Tour de France 2022 stage 14 preview: A day of punchy climbs

Stage 14 of the Tour de France 2022 starts in Saint-Étienne and finishes in Mende.

With a cornucopia of climbs building to a crescendo you can be sure the breakaway artists will have circled this in their road books.

Tour de France stage 14: expected timings

Tour de France stage 14 route

This is a day of constant bumps and rolls through the eastern side of the Massif Central. The climbs get longer and higher as the race approaches the finish town of Mende, into which there’s a steady descent and then what has become the familiar finale on the Côte de la Croix Neuve, which is also known as the Montée Laurent Jalabert after the Frenchman who was the first winner at its summit in 1995. It rises for 3km at an average of 10.2%, reaching the aerodrome on the plateau above Mende and finishing on its runway.

Useful Tour de France 2022 resources

• Tour de France 2022 route
• Tour de France 2022 standings
• Tour de France 2022 start list
• Tour de France 2022 key stages
• How to watch the 2022 Tour de France
• Past winners of the Tour de France
• Tour de France leader's jerseys
• Tour de France winning bikes

Tour de France stage 14: what to expect 

Four of the previous five finishes at Mende’s aerodrome have been disputed between members of the breakaway group, the odd one out being Joaquim Rodríguez’s 2010 success, and even then the last escapee was only reeled in just before the top of the Croix Neuve. As a consequence, there’s sure to be a fierce battle to get into the break, where punchy climbers will have an advantage at the finish. The key to the final climb is to avoid pushing too hard too quickly.

Tour de France stage 14: riders to watch

The profile of four of the previous five winners at Mende’s velodrome offer a clue to the riders who should have the best chance today. Laurent Jalabert (1995), Marcos Serrano (2005), Joaquim Rodríguez (2010) and Omar Fraile (2018) were all the kind of punchy climbers who would thrive on a finish that resembles the Mur de Huy finale of Flèche Wallonne. It’s ideal for a string of French climbers in search of results including Benoît Cosnefroy, Valentin Madouas, Warren Barguil and Thibaut Pinot.