2016 Tour de France, Info & Discussion

[Tonton]

Re: 2016 Tour de France Discussion

is there a reason they no longer use the Puy de Dôme ? I remember reading something about the road changing but hear that its occasionally open for cyclists still.

Some idiots decided to make it a pedestrian area, a train/track is now taking half of the road. ITT is possible, but a regular stage is impossible.

 

[portugal11]

All the french users will leave CN forum when pinot fail in le tour. For me a failure, would be something between 8-10 in GC, normal would be a 5-7

 

[Tonton]

Re:

All the french users will leave CN forum when pinot fail in le tour. For me a failure, would be something between 8-10 in GC, normal would be a 5-7

Not me . I think that he should shoot for 5th, and let the others fail. He could have won the Giro btw...

 

[CDA]

Re:

All the french users will leave CN forum when pinot fail in le tour. For me a failure, would be something between 8-10 in GC, normal would be a 5-7

Intrisically, on paper, he can finish 4 or 5 :
***** Chris Froome, Nairo Quintana
**** Alberto Contador
*** Fabio Aru, Thibaut Pinot
** etc ...
* etc ...

So this year we can think that he should compete the top 5. But the race reveals some surprises each year.

Hello guys,
I'm sorry for my english but I'm french and in our country we didn't have good teacher.

Bienvenue sur le forum CDA. Ton Anglais n'est pas mal du tout .

Merci Tonton ! Je me doutais bien qu'il y avait d'autres français sur CN. I'm administrator on a french forum and I admit that CN is a goldmine to find informations !

 

[52520Andrew]

Re: 2016 Tour de France Discussion

I like the loop and double Grand Colombier, but I would have loved Artemarre/Virieu twice , or at least once. Culoz suits Pinot, whose first pro accomplishment was to make it first to the top at the '10 TdL'Ain, before winning when it became a MTF in '11. The Artemarre/Virieu was used once at a Tourde L'Avenir Iirc, and half of the peloton dismounted. ASO probably wants to avoid the embarrassment for some riders.

Yeah the good news is that they seem to like including the climb with it being used twice now in the past 5 years. They just need to get around to the best side. I wonder when the last time a significant portion of the peleton dismounted on a climb in the TDF was.

 

[Krokro]

Re:

All the french users will leave CN forum when pinot fail in le tour. For me a failure, would be something between 8-10 in GC, normal would be a 5-7

Sorry but I planned to stay a few years around. I dont' see any relation between Pinot winning the Tour and the registration of french users on a forum

 

[DFA123]

Re:

I'm the only one that think this rohte is horrible? We will have 8 sprint's stages!!!! And 2 or 3 medium/mountain stages will be a complete disaster.

I thought the same when I looked at the route again last week, but I think it maybe just suffers when compared with the Giro - still fresh in the mind. The Tour always has loads of sprint stages, and at least some of the ones here offer the chance of a breakaway, or a puncheur doing something.

As always, it's the riders that make the race really, not the route. The medium mountain stages could be a disaster, but they could be great if someone like Contador or Aru targets them as a chance to pull back some time. Hopefully the lack of really big mountain stages will encourage the GC riders to be more aggressive on some of the more modest looking stages.

 

[Praying Mantis]

Updated the OP with some more profiles. I haven't found the official hi-res material supposedly released yesterday, if you know where it is, let me know.

 

[Alexandre B.]

Re: Re:

All the french users will leave CN forum when pinot fail in le tour. For me a failure, would be something between 8-10 in GC, normal would be a 5-7

Sorry but I planned to stay a few years around. I dont' see any relation between Pinot winning the Tour and the registration of french users on a forum

It's not like we're waiting for a domestic winner for thirty years now.

 

[Taxus4a]

That stages that finish in springs are wich made Tour so difficult and stressfull... this year that first weak is no so flat and no so lomg, so it is a Tour for climbers.

The route even is not so different to La Vuelta... except more climbs in the mountain stages...but short stages, lot of mountains stage but none really hard , not a lot ITT km, at least flat...

 

[guncha]

+Mountain stages are much harder than usual, many of them could be defined as Queen stages. Love MTF in Switzerland, Arcalis and Luchon are much nicer than usual, Jura stage is great, finale in Alpes looks nice and Ventoux is always difficult.
+Mountains start early in the race in Massif Central and are spread evenly throught the race.
+First week has a lot variety (sprint stages, uplhill finish, medium and high mountains).
+There are no crap stages like Foix 12, Grand Colombier 12, Tarbes 09 etc.
-Lack of decent amount of ITT is major downside.
-Both ITT are put after difficult mountain stages, it could reduce an action.

 

[MikeTichondrius]

Re:

Montagne de Lure. climb Ventoux twice. Start from Sault, descent to Bedoin from Chalet Reynard and then climb it from Malaucène again.

These three options have been put forward in another thread.

Yeah, I came up with this for a hard version of a Ventoux stage. Problem is, Montagne de Lure is just too far away from Ventoux and the Sault side is much easier than the other two. But it could be done if the interest was there. Heck, wouldn't be surprised to see Bedóin-Summit-Malaucène and Bedóin again in the near future like Huez-Sarenne...

Regarding the route. It's a bit of a marmite thing innit? I'm going to risk saying I like it, but would like to see even more medium mountain. For me it goes like this:

+Lioran stage. Hard finish. Good for baroudeur types
+Pau-Luchon. Looks like a classic Queen Stage to me. Many might disagree but it's a quick succession of difficult climbs that you don't get elsewhere.
+GC stage. Proper sawtooth half stage for a knockout finish.
+ Steeper climbs overall - Finhaut, GC, Bisanne, first half of Le Bettex, Joux Plane, Ventoux. Like to see the TDF using one of the Giro's strengths. I would love to see more of this style of climb. It's the complete opposite from La Toussuire, Glandon, Galibier types. Both have their place though.

