Cycling in Yorkshire & Beyond
Cycling in Yorkshire & Beyond
Stage 18 | Stage 19 | Stage 20
Stage 19 of the Tour de France 2024 is a 144.6km mountain stage from Embrun to Isola 2000.
It's a relatively short stage, but with three climbs that peak above 2,000m. The high point is the Cime de la Bonette, where the highest road in France reaches 2,802m.
We'll see which riders thrive at altitude, and whether some struggle.
The total climbing amounts to 4,400m.
The intermediate sprint comes at Guillestre, before any of the climbs, so it should be a genuine test of sprinting rather than a question of who can get over the mountains.
These are video highlights of Stage 19.
This is the Stage 19 blog/race report.
Race Details | Poll | Map & Profile | Timings | Videos | Food & Drink | Route Notes | Favourites
| Date | Friday 19th July 2024 |
|---|---|
| Stage classification | Mountain |
| Distance | 145km |
| Intermediate sprint | Guillestre |
| Climbs | Col de Vars (HC) Cime de la Bonette (HC) Isola 2000 (Cat. 1) |
| Total climbing | 4,400m |
Vote for one of the main contenders to win Stage 19.
This is a map of the route of Stage 19, Tour de France 2024.
This is a zoom-able map of the route of Stage 19 of the 2024 Tour de France.
Note: this routemap was produced a long time in advance of the race, and could be subject to changes.
This is the profile of Stage 19 Tour de France 2024.
| Caravan | Fast Schedule | Slow Schedule | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Start Time (départ fictif) | 1020 |
1220 |
1220 |
| Start Time (départ réel) | 1030 |
1230 |
1230 |
| Intermediate Sprint Guillestre | 1109 |
1256 |
1258 |
| Cime de la Bonette Climb | 1314 |
1506 |
1531 |
| Finish Line (144.6km) | 1501 |
1628 |
1703 |
This is a video of the route of Stage 19 Tour de France 2024.
Stage 11 of the 1993 Tour de France climbed the Cime de la Bonette and finished at Isola 2000.
Robert Millar was first over the Bonette, but Tony Rominger won the stage. (These were the dark days of cycling).
Isola 2000 is less than 2 hours' drive from the Mediterranean coast at Nice, so I suggest the food and drink of the Côte d'Azur to accompany this stage.
Salade niçoise is a good choice in hot weather. It includes lettuce, tomatoes, potatoes, tuna fish and soft-boiled eggs.
A chilled glass of Côtes de Provence rosé will go perfectly with your salad.
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The stage starts in Embrun (départ fictif).
Embrun is a town in the Hautes-Alpes, at the northern end of the Lac de Serre-Ponçon. The name is a shortening of Eburodunum, meaning 'fortress where yew trees grow'.
(It isn't the only Roman site named after yew trees: the Romans called York Eboracum, place of yew trees).
There was a Celtic oppidum here, which became a Gallo-Roman settlement after the Roman conquest. In the Middle Ages, Embrun was part of the county of Provence, then the Dauphiné. It became part of France in 1349 with the rest of the Dauphiné.
Embrun grew in the late 1950s when a large number of workers were required for the creation of the artificial lake of Serre-Ponçon.
Agriculture here is concentrated on sheep (Sisteron lamb), wine under the Hautes-Alpes label, and apples.
Embrunman is a long-distance triathlon held here around 15th August every year.
Embrun (France) is twinned with Embrun (Canada).
The neutralised section takes the race north from Embrun, up the Durance river. The départ réel is where the route leaves the N94 and forks off left towards Châteauroux-les-Alpes.
The riders rejoin the N94 until Saint-Clément-sur-Durance, then take the minor Route du Mont-Dauphin to the fortified village of Mont-Dauphin that gives the road its name.
The fortifications were built starting in 1693 by France's best-known fortification-builder, Vauban, with the idea of protecting the upper Durance and Guil valleys from attack by the Duke of Savoie.
After Mont-Dauphin is Guillestre, on the right bank of the Chagne and in the valley below Risoul 1850. This is where the intermediate sprint takes place.
