July 19.
After more than twenty days of racing, the Tour de France was finally entering the final three-stage showdown for the general classification riders.
As the first stage of this three-stage tripleheader, Stage 19 would take the riders from Embrun all the way to Isola 2000.
The stage covered 144.6 kilometers, with a total elevation gain of 4,512 meters.
There was one intermediate sprint, located at the 21.5-kilometer mark.
For the flatland sprinters, this was undoubtedly fantastic news.
They could break away and grab sprint points before the brutal climbing began, greatly reducing the difficulty of their ride.
Otherwise, if the intermediate sprint were placed after an HC climb, it would practically cost the sprinters half their lives.
After all, at this point in the race, everyone's fatigue had basically reached the breaking point. Simply finishing the remaining stages would require gritting their teeth and enduring.
Judging solely from the official elevation profile, this stage was actually extremely similar to the earlier Stage 14.
Both had only three climbs, two of which were HC climbs.
The difference was that the finishing climb of Stage 19 was not an HC climb, but a Category 1 mountain climb stretching 16.1 kilometers.
That meant the other two HC climbs had to be tackled early and midway through the stage.
The summit of the first HC climb was at kilometer 42.5, called the Col de Vars climb.
It was 18.9 kilometers long, with an average gradient of 5.6% and a maximum gradient of 9.2%.
This meant that after passing the intermediate sprint at kilometer 21.5, all riders would enter a long climb.
The summit of the second HC climb was located at kilometer 87.5, called the Cime de la Bonette climb.
It was 23.1 kilometers long, with an average gradient of 6.8% and