98th Tour de France presentation

[luckyboy]

If the Colombians, Anton, Riccò are there + AC isn't, this could be very good.

I don't think many of those things are going to happen though. Really would be better with 24 teams of 8.

 

[rghysens]

C'mon guys. It's not about time trialists chances, it's about excitement of the race. Yeah, Giro was great, but lack of TT's km wasn't the reason. The mean reason was big breakaway. Remember Terminillo ? That stage was fu**ing boring. Remember all the mountain stages after L'Aquila ? Right, They all was tremendous. So, Liqui was forced to be active on each mountain stage, and that the reason why 2010 Giro edition was such spectacular.
Same with Le Tour. If guys like Andy, Purito or Bobby Gesink will be in situation, when they doesn't have necessity to attack, what can stimulate them to animate the race ? Stage win ? Nobody cares about stage wins, it's all about general classification (bonus seconds can change things a little bit, but nevermind, at least as long as Prudhomme is the boss). So, as long as climbers will not have stimulus to make a time gaps, we will see only one true mountain stage. The only way to create a exciting race is to increase ITT kms.

2010 - 59 ITT kms. Boring Tour
2009 - 55 ITT kms. Most boring Tour... ever
2008 - 82 ITT kms. Not bad at all.
2007 - 117 ITT kms. Epic.
2006 - 116 ITT kms. Not the best Tour, but not as bad as 09 and 10.
2005 - 74 ITT kms; 2004 - 81 ITT kms. Boring
2003 - 103 ITT km. Hors catégorie

So, as you can see, more ITT km ---> more excitement

1992: 137 ITT kms. boring (save for 1 stage)
1993: 114 ITT kms. boring (save for half a climb)
1994: 118 ITT kms. boring
1995: 107 ITT kms. some excitement
1997: 126 ITT kms. boring, save for the stage to courchevel
1998: 115 ITT kms. boring, save for the stage to les deux alpes and the festina affair
1999: 120 ITT kms. surprised that armstrong performed so well, but boring in the second half
2001: 101 ITT kms. most exciting part was waiting until armstrong took the yellow jersey after he gave an escape to pontarlier 30 minutes (two times more than this year to l'aquila, but no exciting tour at all), so boring
2002: 109 ITT kms. not the 2009 tour, but this one was the most boring ever.


So, basically, you should only have a lot of itt kms if noone can dominate in the mountains ánd itt, like indurain, ullrich or armstrong did

 

[issoisso]

C'mon guys. It's not about time trialists chances, it's about excitement of the race. Yeah, Giro was great, but lack of TT's km wasn't the reason. The mean reason was big breakaway. Remember Terminillo ? That stage was fu**ing boring. Remember all the mountain stages after L'Aquila ? Right, They all was tremendous. So, Liqui was forced to be active on each mountain stage, and that the reason why 2010 Giro edition was such spectacular.
Same with Le Tour. If guys like Andy, Purito or Bobby Gesink will be in situation, when they doesn't have necessity to attack, what can stimulate them to animate the race ? Stage win ? Nobody cares about stage wins, it's all about general classification (bonus seconds can change things a little bit, but nevermind, at least as long as Prudhomme is the boss). So, as long as climbers will not have stimulus to make a time gaps, we will see only one true mountain stage. The only way to create a exciting race is to increase ITT kms.

2010 - 59 ITT kms. Boring Tour
2009 - 55 ITT kms. Most boring Tour... ever
2008 - 82 ITT kms. Not bad at all.
2007 - 117 ITT kms. Epic.
2006 - 116 ITT kms. Not the best Tour, but not as bad as 09 and 10.
2005 - 74 ITT kms; 2004 - 81 ITT kms. Boring
2003 - 103 ITT km. Hors catégorie

So, as you can see, more ITT km ---> more excitement

Quite.

It's a general theme at the Tour throughout the decades.
Less TTs -> Everyone is closer on GC -> Everyone takes a lot less risks -> Racing is boring

 

[luckyboy]

These through-the-years TT things aren't totally reliable in terms of how exciting things are, I don't think. The years when one rider dominates/has the best of climbing & TTing (LA, Indurain), are never gonna be totally exciting no matter what the miles are. Though generally more TT miles means Menchov etc will be closer and climbers will have to attack more to compensate..

 

[Aguirre]

more mountain is not synnonimous of spectacle, the parcours is garbage.

