Racing on French roads at Tour du Doubs

The Race
The Tour du Doubs is a difficult French UCI 1.1 race, named after the department the race takes place in. Being close to the border with Switzerland, one can expect a difficult race with a lot of altitude meters to conquer. Not long after the start is given in the city of Morteau, the first climbs are already on the menu. After 33 kilometers of racing, the riders will head up the Vennes (10.9 km at 2.8%), quickly followed by Les Fournets (3.4 km at 5.8%), Col du Tonet (1.8 km at 5.2%) and Le Cret Monniot (4.6 km at 4.6%). From this point, the race will take some relative easier roads, before the second part of climbing presents itself with the Saint Gorgon (5.6 km at 4.8%), Col de la République (4.4 km at 4.0%) and Le Larmont (3.4 km at 5.8%). The latter is situated not far from the finish in Pontarlier, so whoever wants to be a contender for the victory needs to be amongst the first riders heading into the fast decent which ends at just 1.5 kilometers from the line.

Previous years
This year, the race organization celebrates the 22nd edition of the Tour Du Doubs. In previous years the race was won by the likes of Rein Taaramäe (2014), Samuel Dumoulin (2016) and Stefan Küng (2019). Leopard Pro Cycling has been present at the race two times before, in 2018 and 2019. Both times, the first riders of the team - Jan Maas and Jack Burke in 2019, Szymon Rekita in 2018 - crossed the line as part of the first chasers. Going up against strong teams such as Groupama-FDJ, Cofidis and AG2R-La Mondiale, one can expect another big battle for top results on Sunday.

Who is riding?
Patrick Haller (GER), Arthur Kluckers (LUX), Jan Maas (NED), Szymon Rekita (POL), Mattias Skjelmose Jensen (DEN) & Mauro Schmid (SUI) - DS: Gaëtan Pons (LUX)

Photographer
(c) Jenifer Rosess