Exclusive recon of P-N ITT

[Christian]

DISCLAIMER:

I am not involved in any semi-professional cycling, all I do is purely recreational. Therefore I cannot offer any technical information such as wattage, steepness percentages, etc. If this is what you are looking for you will be disappointed.

First off, I'd like to say hats off to ASO. This parcours is absolutely gorgeous, I think you will agree with this when you see it on TV tomorrow. I was hoping they would do it around Mont Ste. Victoire (another gorgeous area), but they did a really good job with this parcours and I think you will all enjoy it.

Secondly, hats off to whoever put up all the signs - there is absolutely no way anyone could miss them. I had brought a map but never needed to get it out because these signs were everywhere.

OK now let's start with the parcours. As you all know it starts in the village of Rognes. Here you have a photo of the first "ligne droite", along with one of the signs that I was talking about:

This street is maybe 200 m long, then it turns right and immediately goes into a descent. Said descent is very easy to handle - nice, broad streets, nothing technical. I think it has around 3 or 4 curves.

From the descent it turns into a straight flat, or maybe even still descending a bit:

This goes on for quite some time. The road turns once or twice but mainly it's straighforward, very few curves. Howver these few turns could be important - I had quite a bit of headwind today. Of course my position is anything but aerodynamic, and I think if there will be wind, it will play in favour of the specialists. Sometimes the road ascents a little bit, sometimes it descends, but all in all it's flat. TT specialists will have absolutely no problem with this, quite on the opposite, I would definitely say the first half (or even a little more) really plays to their strengths.

Next they will pass a nice little artificial lake, the Bassin de St. Christophe:

Here there are one or two curves that are a little more narrow.

Another straight descent follows into a little village named Le Barcot. At the end of this descent, there is a crossroads where they will have to slow down a bit, since it is in a rectangular angle and the road is quite narrow.

However the road that they turn onto is really large and again, rather flat. Some minor bumps but that's all. It goes right next to the river "Durance" and a canal:

If anyone knows the area, this is where you can pass the Durance to enter the region of Lubéron.

(I will now start another post because I think there is a 4 picture limit per post)

 

[Christian]

As I said, this is a really large road - it was not very agreeable to ride by the way because of the cars and trucks who drive quite fast. Here the wind might play a role too, since there is nothing to protect the riders on the left hand side of the road. Again I would say this road is very much made for specialists.

They will follow this road until shortly after the village of St. Estève-Janson. Then they will turn into a narrow road, and this is where it is really a pleasure to ride. Unfortunately the riders might not have time to appreciate the scenery of Provence, or this château for example:

Now the road slowly starts to go uphill, but still it's quite flat. On the other hand the parcours finally gets a little technical, as there are many narrow turns. They pass the village Le Puy-Ste-Réparade and go by an organic winery named "La Coste" for example, which I will have to check out later.

But it isn't until after the tiny village of La Cride that the climb really begins. Here is the first ramp:

So ... the climb. Again I will repeat that I have no idea of percentage, I can't even tell you exactly how long it is. That being said, I found it quite regular and not terribly steep. It was still really difficult for me, but I think that it will not be enough for the climbers to make up the time they lost on the flat. If I had to guess, I would say it's maybe 5 or 6 km long, according to the official roadbook it's 8 km from La Cride to Puyricard. In the beginning and in the end there are these straight ramps, other than that it's curvy - some more difficult, some rather easy.

Here is the final ramp:

Now after this it's a rolling descent, pretty much all the way into Puyricard. In the beginning a few curves, then a broad, straight street again. Gorgeous sights along the road: olive trees in blossom! Unfortunately I did not exactly see where the finish will be, but I assume it will be on a rather large street. Right before the finish there is a big roundabout as well.

 

[Christian]

In the climb I saw some fans of Julien El Farès et Remi Pauriol, who were already camping there.

I also got passed by two Cofidis riders. I didn't get a good look on the first one (he didn't have the official bike either) but the second one could have been Yoann Bagot.

 

[Race Radio]

Thanks for the cool pics Christen. Looks like a great course

 

[Angliru]

Great work! I wish I could be there! Thanks for the time and effort. Will you be there taking shots of the riders during the stage?

 

[wdiaz_pr]

Yes, thanks! I'll tune in tomorrow, seems it could be quite interesting.

 

[Christian]

Will you be there taking shots of the riders during the stage?

I'll try - I'm not a good photographer though, especially when it comes to capturing cyclists going 50 km/h

It looks like I'll be going with a couple of other people from the Luxembourg Students' Association, so I don't know where we'll be standing yet. I was hoping for the climb, but it looks like they want to take the bus to Puyricard, and then it's too far to walk to the climb ...

 

[ttrider]

The climb is nothing for pros, of course for amateurs that differs, nothing to suggest that anyone other than Martin will win and indeed dominate from the pictures

 

[Christian]

The climb is nothing for pros, of course for amateurs that differs, nothing to suggest that anyone other than Martin will win and indeed dominate from the pictures

Yes from the way he was climbing today I believe he will take this one

 

[Michielveedeebee]

nice pics, thx
And this one's for Martin for sure

 

[pedaling squares]

Great idea for a thread, Christian. Thanks for the intel.

 

[Ryaguas]

Hey that was an awesome insight to the ITT parcours... quite ride you have there huh?

Thx very much for this info... really appreciated it!
mmmmm I dont want to agree with you very much... ehmmmm Andy sux!
ahhh back to the status quo...

 

[Cobblestoned]

Nice introduction, CHRISTIAN !
Have fun there. Cycling needs people like you.

Some nice close up pictures of TT bikes would be great.

wosh,wosh,wosh,wosh,wosh - jealous

 

[Publicus]

Nice work Christian. Appreciate the bird's eye view of the ITT.

 

[Moondance]

Amazing work.

Also, from your description I think we'll see Tony Martin own this TT like there's no tomorrow.

 

[Mellow Velo]

Lovely stuff, Christian. Thanks for taking the trouble. Seems like a pretty interesting course.

 

[jens_attacks]

Lovely stuff, Christian. Thanks for taking the trouble. Seems like a pretty interesting course.

+1.thanks.

can that climb help klodi or is not so steep to make a difference?

 

[Christian]

Thanks for all your kind words, but it wasn't any trouble, really - more than anything it was a good reason get out and ride again! Also this way I discovered some new routes that I didn't know yet

 

[taiwan]

Pedants Corner

Nice work Christian. Appreciate the bird's eye view of the ITT.

Bird's eye view = overhead view.

Bonus: I failed to include the necessary apostrophe in "Pedant's".