2015 Tour de Suisse - Route

[rghysens]

Have they ever used Passo san Gottardo in TDS? Isn't the whole southern side of the pass cobbled?

There's the old, cobbled ascent of the south side of the Sankt Gotthard and a new tarmaced one. I think there was a road stage finishing on the cobbled climb of the Gotthard in 2001.

 

[rghysens]

I think it is a good route. Who cares if there is only 1 MTF? All the more reason for a climber like Nairo to go bananas from 12km out (he says hopefully).

I don't mind if there's only one MTF. People who visit the race design thread will probably know I wouldn't mind if MTF's were banned from cycling. Problem is that there's nothing but 1 MTF to create timegaps. OK, there are some hilly stages and 1 medium mountain stage, but that one MTF is so hard it will probably paralyse racing the days before.
We'll probably see a small group escaping on the last climb to Rotkreuz, very conservative racing from the favorites during the hilly stages, some attacks in the last few km's towards Rettenbachferner and then the final TT. To be honest, the overall schedule seems more or less comparable with this years Paris-Nice, but the indivadual climbs are of course way harder.

 

[SafeBet]

How difficult is the first Sunday stage?

If the last climb is hard it could give us some decent racing.

Does anyone have an idea of what the field will look like?

Costa
Quintana (?)
?

Too early in the season to be sure about this, but Formolo is scheduled to ride it.

 

[May0maniac]

Re:

How difficult is the first Sunday stage?

If the last climb is hard it could give us some decent racing.

Does anyone have an idea of what the field will look like?

Costa
Quintana (?)
?

Too early in the season to be sure about this, but Formolo is scheduled to ride it.

Formolo, isn't he riding the Giro? I've heard that Dombrowski is skeduled to ride it. They should also send Tommy D, I know he only performs well in US-races, but a really steep climb at high altitude would be perfect for him. Procyclingstats has Majka on the startlist, but who knows, it would be a nice opportunity for him before riding the TdF as a superdom.

 

[Gigs_98]

I like almost every stage, I only have the problem that there is only one stage which can cause big gaps

 

[BigMac]

I think it's one of the best routes from the last years, and one of the best I can remember. I like the approach of the medium mountain/hilly stages. Stage 2 looks like a remastered version of last year's stage 6 profile, which is nice, especially so early in the race. Last year we had to wait for stage 7 to see any meaningful gaps. If you look at it this year, every stage is (can be) a GC stage, except stage 6. It won't be a pure climber to win it.

 

[phil-i-am]

It won't be a pure climber to win it.

I wouldn't be so sure. The MTF is so hard, that only this and the last ITT could create some sort of gaps that will really count in GC. For instance I could see Quintana winning this.

 

[Netserk]

2011 had a better route and produced a very nice race.

 

[Velolover2]

A shame that there is none of the favorites are racing the 4th Grand Tour.

No Quintana, he is racing Route du Sud instead (http://www.tio.ch/News/Sport/Altri-Sport/1029453/Niente-Tour-de-Suisse-per-Nairo-Quintana)
No Contador, Route du Sud
No Nibali, Dauphiné
No Froome, Dauphiné
No Valverde, Dauphiné
No Talansky and Tejay, Dauphiné
No Purito, Dauphiné
The french (Pinot, Peraud, Bardet, Rolland, Barguil) are all riding Dauphiné instead of Suisse.
Costa is skipping Suisse in favor of Dauphiné.

Majka and Kwaitkowski are the only big names who have taken up the challenge. Some of the names I've mentioned above should try to win this beautiful race instead of losing stage 7 to Froome and the rest to Valverde.

Oh, there is also some post-glory riders like Gesink, Schleck and JVDB. Should be easy to beat. What are the GC guys waiting for?

 

[Velolover2]

I think a guy like Sergio Henao has a good chance of winning the overall. And stage 2 in particularly with a well-timed attack. But I don't know if he is coming back to this race.

 

[Velolover2]

Anybody who have a profile of the final TT in Suisse with gradients? And a profile of Dauphiné TT with gradients? The one in Suisse looks better for the climbers.