At this speed ASO is crushing TdF reputation, we need more romantic, epic, organizars -a la Zomegnan- not burocrats that try to do a parcours for last minute excitment and having riders in mind (AS)

very bad

 

[roundabout]

Aside from the parcours lacking a long ITT and butchering the Massif Central what's "very bad" about it?

 

[hfer07]

I ask myself if ASO/Prudhomme is looking to prevent another Indurain/LA era by avoiding long ITT as possible? because they're creating a new era based on "climbers"-which I don't mind, but I still want to see the rightful winner to deal with the regiments offered by the ITT...

apart from that opinion, the parcours looks interesting

 

[Lanark]

Aside from the parcours lacking a long ITT and butchering the Massif Central what's "very bad" about it?

It doesn't favor Contador as much as he would hope.

 

[jens_attacks]

i still wait for the profiles of en ligne stages but there is a chance that this year's route is the worst ever in le tour's history.trust me,there won't be significant changes in GC untill plateau de beille,no one will risk up to luz ardiden.because they all will be close on GC and they will say "hey,i don't take the risks,i wait for plateau de beille".it will be like morzine this year(14 favourites at the top,mick rogers still there !!! and schleck attacking for ten seconds).
let's don't even bother talking about super besse.there is a chance to see gillbert taking that.hell if lotto will have a great team for the TT,gillbert coud be in yellow until luz ardiden.

i agree with Aguirre.le tour needs a change.a pretty big one.

 

[hfer07]

It doesn't favor Contador as much as he would hope.

in 2007 he dealt with a Prologue & two long time trials-and yet he managed to take victory over Evans....

 

[auscyclefan94]

It doesn't favor Contador as much as he would hope.

Now that is funny!

Quite.

It's a general theme at the Tour throughout the decades.
Less TTs -> Everyone is closer on GC -> Everyone takes a lot less risks -> Racing is boring

Exactly!

Amen.

I will welcome the extinction when it comes.

You want an important discipline to go away. I guess that is because you are dutch And gesink sucks at ITT's

Dutch maffia putting pressure so Gesink and Mollema can own.

+1

And to the people who are crying about cadel, newsflash he had no chance anyway. But yeah, How dare the ASO completely disregard cadel's strengths

and I can't believe some were complaining at too many MTF? WTH man...

As for Prudhomme being a moron, I agree. I knew this when he choose BMC over vasc.

yes he choose a team who wore the yello jersey over a team who would just be in breakaways. what a bad descision!

So basically your complaint is: "how dare Preudhomme tailor make the Tour for Schleck, when he should be tailor making it for Cadel"?

You are all failing to see my point. It is not all about cadel. I am just saying that it is not a balanced route. Give guys who can time trial more of a chance. Then climbers will attack more because they know they need time on the tt/climber guys.

 

[roundabout]

I still don't understand people saying that it's the worst parcours ever when we had to sit through 2009 which aside from highschool drama offered about as little racing as was expected when the parcours was unveiled.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Aside from the parcours lacking a long ITT and butchering the Massif Central what's "very bad" about it?

That we can be 90% sure that nothing of any significance to the GC, save for the TTT, will happen until the final week, so why not have a one-week race like the Dauphiné or Tour de Suisse?

 

[jens_attacks]

I still don't understand people saying that it's the worst parcours ever when we had to sit through 2009 which aside from highschool drama offered about as little racing as was expected when the parcours was unveiled.

true.it was horrible but this could be worse than that.

 

[roundabout]

Ok, let's add a lack of really decisive stages for the first 11 days.

 

[Angliru]

Im saying he doesnt have as good a chance as the true climbers like schleck, contador, Rodriguez, sanchez etc. Hopefully he will pull off the suprise

Dude has had multiple op's to win a grand tour on routes that one would've thought were in his favor, yet no grand tour win on his record of successes.
The clock is ticking and the excuse list is getting encyclopedic in length.

 

[thehog]

1992: 137 ITT kms. boring (save for 1 stage)
1993: 114 ITT kms. boring (save for half a climb)
1994: 118 ITT kms. boring
1995: 107 ITT kms. some excitement
1997: 126 ITT kms. boring, save for the stage to courchevel
1998: 115 ITT kms. boring, save for the stage to les deux alpes and the festina affair
1999: 120 ITT kms. surprised that armstrong performed so well, but boring in the second half
2001: 101 ITT kms. most exciting part was waiting until armstrong took the yellow jersey after he gave an escape to pontarlier 30 minutes (two times more than this year to l'aquila, but no exciting tour at all), so boring
2002: 109 ITT kms. not the 2009 tour, but this one was the most boring ever.


