A climb of this difficulty was, of course, the easiest one on today's stage.
It was essentially a warm-up for the General Classification contenders.
However, just 10 km past this Fourth Category Climb, at the 89 km mark of the stage, lay the second categorized climb, the Third Category Climb: the Côte de Larodde.
The gradient on this climb wasn't any steeper, but it was much longer, stretching for 3.7 km.
It had an average gradient of 6% and a maximum gradient of 7.2%.
After these first two appetizer-like climbs and several dozen kilometers of rolling hills in the middle section, the race would hit the 164 km mark. This would signal the start of the great mountain showdown—the most difficult part of today's race, with less than 50 km to go and featuring four categorized climbs.
The first of these, at the 168.5 km mark, was the first of the four-climb barrage before the finish: the Second Category Climb of Col de Néronne.