The intermediate sprint is at Guillestre, after 21.1km raced.
Once it's over, the sprinters can concentrate on their other mission for the day: forming a gruppetto and making sure they get to the finish line within the time limit.
Now comes the first categorised climb of the day, the Col de Vars.
The riders head up steeply to Vars, where there's a flatter section for a couple of kilometres. Then it's steep again through the ski resort of Les Claux.
The race passes a Refuge Napoléon at 1,999m, then continues to the summit of the Col de Vars at 2,109m.
The climb of the Col de Vars is 18.8km at an average 5.7%, to a height of 2,109m after 42.6km raced.
On the descent of the Col de Vars, the race passes more hoodoos (demoiselles coiffées or cheminées de fées).
These are columns of rock with another rock sitting on top as a hat and protecting the column from erosion. There were some yesterday, on the Stage 18 climb called the Côte des Demoiselles Coiffées.
The descent goes through Saint-Paul-sur-Ubaye.
Soon after, the road passes the Redoute de Berwick, a little fort built around the same time as the Mont-Dauphin (1694). It is named after Marshal de Berwick.
The race is overlooked from the other side of the road by the Fort de Tournoux, a much later fortification.
The Fort de Tournoux was built from 1843 onwards to defend against invasion via the Col de Larche by Savoie and (once the country had formed in 1861) Italy.
At a T-junction soon after the Fort de Tournoux there's a right turn on the D900, following the Ubaye downstream through La Condamine-Châtelard.
Then at Jausiers, the riders turn left onto the C1 Route de la Bonette and start the next official climb.
The Cime de la Bonette is a long climb. It passes the Lac des Eissaupres.
The road passes some barracks (la Caserne de Restefond) and reaches the Faux Col de Restefond at 2,656m.
Soon after, there's the Ouvrage de Restefond, which is an artillery block that was part of the Maginot Line's Alpine extension, the Alpine Line.
It was intended to protect France from attack by Italy, and did so when the Italians attempted to invade in 1940.
The Col de la Bonette is at 2,715m.
From the Col de la Bonette there's an extra loop of road taking the race around the Cime de la Bonette. The top of the climb is at 2,802m.
Overall the climb is 22.9km at an average 6.9%. The summit comes after 87.5km raced.
The descent is via the Col de Raspaillon (2,513m) and the Camp des Fourches.
There are waterfalls too, including the Cascade de Vens.
The road follows a river called la Tinée through the village of Saint-Etienne-de-Tinée.
Stage 19 continues downhill past the ski resort of Auron.
At the bottom of the descent is Isola. Now the final climb starts, to Isola 2000.
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The climb to Isola 2000 is 16.1km at an average 7.1%, to a height of 2,024m.
The summit of the climb is also the finish line of the stage, after 144.6km raced.
Stage 20 of the 2016 Giro d'Italia had a very similar parcours to today's stage. It started in Guillestre, did the same climbs that are on today's route including Isola 2000, then continued over the Col de la Lombarde into Italy to finish at Santuario di Santa Anna.
Stage 19 finishes at Isola 2000.
It was Peter Boumphrey who had the idea of building a ski resort at Isola 2000 in the late 1960s.
He was a former British Army officer and had been an Olympic skier. From a map, he identified a bowl here as a promising location for a ski resort. The land belonged to the local village of Isola, and the Mayor of Isola was happy to allow Boumphrey and his London-based contractors to create the resort.
By Summer 1971 the resort was finished. It is one of the Stations du Mercantour.
As well as the 1993 stage finish at Isola 2000 (see videos above), the Tour de France came over the Col de la Lombarde and through Isola 2000 on Stage 16 of the 2008 edition of the race.
That day, the riders started in Cuneo (Italy) and finished in Jausiers.
With its long climbs and high altitudes, this stage looks tailor-made for Jonas Vingegaard.
It all depends on how he recovers from the injuries he sustained in a crash in the Basque Country, of course, as to whether he races the Tour at all and if he is in contention for the yellow jersey.
Who do you think will win Stage 19 of the 2024 Tour de France?
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