+- Andorra stage - Arcalis is uninspired. But I'm holding my breath this time. It's before the rest day. If Beixalis is properly raced it could be amazing.

- Lack of more pure medium mountain stages (see Saint Flour - the Hoogerland stage and Porrentruy).
- Finhaut-Emosson with no preceding climbs. It's like a second Ventoux stage. Nothing preceding it, and Martigny has its' options. (I want a Lein, Champex loop, mwahahaha).
- Misuse of Signal de Bisanne. Too far from the finish...
- Questionable MTT instead of a hilly one since we're going shorter and less flat on TTs otherwise...
- Ventoux may be slightly overused...

 

[SeriousSam]

Re: Re:

***** Chris Froome, Nairo Quintana
**** Alberto Contador
*** Fabio Aru, Thibaut Pinot
** etc ...
* etc ...

Looks good, but don't forget Lil' Richie

 

[ILovecycling]

Re: Re:

***** Chris Froome, Nairo Quintana
**** Alberto Contador
*** Fabio Aru, Thibaut Pinot
** etc ...
* etc ...

Looks good, but don't forget Lil' Richie

Do you think he is a contender for maillot jaune?
(those are imo)

 

[SeriousSam]

About as much as Aru and Pinot are. They are all very unlikely to win, their chance to win is best understood as being riders that would contest victory if something were to happen to the Big 3.

 

[CDA]

Re: Re:

***** Chris Froome, Nairo Quintana
**** Alberto Contador
*** Fabio Aru, Thibaut Pinot
** etc ...
* etc ...

Looks good, but don't forget Lil' Richie

To me Richie is unable to be regular during three weeks ; he always knows a bad day since his first GT in 2010 (7th at the GC thanks to Aprica's stage).

 

[ILovecycling]

Re:

About as much as Aru and Pinot are. They are all very unlikely to win, their chance to win is best understood as being riders that would contest victory if something were to happen to the Big 3.

Thats a bs

 

[Miburo]

How is that bs? Putting Porte, Aru and Pinot on the same level is pretty reasonable.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

Re:

I'm the only one that think this rohte is horrible? We will have 8 sprint's stages!!!! And 2 or 3 medium/mountain stages will be a complete disaster.

8 sprint stages is better than any other year I can ever remember and besides there won't be 8 sprint stages. some will be for the break. there also used to be no hilly stages, especially not in first week. you only follow cycling for the past 3 years?

 

[ILovecycling]

Re:

How is that bs? Putting Porte, Aru and Pinot on the same level is pretty reasonable.

Its a bs...we are talking GT's not climbing level or whatsoever

 

[Tonton]

Re: 2016 Tour de France Discussion

Better design than in years past. I was pleasantly surprised when the course was made public. One of the ITT should have been flat and long, tho. But not bad at all. For the sprint stages, what can you do when the northern and western part of France are pretty much flat? And so is the stretch between Pyrenees and Alpes, unless you go inland? All this, while trying to fit great stages on the week-ends...no easy task.

For the Montagne de Lure discussion, yes, it's too far from the Ventoux. I tried to design a stage in a clockwise TdF with the MdL north side, and couldn't come up with something decent between the MdL and the Ventoux. And also, the MdL, heralded as the Ventoux's little brother, doesn't offer much in terms of steep gradients.

 

[PremierAndrew]

Re: Re:

About as much as Aru and Pinot are. They are all very unlikely to win, their chance to win is best understood as being riders that would contest victory if something were to happen to the Big 3.

Thats a bs

How many guys are capable of dropping a fully fit 100% condition Quintana on a climb? Froome, Contador and... LRP.

Meanwhile Aru and Pinot have shown no signs of being able to drop any of the top 3 in peak condition.

So while Porte is pretty unlikely to string 21 days together where he can match those guys, Aru and Pinot are pretty unlikely to be able to drop the big 3 on any particular day. (Pinot can possibly match the big 3, we'll find out in the Dauphine)

So they're all extremely unlikely to win the TdF

Aru and Pinot should be expected to finish above Porte, but Porte should be more likely to win the TdF than Aru (and maybe Pinot too)

 

[ILovecycling]

Re: Re:

About as much as Aru and Pinot are. They are all very unlikely to win, their chance to win is best understood as being riders that would contest victory if something were to happen to the Big 3.

Thats a bs

How many guys are capable of dropping a fully fit 100% condition Quintana on a climb? Froome, Contador and... LRP.

Meanwhile Aru and Pinot have shown no signs of being able to drop any of the top 3 in peak condition.

So while Porte is pretty unlikely to string 21 days together where he can match those guys, Aru and Pinot are pretty unlikely to be able to drop the big 3 on any particular day. (Pinot can possibly match the big 3, we'll find out in the Dauphine)

So they're all extremely unlikely to win the TdF

Aru and Pinot should be expected to finish above Porte, but Porte should be more likely to win the TdF than Aru (and maybe Pinot too)

Good arguments ...otoh his inconsistency is so baaaad that its more unlikely than a Aru/Pinot on the same form as big 3 imho

 

[Valv.Piti]

I Love Cycling: Exactly the opposite IMO. Its more likely that Porte will be closer than Aru and Pinot, while he is way more likely than Porte/Aru to be the furthest away and bonk.

 

[Jancouver]

C'mon guys, please keep all the TLMRP nonsense for his own thread. His chances to win any GT are exactly zero and his name should never be used in the same sentence with those of Froome, Quintana, Contador or even Pinot and Aru ... or any other real TdF GC contender.