Tank Engine said:
TourOfSardinia said:
What a waste of a climb
all back together on the long long descent.
Today's stage is better designed. You've got the Independence Pass from the hard side to soften up the riders. BMC will want to control on the climb. Any breakaway that holds on the climb or just form afterwards will have to include strong riders. The last two climbs form a nice one-two. The penultimate climb will split up the race and there will be attacks on the short final climb. On the other hand, one problem with the race is the dominance of BMC.
Yesterday's stage was definitely a waste of a beautiful climb (in racing terms). I don't know the geography of Colorado, maybe they could find a short sharp climb around Aspen. Independence Pass would thin out the peloton (even after the descent) and there would be more attacks, rather than general regroupment. The first part of Independence pass is just too easy to split up the race, especially as there were no serious climbs earlier.
There aren't short sharp climbs around aspen, the only thing that you could use after Indipendence Pass is probably Maroon Creek Rd, but it's just 9,8km at 4,1%.
There aren't too many short steep climbs in Colorado, around Idaho Srings you have the Virginia Canyon Rd/Two Brothers Rd combination, 5,3km at 9,6% with a max. gradient of 20%, the 2km in the middle of the climb are unpaved but in good condition and after the climb you have a 4km long deescent until you reach centra city.
Around Boulder you have Magnolia Rd, 6,6km at 9,1%, then it's flat and unpaved. There should be enough space to host a MF, but otherwise you could add 3km of false flat on unpaved roads after the climb and have a finish in Aspen Meadows, but there should be enough space on top of th climb to host a MTF.
The race already has used
unpaved roads before, so that shouldn't be a big problem.
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