2015 Tour de France Route

[Dazed and Confused]

On the surface this really does look like an uphill circus.
But I'm awaiting the official route and the details before the verdict.

 

[veji11]

On the surface this really does look like an uphill circus.
But I'm awaiting the official route and the details before the verdict.

So am I, but I am doing so with very bad vibes.

 

[BeagRigh]

Surely, this is just something ASO were playing with not the actual route ... how legit is the source?

 

[MikeTichondrius]

Have to agree, the route based on that map looks awful. I was holding out hope that they would have at least one really hard mountain stage - like do Port de Bales, Portillon and Mente early on the stage to Plateau de Beille - but it doesn't even look like there will be that.

It could be worse than the Vuelta. At least the time bonuses in the Vuelta add a tactical element to the GC battle in the mountains.

Would probably be too long with Bales in. Looking at the map and Linkinito's analysis, my biggest disappointment (as in, I expected something a little harder) is the likelihood of the Arette stage being a single climb stage. Not even the Aubisque in or anything further west. A real shame if true.

 

[Arnout]

Why the do they want to turn an endurance sport into a sprint race

 

[Race Radio]

Good review of number ITT km's and MTF's over the last 15 years

http://cf.datawrapper.de/qDvk6/5/

 

[barmaher]

I really don't like the route. It needs a 50km ITT the day after the Mende finish. Then it is fine.

 

[18-Valve. (pithy)]

This is what I've came up with the routes on the map and the distance for each stage:

Digne - Pra Loup
Champs (HC)
Allos (1C)
Pra Loup (2C)

Gap - Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne
Moissière (i really hope it's in, it fits the distance - 1C)
Ornon (2C)
Glandon (HC)

Saint Jean de Maurienne - La Toussuire
Chaussy from Montvernier (1C)
Saint-François-Longchamp (descent by Montgellafrey - 1C)
Croix de Fer (HC)
Mollard (2C)
La Toussuire (1C)

If that's the La Toussuire stage, it's pretty great, IMO. They'll use quite a bit of the Col de la Madeleine that way. Not sure how I missed that.

As for the previous stage, add in the Lacets de Montvernier before S-J-d-M, as per the most recent rumors. Nice medium high mountain stage, even without Moissière.

Pra-Loup: going by the map, it does indeed look like Champs (E) and Allos. I'll take it. I'd rather have Champs (W) and Cayolle, even though there'd be less climbing then.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Good review of number ITT km's and MTF's over the last 15 years

http://cf.datawrapper.de/qDvk6/5/

TdF coming to a place near you.

Kiddies parcours.

 

[DFA123]

Would probably be too long with Bales in. Looking at the map and Linkinito's analysis, my biggest disappointment (as in, I expected something a little harder) is the likelihood of the Arette stage being a single climb stage. Not even the Aubisque in or anything further west. A real shame if true.

That's what I was hoping for! One mountain stage of about 250km with 5000m+ of climbing.

Agree regarding Arette, seems a real waste. Even if they didn't want to use aubisque and marie-blanque again, the Basque climbs would have made for great racing: steep, narrow, techincal, probably raining... acutally would have been a chance of someone attacking before the final climb.

 

[the sceptic]

so we get the freaking TTT every year, but never a MTT. Makes sense.

 

[DFA123]

If that's the La Toussuire stage, it's pretty great, IMO.

I think it's far too short. Even if it's raced really hard from the start (which it won't be) it'll just come down to a last 5km battle.

 

[DFA123]

so we get the freaking TTT every year, but never a MTT. Makes sense.

Sponsors have no interest in a MTT. They need somewhere to showcase their nice shiny time-trial bikes.

 

[Lupetto]

After taking a look on this route, bavarianrider will have like 823 heart attacks.

 

[18-Valve. (pithy)]

so we get the freaking TTT every year, but never a MTT. Makes sense.

