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22nd Tour de l'Aude - 2.1
France, May 12-21, 2006
Preview
Battle of the victors in Southern France
By Kristy Scrymgeour
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Nineteen teams will line up at the 22nd edition of theTour de l'Aude Cycliste Féminin including four past winners of the event. Last years victor, Amber Neben is back to defend her title with the Buitenpoort Flexpoint team behind her. 2004 winner Trixi Worrack is here with Nurnberger, and the T-Mobile team have Judith Arndt and Lyne Bessette, both of whom have won this race twice.
This year's tour seems even harder than normal and is definitely suited to the climbers in the bunch who have a strong time trial. Seven out of the eleven stages have categorized climbs within them and three of the remaining four are time trials.
Starting with a tough Team Time Trial in Gruissan on day one, the strong teams will show their form right off the bat, setting the stage for the days to come and already in Stage Two we will see a category one climb up Col de Jouys and an Hors Cat climb up Col de la Croix de Sous. Stage three is a flat 5.5km time trial followed three days later by the 31km Individual Time Trial that will start splitting up the GC riders more definitely.
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Despite the climbing early on which will definitely split up the bunches, it is likely that the last few stages, which move closer to the heart of the Pyrénées, will still decide the General Classification and the overall winner. Stage eight travels from Arques to Rennes les Bains and featues four category one climbs over Col du Linas, Col du Redoulade, Col du Parades and Col de Valmigère. But it is the penultimate stage from Axat to Station de Ski de Mijanès/Donezan that will be the ultimate test. The stage is only 98km long but includes an 11.5km Hors Category climb over Col de Garavel at the 65km mark, before dropping slightly then climbing again all the way to the finish and finally reaching the steep 6km climb up to the ski station.
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Last year Worrack won this stage by one minute and 11 seconds over Neben which was a heart-wrenching one second short of taking the leaders jersey from the American who had made her time on Worrack with a solo break on Stage Three. This year, with quite a few favourites on the start line, anything can happen once again. Arndt has shown good form coming into this race with three stage wins and the overall victory at the recent Gracia Tour, but we also seen good form from Neben and Worrack as well as host of others. AA Drink, Nobili Rubinetterie and Univega all have strong teams to challenge the aforementioned and we could see some good performances come out of the seven National Teams on the start list. As usual in this part of the world, riders have to contest strong winds and narrow technical roads along with the challenges of the mountains.
