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Re:
It's basically a very typical breakaway stage where no break will be allowed to go because nobody has lost time in GC yet.
I suspect there will be attackers on the first 2 major climbs and the peloton will not give them 10 minutes of advantage so expect a grupetto to drop quite early.
Definitely.houtdffan said:
It's basically a very typical breakaway stage where no break will be allowed to go because nobody has lost time in GC yet.
I suspect there will be attackers on the first 2 major climbs and the peloton will not give them 10 minutes of advantage so expect a grupetto to drop quite early.
Imagine seeing Turini on stage 2 in TdF.
Oh wait... will be a very weird dynamic so early in the race very far out. Think it can be a pretty nice stage.
Oh wait... will be a very weird dynamic so early in the race very far out. Think it can be a pretty nice stage.
Re: Re:
stage kind of reminds me of a harder version of the stage where Beloki broke his leg in 2003, with the two big climbs early, but 2 hard climbs at the end. Co D'Eze since they are doing the entire climb may still be a cat 1 and the final climb looks to be a cat 2.
What are the rules in a stage race if a rider gets lapped? Could this make taking the finishing times a bit challenging or will the riders go through a separate side of the road with 1 to go?
One safety concern I can see is riders getting lapped on the decent of the climb
Red Rick said:
stage kind of reminds me of a harder version of the stage where Beloki broke his leg in 2003, with the two big climbs early, but 2 hard climbs at the end. Co D'Eze since they are doing the entire climb may still be a cat 1 and the final climb looks to be a cat 2.
What are the rules in a stage race if a rider gets lapped? Could this make taking the finishing times a bit challenging or will the riders go through a separate side of the road with 1 to go?
One safety concern I can see is riders getting lapped on the decent of the climb
Re: Re:
Yeah, it has some of the same characteristica, but if we just get half the race we got that day we should be thankfulhoutdffan said:
...the Tour to finish in Paris on my birthday...guess what I want for a present 
?
The legruppetto site has a lot of followers tracking hotel reservations, and Pyrenees at the end of week one seems to be a sure thing. Transfer to La Rochelle, then Poitiers is in the picture. The rest is speculation: Bretagne and le Mur to make a second week less of a meh? Many see Massif Central, then Forez, then Alps. That's too little of the map of France to be covered IMO.
?The legruppetto site has a lot of followers tracking hotel reservations, and Pyrenees at the end of week one seems to be a sure thing. Transfer to La Rochelle, then Poitiers is in the picture. The rest is speculation: Bretagne and le Mur to make a second week less of a meh? Many see Massif Central, then Forez, then Alps. That's too little of the map of France to be covered IMO.
Re:
The Souvenir stage surely will go beyond 2000, and I wonder if there's going to be Alpe d' Huez, not because I'm dying for it, but 'cause if there's going to be - once more it won't be a decider, so maybe they'll skip it in order to highlight it the year after.
Also, I'm curious to learn what route towards the north they'll take after the Grand Depart.
Tough to believe they'll spend three weeks in the south.
As high as this year, they can only go in the Alps again. And next year the climax should be in the Pyrenees. I think we won't see so high succession soon. As it's not usual in general.Red Rick said:
The Souvenir stage surely will go beyond 2000, and I wonder if there's going to be Alpe d' Huez, not because I'm dying for it, but 'cause if there's going to be - once more it won't be a decider, so maybe they'll skip it in order to highlight it the year after.
Also, I'm curious to learn what route towards the north they'll take after the Grand Depart.
Tough to believe they'll spend three weeks in the south.
Re: Re:
Usually they are pulled out (always happen with a load of riders every year in the final stage of Paris-Nice) but this year they created a precedent during Tirreno, in stage 4 they stopped more than 60 riders before the circuit entrance preventing them to finish the race but they still allowed them to start the following day adding to their time until then the time of the last rider allowed to complete the two laps of the circuit.houtdffan said:
Tonton said:...the Tour to finish in Paris on my birthday...guess what I want for a present
The legruppetto site has a lot of followers tracking hotel reservations, and Pyrenees at the end of week one seems to be a sure thing. Transfer to La Rochelle, then Poitiers is in the picture. The rest is speculation: Bretagne and le Mur to make a second week less of a meh? Many see Massif Central, then Forez, then Alps. That's too little of the map of France to be covered IMO.
Another finish in or around Culoz (with Col de la Biche and Grand Colombier) is due (they had a contract with ASO to have a certain amount of finishes or passages until 2020). That should be at the end of the 2nd week. The 3rd week should be in the Alps, with first some stages in Switzerland (Valais) before the French Alps in the last days.
I also think we can safely assume how stage 21 would look like...
