The second stage of the Boucles de la Mayenne 2024, between Le Ham and Villaines-la-Juhel, on Saturday May 25, will be the queen stage of this edition. Held on Saturday May 25, it should greatly influence the final general ranking. This stage will be the longest, with 208.8 km in total. It will also offer 3429 m of positive altitude difference in total. The runners will set off from Ham at 11:30 a.m., arriving in Villaines-la-Juhel between 4:43 p.m. and 4:58 p.m. So more than five hours of effort, in the foothills of the Pays de Pail, then the Avaloirs mountains.
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After the real start given shortly after Hardanges, on the D147 (11:45 a.m.), the peloton will complete a loop passing through La Chapelle-au-Riboul (11:49 a.m.). Returning to Hardanges and Le Ham (12:13 p.m.), the runners will crisscross the country with a first bonus sprint in Javron-les-Chapelles (12:25 p.m., km 28.7). Then head towards Villepail (12:34 p.m.), after which the Boucles peloton will begin the first difficulties of the day. On the program, the Côte des Égoutelles (12:37 p.m., km 36.4) then, after crossing Averton (1:01 p.m.), the Col de Saint-Sulpice (1:12 p.m., km 61.4).
Then, the runners will go up via Gesvres (1:16 p.m.) and Pré-en-Pail (1:38 p.m.), where refueling will be possible before arriving at the foot of Mont des Avaloirs (1:52 p.m., km 89.6). Once past the water tower, the biggest difficulty of the day where the climbers will be able to glean up to 8 points, compared to 6 for the others, the runners will descend towards Boulay-les-Ifs (1:59 p.m.).
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From there, they will head towards Saint-Cyr-en-Pail (2:19 p.m.), before ending up going back to Villepail (2:29 p.m.). It is by passing through the Cote des Égoutelles again (2:32 p.m., km 117) that they will have started the five laps of the final circuit.
They will complete a loop including Crennes-sur-Fraubée (2:36 p.m., 3:05 p.m., 3:35 p.m., 4:05 p.m., 4:35 p.m.) and Villaines-la-Juhel (2:44 p.m., 3:13 p.m., 3:43 p.m., 4:13 p.m.), which will each time pass through the Côte des Égoutelles (3:01 p.m., km 137.8; 3:31 p.m., km 137.5; 4:01 p.m., km 158.6; 4:31 p.m., km 179.5). The sixth passage of the difficulty will also be the last bonus sprint (4:31 p.m., km 200.3), after that all that remains is to cross the finish line, passing there for the 5th time in Villaines- la-Juhel (4:43 p.m., km 208).