So, basically, you should only have a lot of itt kms if noone can dominate in the mountains ánd itt, like indurain, ullrich or armstrong did

I think the moral of the story is not to reduce or increase the ITT kms but remove the drug use. Make climbers climbers and time trialists time trialists. Not both. That's boring.

Looking at you Lance and Migual.

 

[Arnout]

I think the moral of the story is not to reduce or increase the ITT kms but remove the drug use. Make climbers climbers and time trialists time trialists. Not both. That's boring.

Looking at you Lance and Migual.

Best way to do that is to make mountainstages as hard as possible. Climbing TTers may have something to do with drugs, but also with the comparability of a single mountain and a TT. An hour full throttle, that is what is required. So by adding mountains in a mountain stage TTers have to climb because they cannot do it on their hour power.

So its actually a good course this year. Yes, we'll have to wait, but I am kind of used to that in the Tour. The remaining stages are harder than last few years, and that's good.

 

[Carlo Algatrensig]

As with most things in cycling how good the race is will depend on how the riders ride it not what the course is.

So to assume we'll have a good/bad/interesting race next july just from a few profiles of mountain stages isn't the best way to go. I hope some of the teams that have more than one GC rider try to do something in the first 11 stages to open up gaps before they get to the mountains by trying to put there "secondary GC man" into some breaks.

However on another note I would like to ask what the feck is the point of stage 13?

 

[blaxland]

Totally boring route for this yers TDF..Not enough TT kms,not enough challenging stages in the first 10 days.This is the best oppertunity for Gesink/Rodriguez and Van Den Broek to win their first GT...Crossing my fingers that some Columbian riders like Rujano/Sella get a start....They would make things difficuilt for Andy Shcleck.

 

[hfer07]

Totally boring route for this yers TDF..Not enough TT kms,not enough challenging stages in the first 10 days.This is the best oppertunity for Gesink/Rodriguez and Van Den Broek to win their first GT...Crossing my fingers that some Columbian riders like Rujano/Sella get a start....They would make things difficuilt for Andy Shcleck.

FYI:
Rujano=Venezuelan
Sella= Italian

 

[luckyboy]

From this CN article - http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/2011-tour-de-france-route-reveals-prudhommes-lessons-learned

"No prologue time trial and a first road stage with a sticky little uphill finish? Perfect for a rider like Alejandro Valverde, who will return from his two-year ban in May, 2011 and who won a similar opening stage in Brittany in 2008."

Piti was retrospectively banned from January 1st 2010 was he not? Unless something radical happened that I've missed lately, he won't be in the 2011 Tour.

 

[El Pistolero]

From this CN article - http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/2011-tour-de-france-route-reveals-prudhommes-lessons-learned

"No prologue time trial and a first road stage with a sticky little uphill finish? Perfect for a rider like Alejandro Valverde, who will return from his two-year ban in May, 2011 and who won a similar opening stage in Brittany in 2008."

Piti was retrospectively banned from January 1st 2010 was he not? Unless something radical happened that I've missed lately, he won't be in the 2011 Tour.

But can he beat the guy that stepped in his (classic) footsteps during his absence?

According to Gilbert, Valverde is the only one that can follow him on these uphill finishes, but I doubt even Valverde can follow Gilbert these days.

But that's just me hoping Gilbert will enter the Tour this year. There's some stages he can pick up there next year. And there's no use sacrificing big part of his season for the Worlds next year, stupid profile.

edit: Didn't read your post that well. Yes, his ban only ends in 2012.

 

[blaxland]

FYI:
Rujano=Venezuelan
Sella= Italian

Thanks hfer I think i have drank to many coffee's this morning...

 

[Altitude]

Only one ITT next year-- what could be sweeter? Well I suppose zero ITT but lets not get carried away.

Those who cry about there not being opportunities to gain time in the 1st half of the race-- the third week of the Tour is obviously more exciting when the gaps in GC are relatively small. Who the hell wants to see A Schleck enter the Alpes with a 3 min lead? Get a grip, this course is solid.