The dreaded pavement of Roubaix closes the first third of the Tour before the high mountain

The dreaded pavement stage, venerated and hated about equally in the pack of the 105 Tour de France, closes the first third of the race before starting to face, in the next two weeks, the high mountain of the Alps and the Pyrenees.

The organization of the Gala Race prepared a milestone with the greatest number of pavement sections in the last years of the decade of the 90s with a total of 21.7 miles of pavers divided into fifteen sections.

The trip will take the peloton of Arras to Roubaix with a course of 156,5 kilometers in which the different sections of paving they will be confronted between the kilometer 47,5 the first to 148,5 the 15. [19659006] Among the candidates for the stage victory in Roubaix will be the winners of the last four editions like the Slovak Peter Sagan (Bora Hansgrohe), in 2018; Belgian Greg Van Avermaet (BMC), in 2017; Australian Matthew Hayman (Mitchelton Scott), in 2016; and Niki Terpstra (Quick Step), in 2015, among others who are genuine specialists in this field.

Movistar Team will run with fingers crossed so that Nairo Quintana, Mikel Landa and Alejandro Valverde survive in good condition at the stage; Ditto for Rigoberto Urán (EF Education First) and Egan Bernal (Team Sky).

"This stage is going to be difficult and you can throw a favorite for the general, it will be important to avoid wasting time and then on the mountain we will see the strengths of each," said Nairo. [19659006] The last time the Tour included paving stones in its route were: in 2015, 13.3 kilometers, in 2014, 13 kilometers, in 2010, 13.2 kilometers, in 2004, 3.9 kilometers, and in 1989 , 8.5 km

In this step, there will be no high score for the ranking of the mountain.

In this ninth stage, the bonus point, with 3, 2 and 1 seconds, will be located 18 kilometers from the finish, at Wannehain, in addition to granting 10, 6 and 4 seconds of bonus for the top three finishers.