2020 Tour de France route rumors

[18-Valve. (pithy)]

Would like to see that guys like Dumoulin, Roglic etc. screw ASO and did Giro-Vuelta doubles instead of TDF. 50-60km of flat-rolling ITT would be fine for TDF 2020.

That's why Dumoulin - Olympic preparations aside - should continue to go to the Giro. Tour isn't worth double it like it used to be.

Dumoulin has never prioritized the Tour. Him doing so now would be out of character almost. No one cares if he targets the Giro instead.

Roglic - no way he will want to miss this. The Loze stage could do him in, but other than that it's a pretty good route for him.

 

[Laplaz]

Pretty good route, just 4-5 sprint stages it seems.

 

[sensations]

By TDF standards, this is definitely an odd-ball of a route.

 

[Red Rick]

Dumoulin has never prioritized the Tour. Him doing so now would be out of character almost. No one cares if he targets the Giro instead.

Roglic - no way he will want to miss this. The Loze stage could do him in, but other than that it's a pretty good route for him.

Dumoulin has wanted to prioritise the Tour since 2018 but thw Tour routes keep being completely dire

 

[Eddy Evenepoel]

Alaphilippe to dominate until he crack at Grand Colombier?

 

[Noddy97]

Even with this route, tom is the outstanding favourite.

 

[jarvo]

This route is like when you go to see a band and all they do is play songs off the newer albums. So will next year be a greatest hits tour? Alpe d'huez, Ventoux, Tourmalet?

 

[yaco]

Route seems fine, except the ITT should be stage twelve and not stage twenty. This could lead to defensive riding.

 

[gregrowlerson]

This route is like when you go to see a band and all they do is play songs off the newer albums. So will next year be a greatest hits tour? Alpe d'huez, Ventoux, Tourmalet?

Perysourde and Madeline are still very famous, though difficult to spell. And Eze is very famous from Paris-Nice. Stage 20 climb is bigger than Ben Hur.

 

[42x16ss]

It's a good route... for the TDF. There needs to be a solid 40km+ ITT towards the end of the 2nd week and another transition stage. You need a couple of stages where it's possible to recoup and lick your wounds. This is going to be raced conservatively, due to the sheer amount of climbing. Like a tightly controlled version of the 2011 Giro, but without the awesomely designed stages like Gardeccia and the Cinque Terra TT.

 

[18-Valve. (pithy)]

Dumoulin has wanted to prioritise the Tour since 2018 but thw Tour routes keep being completely dire

Yeah, I didn't believe him then and don't believe him now, but even if that were the case then he won't have much of an excuse this time. The PdBF TT is actually a pretty long effort. Could be over 55 minutes, no? Doesn't look like Pinot territory to me.

 

[Jacques (7 ch)]

First week is great. Never understood why It gets ceded to the sprinters so often.

Mountain ITT at the back end seems a bit of a sad gimmick. Would have preferred a rolling one around mid-Tour.

A climax in which the GC riders attack each other over a couple of cols (as this year might have been) would have met the pro- Tibo script and, IMO, had a bit more credibility - pressure on Tibo here.

 

[sir fly]

There are flat stages that look more like medium mountain stages and there's a high mountain stage in the Pyrenees that will feel more like a medium mountain stage... interesting twist.
The time trial of 36k's that will feel like 50...
A Tour for the more experienced riders who can sustain a high level of form for 3 weeks, rather than for those who are peaking steep. Bernal's not disadvantaged, though.
A better season than they've had this year would be useful for Dumoulin and Froome, but there are whole winter and spring to regroup.

Just one more category 1 or HC in the Pyrenees and I wouldn't complain at all.

 

[gregrowlerson]

It's a good route... for the TDF. There needs to be a solid 40km+ ITT towards the end of the 2nd week and another transition stage. You need a couple of stages where it's possible to recoup and lick your wounds. This is going to be raced conservatively, due to the sheer amount of climbing. Like a tightly controlled version of the 2011 Giro, but without the awesomely designed stages like Gardeccia and the Cinque Terra TT.

This. Could have an ITT on stage 10 or 11 maybe; I don't like stages being wasted after rest days. The thing is, is that proper gaps produce different tactical scenarios, even between teammates. It's likely that Bernal will be stronger than Froome and Thomas in the mountains, but what if he loses minutes, or even just forty seconds, to them, in an ITT? What do Ineos do then, when Froome and Thomas are struggling to stay with Roglic on a MTF, do they let Bernal off the leash? Or what about Allaphalippe? He may gain more than he loses against his rivals in a 35 km ITT, particularly if it is a little lumpy. I don't see him winning a Tour with stages with multiple high mountains, and with their being many multiples of such stages. Pinot is a decent rider, but to basically base a Tour around him is laughable.

 

[Broccolidwarf]

source: la flamme rouge

It will be interesting to see how many teams actually bring a sprinter, for that route.

The Sagan/Kristoff types will be there - but I don't see anyone bringing a heavy sprinter and dedicating a train to support him.

Imho the absence of the classic sprinter trains means, that a lot more stages will be decided by a break, because there will be far less interest in the peloton to pull breaks back.

With that in mind, imagine the team Jumbo will bring, when they no longer need to cater for Groenewegen....... bring on the star wars with Ineos
Also, one has to wonder what kind of team QS will select.

