Change In TDF Parcours – Just An Idea
Most of us agree that the Tour De France could do with a few less pancake flat stages – particularly during the first week. The difficulty for the organisers is that France isn’t very mountainous; at least not compared with Italy and Spain.
They only pretty much have two areas of mountains (Alps and Pyrenees), which are each (usually) given 3 days to shine out of the 21 race days.
My fairly basic idea is that the Tour could consider going through one of the major mountain ranges twice in each year. One year they have the Alps in weeks one and three; the next they have the Pyrenees twice. I believe that this is feasible without going over the same roads/climbs too much. In saying that, I like the idea of having one mountain highlighted each year – which is climbed over twice, in the first week and third week.
The first week shouldn’t necessarily be too selective – but it should be more interesting. Just 2 days in the high mountains (perhaps stages 4 and 5) in week one, and the high mountains don’t always have to be so high. An attempt should be made to include more interesting medium mountain stages such as the first Alpine stage of the ’04 TDF.
So I’m suggesting 8 days in the Alps and Pyrenees instead of the usual 6. A more balanced parcours – one that is not so back ended. There could be approximately 9 stages where the likely winner is a climber and 9 where the likely winner is a sprinter (or perhaps closer to a Gilbert type). Those 9 stages aren’t all pancake flat, and neither are the 9 mountain stages all horrific in profile. Plus there is room for 3 TT’s.
That’s just a basic formula. At present the organisers seem very intent on going over the same climbs (Tourmalet, Alp du’ez, Galibier, Columbierre) and into the same towns (Morzine, Pau, Grand Bornard, Andorra) regularly, so an extra couple of days will give other climbs and areas in the high mountains more scope to be included in the great race.
Most of us agree that the Tour De France could do with a few less pancake flat stages – particularly during the first week. The difficulty for the organisers is that France isn’t very mountainous; at least not compared with Italy and Spain.
They only pretty much have two areas of mountains (Alps and Pyrenees), which are each (usually) given 3 days to shine out of the 21 race days.
My fairly basic idea is that the Tour could consider going through one of the major mountain ranges twice in each year. One year they have the Alps in weeks one and three; the next they have the Pyrenees twice. I believe that this is feasible without going over the same roads/climbs too much. In saying that, I like the idea of having one mountain highlighted each year – which is climbed over twice, in the first week and third week.
The first week shouldn’t necessarily be too selective – but it should be more interesting. Just 2 days in the high mountains (perhaps stages 4 and 5) in week one, and the high mountains don’t always have to be so high. An attempt should be made to include more interesting medium mountain stages such as the first Alpine stage of the ’04 TDF.
So I’m suggesting 8 days in the Alps and Pyrenees instead of the usual 6. A more balanced parcours – one that is not so back ended. There could be approximately 9 stages where the likely winner is a climber and 9 where the likely winner is a sprinter (or perhaps closer to a Gilbert type). Those 9 stages aren’t all pancake flat, and neither are the 9 mountain stages all horrific in profile. Plus there is room for 3 TT’s.
That’s just a basic formula. At present the organisers seem very intent on going over the same climbs (Tourmalet, Alp du’ez, Galibier, Columbierre) and into the same towns (Morzine, Pau, Grand Bornard, Andorra) regularly, so an extra couple of days will give other climbs and areas in the high mountains more scope to be included in the great race.