Tour de France 2010Stage 8 - Station des Rousses > > > Morzine-Avoriaz - 189 km
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Stage Previews
High Mountains - A sporting perspective
Avoriaz back at the summit of the sport
This is where the mountains start. There will be a high altitude finishing line at Avoriaz and even if the gaps are not big, Contador should still go on the offensive. He could even get his hands on the Yellow Jersey, but will his team be able to defend it every day? In 2003, Richard Virenque attacked on the Col de la Ramaz pass to win the stage that finished in Morzine and pick up the Yellow Jersey. To find a stage with a finish at Avoriaz, you have to go back sixteen years to 1994. Latvian Piotr Ugrumov, who was the Tour’s runner-up that year, triumphed before winning the following day’s stage as well.
(letour.com)
July 9 post:
Stage 8 is the first mountain stage of this year's Tour with a mountaintop finish at Morzine-Avoriaz known to tourists as the gateway to the sun.
Starting from the stage 7 finish at Station des Rousses and descending out of the Jura, this stage will head south then east around Lac Léman (aka Lake Geneva) before continuing on to the difficult portion featuring two cat 1 climbs. The peloton will skirt the France-Switzerland border for the first 2/3 of the day.
Morzine has been a popular destination for the Tour de France over the years and this will be its 18th appearance. Six (now seven) of those times, the Tour has continued up to the Avoriaz resort at 1800m elevation, a 13.6 km long climb that averages 6.1% and gains 800m from Morzine at the base. It's been sixteen years since the Tour has finished at Avoriaz. This last climb is similar in difficulty to last year's stage 15 finish at Verbier where Alberto Contador put 43 seconds into his nearest competitor and confidently stood on the podium as the clear leader of his team having beaten Lance Armstrong by over one and half minutes. — Steve
The view of the Alps from Avoriaz, the mountaintop finish for Stage 8.
(steephill.tv)
Tour de France 2010Stage 8 - Station des Rousses > > > Morzine-Avoriaz - 189 km
Sunday, July 11, 2010
DépartSTATION DES ROUSSES
• Stage town for the first time
• Population: 6,286
• Winter / summer holiday resort in Jura (39)
The Faucille mountain pass, which sits above the resort of Les Rousses, was also one of the first passes to be included on the Tour, climbed as far back as 1911. From 1957, the Grand Prix de la Montagne often finished at the top of the climb to Les Rousses. Ottavio Bottecchia, Gino Bartali and Federico Bahamontes are legendary names eternally associated with this climb, scaled for the last time in 2004. One man has conquered the Faucille and the climb to Avoriaz: Lucien Van Impe.
The resort of Les Rousses consists of four villages, Bois d’Amont, Prémanon, Lamoura and Les Rousses. Located on the border with Switzerland, close to Geneva, the resort offers a wide range of activities in all seasons. Marvel at the expertise of our craftsmen, visit the resort’s museums (ski museum, bushel museum, Paul-Emile Victor Polar Centre, Lapidary Museum) and sample our cheese specialities (Comté, Morbier, bleu de Gex) accompanied by a yellow wine, the delicious nectar of the Jura vines. If you prefer water, you’ll be spoiled for choice: refreshing waterfalls, lakes or rivers for fishing, ice for skating and snow for winter sports. You can also visit the Les Rousses Fort which has the biggest Comté cheese maturing cellars in Europe. When it comes to entertainment, you can choose from a wide range of events all year round: hot air balloon flights, guided walks, Polar Film Festival, Christmas lights, the Transjurassienne cross-country ski event and much more.
Arrivée
MORZINE-AVORIAZ
• 17 times a stage town in Morzine
• 6 times a stage site in the resort of Avoriaz
• Population: 3,000
• Town in Haute-Savoie (74)
At the end of the 1970s, Avoriaz, the high-altitude ski resort that is part of the town of Morzine, specialised in hosting hill climb time-trials, in which Lucien Van Impe, the King of the Morzine climb, triumphed twice. Over longer distances Bernard Hinault, in 1979, and Piotr Ugrumov, in 1994, also dominated time-trials here at 1,800 metres altitude. In 1985 Lucho Herrera was the first to reach the “Gateway to the Sun” in a stage similar to the one planned for this year’s riders.
The resort of Avoriaz, perched at an altitude of 1,800 m on a sunny plateau, is part of the Morzine-Arvoriaz municipality. Dreamt up by Jean Vuarnet, downhill gold medal winner at the Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley in 1960 and a resident of Morzine, the construction of the resort started in the following years. The project was supervised by property developer Robert Brémond, who went on to become the founder of the Pierre & Vacances group, as well as the architects Jacques Labro and Jean-Jacques Orzoni. A pioneer in ecological terms, the car-free pedestrian only resort boasts surprising mimetic architecture. Buildings with innovative shapes covered in non-treated wood oriented towards the sun and designed to encourage energy saving make Avoriaz unique. The Fantasy Film Festival that took place here from 1973 to 1993 helped to build the resort’s reputation. Today, new events make sure that Avoriaz is a resort known throughout the world: the Grand Odyssey, The Avoriaz Jazz Up Festival, the International Extreme Sports Festival, to name but a few…
(letour.com)