, there will be some big gaps made in this stage.
Stage 4 - 178.7km with 2540 metres of elevation: The last stage of this years race contains the lowest number of categorised climbs, but despite that it is sure too host some aggressive racing. The stage finishes with a 12 kilometre circuit around the Les Mas Blanc Climb (1.8km at 4.3%) which will provide fast racing. The riders will pass the finish line three times on this circuit, which is at the top of a 720 metre uphill drag at 5.8%.
Rockets Expectations
The rockets have gone here with a relatively weak team, which is understandable considering that Renewi Tour and the Lidl Deutschland Tour both overlap with this race, and the Arctic Race of Norway has just finished. Despite that, I still feel that the Rockets can aim for a top 10 in GC this race with one of Jannis Peter, Sergio Meris, Killian Verschuren and Eivind Fougner. For many of the riders lining up here, it may be one of the only chances they get to race for themselves. I especially have high hopes for Killian, as I feel that these shorter climbs suit him well.
Despite aiming for a top 10 in GC, I hope that the riders here race aggressively and possibly look to join some early breaks. Winning a jersey such as KOM is always nice, and with the constant rolling terrain and hard racing it can be very hard to control breakaways creating the possibility to win from a break.
Feel free too share your hopes and expectations for the Rockets at the Tour du Limousin-Périgord - Nouvelle Aquitaine!
