Tour de France 2023 - Stage 10: Vulcania - Issoire | 167.2 kilometres
The stage has 3100 metres of climbing in store for the breakaway riders, who will almost certainly break away from the peloton and prevail in the end. The most striking climb is the Col de la Croix Saint-Robert, 1451 metres high and with an average gradient of 6.3 percent over six kilometres. The difficulty of the 10th stage of the Tour de France lies less in the length and steepness of the climbs than in their frequency. The elevation profile looks like a saw blade, constantly going up and down. Anyone who decides to escape here should therefore be able to cope with speed and climbing.
On the mountain stages, we saw that the teams chose different strategies when selecting their equipment. Some teams rode uniformly on aero bikes, others left it up to their riders to choose a light or an aero bike.
What would be recommended for the jagged profile of the 10th stage of the 2023 Tour de France?
We modelled the entire stage to answer this question. Our assumption is somewhat simplified: an attack at kilometre zero and then a lonely ride over the entire distance. Under these conditions, an aero model - unsurprisingly - comes out on top. Canyon Aeroad, Cervelo S5 and Cannondale System Six lead the way. The mathematical advantage for Canyon is based on the lower weight compared to Cervelo. However, the effect is not strong - 11 seconds over the entire distance. Aerodynamically weak bikes are many minutes behind.
Number of the day: 6:41 minutes
The slowest bike in our list is almost seven minutes slower than the fastest under the conditions mentioned. This shows that the choice of bike is quite significant for a runaway. In no other scenario are such large time differences possible.
However, it is unlikely that a breakaway will ride the entire route alone. Warhorses of the calibre of Jens Voigt, who has escaped the peloton alone if necessary, have not yet distinguished themselves in this Tour de France. In a group, the material effect is reduced by slipstreaming. However, the characteristics remain basically the same. If you want to escape on this stage, you should use an aero set-up and generally use your energy very sparingly. The last 24 kilometres are almost entirely downhill. If you want to maintain a lead over several chasers here, you need top aerodynamics. If there is a sprint by a breakaway group, aero is also a trump card: the finale is almost flat. There is a small mini-wave before the 1000 metre mark, the last 1000 metres climb four metres.
Our model racer needs an average of 300 W to cover the distance at an average speed of 38.8 km/h.
The (almost) entire field at a glance
*) The calculations are based on the bikes tested by TOUR in the laboratory and wind tunnel. The bikes at the Tour de France may differ in some details. Of course, we have not yet been able to analyse last-minute prototypes. Background to the simulation.
Our expert
Robert Kühnen studied mechanical engineering, writes about technical and training topics for TOUR and develops test methods. Robert has been refining the simulation calculations for years and they are also used by professional teams.