Two relatively good stages in Nice (lets be honest, this is better than basically 90% of the two first stages in GTs), 3-4 transition stages and then the Pyrenees in the end of week one? Thats looks very good. Hopefully the Pyrenees will be hard and make a difference. Putting mountains in the first week is really underrated, especially if you have the Alps in the last 3-4 days, since there will be big changes in how the favourites climb in the different massifs when you ahve 1 week or even 10 days seperating the big mountains. Then the problem will be to fill in some nice stages in between - Massif Central, TT and the Jura (which basically is the Alps, but yeah).
Im optimistic, but I also usually am.
Im optimistic, but I also usually am.
I really doubt the first 2 stages will be ridden hard enough to lose contact with the main group on the Turini. GC attacks would probably come in the final little climb.
Any news at all?
I am surprised how little is known. Is the date of the official presentation known?
I am surprised how little is known. Is the date of the official presentation known?
Saw a rumour about Mont Aigoual. Sounds good if there is anything to it.
And we have that rumour posted in the general news thread about stage finishes in Aosta (Pila), Verbier and Chamonix.
Page 447 - General News Thread
Page 447 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
forum.cyclingnews.com
Ok. Let's go through the blocks:
Week 1:
Nice - Nice
Nice - Nice
Provence
Provence
Provence
? - Mont Aigoual (?)
Millau - (?)
Cazeres - Loudonvielle (Portet d'Aspet, Menté, Bales, Peyresourde. Oh the originality) https://www.ladepeche.fr/2019/09/12/tour-de-france-2020-un-depart-detape-a-cazeres,8409954.php
Pyrenees 2 - Pyrenees 2 (Lord knows which fresh 120km hell ASO will come up with)
Week 2 and Week 3 still feel up in the air. With week 2 I do feel we know it's Ile d'Oleron, then roughly via Poitiers, Clermont-Ferrand and a second visit to the Massif before landing somewhere in the vicinity of Grenoble and week 3 feels way up in the air. The Swiss rumours remain the most persistent but beyond the usual Alpe d'Huez/Chamrousse floating about, Stage 16 to Stage 21 are filled with question marks.
Week 1:
Nice - Nice
Nice - Nice
Provence
Provence
Provence
? - Mont Aigoual (?)
Millau - (?)
Cazeres - Loudonvielle (Portet d'Aspet, Menté, Bales, Peyresourde
. Oh the originality) https://www.ladepeche.fr/2019/09/12/tour-de-france-2020-un-depart-detape-a-cazeres,8409954.phpPyrenees 2 - Pyrenees 2 (Lord knows which fresh 120km hell ASO will come up with)
Week 2 and Week 3 still feel up in the air. With week 2 I do feel we know it's Ile d'Oleron, then roughly via Poitiers, Clermont-Ferrand and a second visit to the Massif before landing somewhere in the vicinity of Grenoble and week 3 feels way up in the air. The Swiss rumours remain the most persistent but beyond the usual Alpe d'Huez/Chamrousse floating about, Stage 16 to Stage 21 are filled with question marks.
This is the single most Red Rick'ish comment ever because
a) the Vuelta has just ended and we need another cycling fix
b) the never ending ASO skepticism
Wait till I grade the Vuelta a 4 because we knew the winner by stage 10 and the supposed Queen stage was under 100km.
The latter is very likely if the rumour about Pila, Verbier and Chamonix stages finishes are true.
Ok. Let's go through the blocks:
Week 1:
Nice - Nice
Nice - Nice
Provence
Provence
Provence
? - Mont Aigoual (?)
Millau - (?)
Cazeres - Loudonvielle (Portet d'Aspet, Menté, Bales, Peyresourde
Pyrenees 2 - Pyrenees 2 (Lord knows which fresh 120km hell ASO will come up with)
Week 2 and Week 3 still feel up in the air. With week 2 I do feel we know it's Ile d'Oleron, then roughly via Poitiers, Clermont-Ferrand and a second visit to the Massif before landing somewhere in the vicinity of Grenoble and week 3 feels way up in the air. The Swiss rumours remain the most persistent but beyond the usual Alpe d'Huez/Chamrousse floating about, Stage 16 to Stage 21 are filled with question marks.
Mont Aigoual is pretty much confirmed, I think. Problem is that from Meyrueis it is not selective at all.
Loudonvielle stage is ok, problem is that there will likely be an MTF on the next day.
Week 2 looks very underwhelming as of now, but let's trust in Gouvenou that there won't be more than 3 consecutive non-selective stages
For a rest day in Grenoble Chamrousse would probably make sense with something like a remake of 2014 at the end, but this would probably also mean that Switzerland is out of the question
I see that Thomas mentions reservations in Bellegarde
https://www.velowire.com/article/10...s-sur-le-parcours-et-les-villes-etapes--.html
So Grand Colombier perhaps on stage 19 and ITT on stage 20?
Chamrousse actually has a harder first half which would make it an amazing climb for the Tour but I'm not sure if that's usable.
Alaphillipe vs Nibali vs Roglic vs Valverde on the final descent of stage 2 for yellow would be brilliant.
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