It does, actually. It seems that the few ski resorts that can host them don't want to, for whatever reason. Maybe it's because road stages draw higher ratings.

 

[BigMac]

I don't think that's the final route. Just the work of someone with too much time on their hands. Meanwhile, the original twitter leak of the map was deleted.

 

[Lupetto]

I don't think that's the final route. Just the work of someone with too much time on their hands. Meanwhile, the original twitter leak of the map was deleted.

The map and the plan were leaked inside of an eleven page pdf.

http://media.wix.com/ugd/8ff3eb_c15fe8a2c2ec46218d28dbac9d386f9d.pdf

That's not a fake.

 

[OlavEH]

Have to agree, the route based on that map looks awful. I was holding out hope that they would have at least one really hard mountain stage - like do Port de Bales, Portillon and Mente early on the stage to Plateau de Beille - but it doesn't even look like there will be that.

It could be worse than the Vuelta. At least the time bonuses in the Vuelta add a tactical element to the GC battle in the mountains.

You need something closer to Beille than Bales, Portillon and Mente. There is close to 100 km after Mente before you start the climb to Beille and not very many difficulties if you choose the most obvious route.

By I agree with your point. Doing Core, Agnes, Latrape and Port de Lers would be a better option.

 

[skidmark]

Well, I'm holding out on the mountain and other stages until I see them, but the time trial thing is nuts. I suppose if you want to experiment to see what that will do to the excitement of a GT, do it one year, but then the other part of me thinks that it's just totally ridiculous for teams, specialists, etc. Everyone should have a chance to shine at their discipline at the TdF; what's this going to do to the plans of Tony Martin, Tom Dumoulin, Taylor Phinney, etc? Not to mention the impact it has on GC. For me, it would make sense to have 6 mtf in a race where there is a long TT and the climbers need opportunities to pull back time; this is just mega-imbalanced.

And for the TTT, it's kind of a cool throw of the dice to have it so late on in the first week, but logistically it's a bit of a concern to have it anytime after stage 4 or 5... like, what if a team has 3 riders crash out by stage 9? I guess that's maybe ASO's way of making that TT 'count' more? What if there's a massive crash (or the classic 'food poisoning') and one team only has 4 riders left by stage 9? Are the rest just out?

 

[BigMac]

The map and the plan were leaked inside of an eleven page pdf.

http://media.wix.com/ugd/8ff3eb_c15fe8a2c2ec46218d28dbac9d386f9d.pdf

That's not a fake.

Thank you, my bad.

 

[DFA123]

You need something closer to Beille than Bales, Portillon and Mente. There is over close to 100 km after Mente before you start the climb to Beille and not very many difficulties if you choose the most obvious route.

By I agree with your point. Doing Core, Agnes, Latrape and Port de Lers would be a better option.

Yeah, I didn't mean then do a flat route after Mente, but to do the route as it looks now, but with three tough climbs at the start, instead of the flat section. It looks from the map like they are only doing Portet d'Aspet and Col de Port before Plateau de Beille. Could have been epic to do Port de Bales 20km into the route, followed by Portillon and Mente, then the route as it looks now.

 

[jens_attacks]

still gotta believe the route will look different
only one stage over 200 kms and 13 km itt. what the hell is this. has to be a joke though

 

[Arredondo]

No long ITT. That's just horrible. What where they thinking?

 

[BigMac]

May be a prank from organisers who were not happy by people trying to figure the route out.

 

[OlavEH]

Yeah, I didn't mean then do a flat route after Mente, but to do the route as it looks now, but with three tough climbs at the start, instead of the flat section. It looks from the map like they are only doing Portet d'Aspet and Col de Port before Plateau de Beille. Could have been epic to do Port de Bales 20km into the route, followed by Portillon and Mente, then the route as it looks now.

That would be a quite long stage, 230-235 km from a quick look at google maps. Of course it's much better than what is rumoured right now, but still the last 80-90 km before Beille would be fairly easy.