Laruns hosts a stage finish of the Tour de France for the third time. Slovenians are unbeaten so far in the town of the Ossau valley as Primoz Roglic imposed himself after descending from the Aubisque pass in 2018. Laruns is also where Tadej Pogacar claimed his first ever Tour de France stage victory in 2020 when he already showed how versatile he was, not only a great mountain rider but also a fast and smart sprinter. Starting from Pau, an iconic city of the Tour de France that permanently celebrates the giants of the race’s history, this is the first Pyrenean stage. It didn’t happen since 1981 that a hors-category climb was featured on the route as early as on stage 5 and it’s the col du Soudet, which is 15.2km long with an average gradient of 7.2%. It’s kind of easy to imagine Neilson Powless breaking away to score more KOM points as he’s also a good climber for the big mountains. The menu is pretty light in the Pyrénées this year in order to keep a maximum of GC riders into contention. However, col de Marie-Blanque can be decisive in the fight for the yellow jersey. The summit of this cat. 1 climb located 18km before the finish in Laruns awards 8 seconds of time bonus to the first rider. Pogacar is only 6 seconds down on the leader’s position…