 

[BigMac]

Costa is so not doing the Dauphiné, mark my words.

 

[Velolover2]

Re:

Costa is so not doing the Dauphiné, mark my words.

http://www.cyclingquotes.com/news/no_title_defence_for_costa_at_the_tour_de_suisse/

 

[BigMac]

Re: Re:

Costa is so not doing the Dauphiné, mark my words.

http://www.cyclingquotes.com/news/no_title_defence_for_costa_at_the_tour_de_suisse/

I'm aware of his schedule. Doesn't mean it won't change. No Nairo in the race will make him and his team re-consider it.

 

[Netserk]

Re:

Anybody who have a profile of the final TT in Suisse with gradients? And a profile of Dauphiné TT with gradients? The one in Suisse looks better for the climbers.

The Dauphiné one is a TTT afaik.

 

[Velolover2]

Re: Re:

Anybody who have a profile of the final TT in Suisse with gradients? And a profile of Dauphiné TT with gradients? The one in Suisse looks better for the climbers.

The Dauphiné one is a TTT afaik.

Ah, ok.

 

[Velolover2]

Re: Re:

Costa is so not doing the Dauphiné, mark my words.

http://www.cyclingquotes.com/news/no_title_defence_for_costa_at_the_tour_de_suisse/

I'm aware of his schedule. Doesn't mean it won't change. No Nairo in the race will make him and his team re-consider it.

Yeah. I think a a lot of the GC guys should reconsider it. There will be huge gaps in stage 4 with that brutal mountain. Way way harder than any of the climbs in Dauphiné.

 

[plooton]

Here is a little different profile, which one, then, describes the climb set in the race?

EDIT: Finally I see it's the same climb - the first on just has a higher-placed top.

 

[Velolover2]

I'm not even sure there are any climbs as hard as Rettenbach in the Tour this year.

Who do you think will win it now that Quintana is out? Maybe another tiny columbian like Chavez.

 

[mihhint]

Re:

I'm not even sure there are any climbs as hard as Rettenbach in the Tour this year.

I would think if Tour had a climb has hard as Rettenbachferner this year, it would be the toughest climb Tour has ever done. This is pretty extreme climb, around if not above above the likes of Zoncolan and Angliru.

 

[Gigs_98]

Re: Re:

I'm not even sure there are any climbs as hard as Rettenbach in the Tour this year.

I would think if Tour had a climb has hard as Rettenbachferner this year, it would be the toughest climb Tour has ever done. This is pretty extreme climb, around if not above above the likes of Zoncolan and Angliru.

Has the tour even ever used a climb with over 10% which was HC

 

[BigMac]

Re: Re:

I'm not even sure there are any climbs as hard as Rettenbach in the Tour this year.

I would think if Tour had a climb has hard as Rettenbachferner this year, it would be the toughest climb Tour has ever done. This is pretty extreme climb, around if not above above the likes of Zoncolan and Angliru.

Has the tour even ever used a climb with over 10% which was HC

Don't think so. Col du Granon (last and solely visited in '86) comes very close, Joux Plane is 9%. Plateau de Beille, Pailhères, Hautacam are like 8% average. Pla d'Adet slightly more. These are the steepest HC cat. climbs in the Tour I can think of. The likes of Agnel and the now interdicted Puy de Dôme have very nasty finales, but lose on average gradient due to their easier first half.

 

[Netserk]

Mont du Chat is over 10% for a bit more than 8km. Used in 1974.

 

[Velolover2]

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/giro-ditalia-im-ok-but-it-was-a-very-heavy-fall-says-pozzovivo

Majka vs. Pozzovivo on Rettenbach?

Hope that Sergio Henao will be there as well. And that Purito will skip Dauphiné in favor of Suisse which I think suits him a lot better. Then we will get the show that the fourth tour deserves.

 

[Gigs_98]

The route of stage 3 was changed some time ago, because its no possible to use the north side of the gotthard pass. Here is the new profile: