Critérium du Dauphiné May 30-June 6 2021

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Red Rick

Red Rick

Feb 20, 2012
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Valv.Piti said:
Honestly Alpe d' Huez gets a lot of *** and some people treat the climb as if the climb is bad in it self (which it isn't). I too dont have that much of a problem with the Alpe featuring every 2-3 years, its whatever as its one of the better MTFs in the race and is a really nice tourist destination where you always can consider to go, drink some beers and climb some of the most iconic climbs in the world and watch the race.
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Honestly my bigger annoyance is it's relative isolation and it's popularity meaning it tends to be the focal point of a queen stage/final mountain stage which is a terrible combination with it's isolation. You also get the Croix de Fer as a bonus most of the time, which is one of the lamest HC passes. I also think that the last few stages to Alpe d'Huez have overdelivered a lot due to Froome fading in the third week twice and Contador flatout not giving a *** once.

Lastly, I'm also pretty sure that we CN just has a vocal minority of cycling fans that dislike the Alpe. Casual fans will almost universally love it.
 
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Valv.Piti

Valv.Piti

Aug 3, 2015
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Red Rick said:
Honestly my bigger annoyance is it's relative isolation and it's popularity meaning it tends to be the focal point of a queen stage/final mountain stage which is a terrible combination with it's isolation. You also get the Croix de Fer as a bonus most of the time, which is one of the lamest HC passes. I also think that the last few stages to Alpe d'Huez have overdelivered a lot due to Froome fading in the third week twice and Contador flatout not giving a *** once.

Lastly, I'm also pretty sure that we CN just has a vocal minority of cycling fans that dislike the Alpe. Casual fans will almost universally love it.
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What, Croix de Fer is not a lame HC climb, its just the unfortunate valley part. I personally like Croix de Fer, especially from North, I think that side is a beast of a climb.
 
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Red Rick

Red Rick

Feb 20, 2012
53,823
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Valv.Piti said:
What, Croix de Fer is not a lame HC climb, its just the unfortunate valley part. I personally like Croix de Fer, especially from North, I think that side is a beast of a climb.
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You but you can't get Croix de Fer north if you wanna get to the Alpe. They always take it from St. Jean the Maurienne. Glandon-Alpe would be better to be sure, maybe Quintanas 2015 move could have stuck, but with the current trains I think the valley means death to that anyway. My preference would be to go Alpe d'Huez-Sarenne-Les Deux Alpes tbh.

But for relatively straightforward MTFs, the Tour can do better, and I just really dislike AdH queen stages. But then the Tour has basically stopped making queen stages anyway
 
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Devil's Elbow

Devil's Elbow

Sep 20, 2017
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Valv.Piti said:
What, Croix de Fer is not a lame HC climb, its just the unfortunate valley part. I personally like Croix de Fer, especially from North, I think that side is a beast of a climb.
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That's the Glandon if you descend into the Oisans. The eastern side of Croix de Fer is a lot more common on Alpe d'Huez stages - it was used in 2018, 2015 and 2008 while Glandon was last done in 2001. In between, we've had double Alpe in 2013, Galibier in 2011 and 2003, Lautaret in 2006 and a MTT in 2004 as finales, although the Dauphiné did use Glandon as the penultimate climb in 2010 before the weird Sarenne and final quarter of Alpe d'Huez stage in 2017.

Tl;dr: Glandon existing doesn't influence my opinion on Alpe d'Huez.
 
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L

Leinster

Jun 10, 2017
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tobydawq said:
Yeah, I also think it's a bit of the usual reactionary stuff that when something is popular it must be bad that's going on here. The only problem I see with the climb is the hazards posed by the spectators. Guerini and Nibali may be alone in actually having collided with them but that must just be a question of time because too many people get too drunk on that climb.
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Yes/no. Imagine how drunk everyone is going to be when they go back to the Alpe for the 2029 Tour, after a 13 year break...
 
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L

Leinster

Jun 10, 2017
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RedheadDane said:
Even if it's been weeks since the injury happened?
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Depending on the player's history, sometimes yes.

It'll be 17 days from Dombrowski's crash in the Giro to the start of the Dauphine, which is just shy of the 3 weeks that used to be the standard. There's more advanced testing now, dealing with symptoms, cognitive function tests etc that can allow players return earlier, so I'm hoping that Dombrowski/UAE/the UCI are following something similar, rather than just "Feeling ok, Joe? See you in Clermont on Saturday."
 
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Samu Cuenca

Samu Cuenca

Sep 26, 2020
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Leinster said:
Depending on the player's history, sometimes yes.

It'll be 17 days from Dombrowski's crash in the Giro to the start of the Dauphine, which is just shy of the 3 weeks that used to be the standard. There's more advanced testing now, dealing with symptoms, cognitive function tests etc that can allow players return earlier, so I'm hoping that Dombrowski/UAE/the UCI are following something similar, rather than just "Feeling ok, Joe? See you in Clermont on Saturday."
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Maybe he's not your average Joe?
But let's hope he has been properly cleared to race.
 
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