28 | July 25, 2019 | Cycling Weekly

T

he high-altitude aspect of the race is

going to be a significant factor,” four-

time champion Chris Froome replied

when asked his thoughts about the 2019

Tour de France route. A las the four-

time winner never made it to the Grand

Départ in Belgium this year, let alone the

mountain ranges, due to his crash at the

Critérium du Dauphiné, but the same

thinking will have influenced the build-

up for each of the 176 riders who lined up

in the lowlands of Brussels.

This year the peloton has to tackle

three summit finishes that are over 2 ,000

metres elevation: the Col du Tourmalet

on stage 14, Tignes on stage 19 and the

final showdown up to Val Thorens on

Stage 20. It isn’t just the summit finishes

either, as there are four other peaks that

head over that notable marker, including

the Col de l’Iseran at 2 ,770 metres —

location of this year’s Souvenir Henri

TOUR 20 19

Desgrange, the prize awarded to the first

rider to reach the highest point of the

race. According to Ineos’s head of athlete

performance Tim Kerrison: “There is a

bigger requirement than ever to perform

at altitude. Because of the complexity

with different riders on different

programmes, each altitude training block

is unique for each rider.”

“ We started the year in Colombia,

which included Egan [Bernal] and

[Jonathan] Castroviejo from the Tour

team. They were there for three weeks,

but obviously Egan lives at altitude in

Colombia and one of the ways we manage

his schedule is that when he is in Europe

he spends time at medium altitude

between races in A ndorra.” That ’s the

same place both Yates brothers have

relocated to in recent years to spend as

much time as possible in the thin air.

Whereas Bernal and the Yateses have

the home comforts of altitude, Geraint

Thomas must carefully plan his stints at

high altitude throughout the year.

“Geraint had four blocks scheduled this

year in Tenerife, one in February with

Ben Swift where Ben unfortunately had

a nasty crash,” Kerrison says. “But he

did an incredible block of work up there

for 10 or 12 days at altitude. He then had

another one planned but the weather was

really poor so he came back and then we

did a two-week block in April and a two-

week block in May up Mount Teide.”

This year’s parcours favours riders

better suited to higher altitudes

Bernal gets his body reaquainted

with thin air by training in Andorra