All that having been said, the Tour might generally be weird next year, because some of the usual GC riders are eyeing the Olympics - which for many will be the last shot at olympic gold in their career, whereas the Tour rolls around next year again.

 

[Broccolidwarf]

Alaphilippe to dominate until he crack at Grand Colombier?

No, Alaphilippe to stage hunt, and otherwise take care of himself and manage his form, for his shot at olympic gold

 

[18-Valve. (pithy)]

Bernal's not disadvantaged, though.

Yeah, I was wondering about this. I'm actually not sure. At low altitude Bernal is not a dominant climber, so realistically there's only the Loze stage. He could do damage there, though.

Admittedly he was pretty good on the low altitude mountain stage to Prat d'Albis as well. Obviously Pinot was better - and it was hard to gauge Landa's performance, but yeah, he was more than solid there.

But then there's the PdBF ITT. I could easily see him losing minutes there.

 

[Mayomaniac]

The lack of a flat ITT is a real weakness, but the mountain stages aren't that bad.
Yes, the 2nd week is rather light before the really hard stage 15, but you can do a ton of damage on that stage. The biggest fear is that it could turn into a waiting game before stage 15, or even worse stage 17. Stage 18 is actually pretty awesome as the final alpine stage and right after the hardest mountain stage.
Replace the final itt with a longer one on stage 12 and we have a good race.
Overall a real Pinot route, the rather easy stages after the rest days are a big bonus for him.

 

[rick james]

Sprinters will be hating this route...

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

No, Alaphilippe to stage hunt, and otherwise take care of himself and manage his form, for his shot at olympic gold

If he does that, prioritising winning one Olympic gold out of 408 awarded every four years, over the one and only Tour de France, he deserves to win nothing for the rest of his career. The Olympics is a big deal in minor sports with no traditions or audience of their own. If a cyclist treats road cycling that way, he is dead to me.

 

[bajbar]

Looks like ASO liked the 2019 Vuelta. Very simillar route. Lots of steep explosive climbs, few sprint stages, only one real classic stage in the Pyrenees and Alps. 36km of TT. And action from stage 2 to 20.

 

[gavia88]

first conclusions without knowing the exact profiles per stage:
-at least it is a very odd route for tour standards, how different it is compared to the routes at the beginning of this century.
-a lot of tricky stages, there can action from stage 2 till 20
-interesting first week, with quite some variation, soft mountain finish (merlette), hard mountain finish (lusette), hilly finish (Privas), flat flat (laveur), flat but not flat flat (nice, sisteron) and downhill finishes (pyrenees), hard medium mountain (nice).
-no 2nd week of boredom after starting in the south (remember tour 2009)
-no parade of ASO 'classics' (no tourmalet, no Aubisque, no Alpe d'Huez, no Galibier, no croix de fer, no glandon (although, I wouldn't mind if they had put it in the stage to loze))
-lot of interesting new climbs/ not used for a while
-not backloaded, but difficulties spread out over the whole course
-barely real sprint stages, or they have to work for it
-tricky finals in Privas, Sarran and Lyon, both seems to have hills in the final. Lyon even seems to have col de beal in the stage.
-last mountain stage not being a tourmalet-hautacam kind of stage (the kind of stage that blocked the whole last massive, without being interesting itself)
-proper echolon stage
-sterrato (although more a bit of a gimmick than really making the stage more difficult)

less positive I'm about
-2nd pyrenees stage going soudet downhill to arette, instead of the eastern downhill straight to marie-blanque. It really ruins a bit the idea of having the Soudet in the stage.
-I think they wasted a bit the stage to villars-de-lans. Those mountains are really to soft/ not steep enough to see any action. Mont-Noir would have been nice, as some other possibilities as well.
-Both queen stages are missing a bit of difficulty. Glandon or Champ-Laurent before madeilene (would have made it a proper queen stagen and reduced the risk favourites waiting for the very steep last 5 kilometers of loze) and Bisanne instead of Saisses would have made both stages much better. The combo Saisses-Aravis is probably a bit soft.
-Of course a 25-35 km flat time trail somewhere in the second week would have been great, to see whom of Froome, Thomas, Roglic and Dumoulin is the best time-trailist
-risk of planche des belles filles blocking the race a bit
-no time trail in the beginning, could means small gaps between the contenders and could lead to less willingness to take risk/ or at least attack. Giro 2012 alarm.
-no endurance stage(s) to test the biggest tanks in the peloton. ASO is really going Vuelta in that sense.

 

[MatParker117]

Tour de France 2020 will be no more difficult to control, says Brailsford

Froome and Bernal seek leadership at next year's race

www.cyclingnews.com

 

[Gigs_98]

The ITT is an issue but at least no TT and it's fairly long. I'd also prefer it if one of the two hard mtf's came in the pyrenees instead. But overall some really cool stages, new climbs and not many sprint stages. Better than usually

 

[Escarabajo]

It looks like a hard Tour. Less sprint stages. I guess ASO have been reading this forum
I have to say the mountains look interesting. As we usually complain about the distances of the stages I don't see these type of stages coming back. If anything they believe the shorter stages bring more action because it is more attacking a less attrition.

Anyway, I like this route.