Grand Depart 2017 in Germany?

[Valv.Piti]

Ugh. Looks grim so far.

 

[dacooley]

not a bad route. 7/10. not enough timetrialing for froome to finish it off early, and not so many difficult climbs that quintana could waste any opportunity.

 

[Pricey_sky]

23km TT?!?!?! What a shambles!

 

[Max Rockatansky]

Did you see the smile on Hinault? He shortly thought that he could still win that race with such a course. :razz:

 

[Fight.The.Power]

Then Prudhomme drops the bombshell at the end - Teams restricted to 5 riders lol !!

 

[Red Rick]

KoM changed. HC only 15 points I guess, and points doubled only on Izoard.

 

[gregrowlerson]

Galibier finish is good. Looks like a much shorter distance to finish from the top than usual.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Any place to see the stage profiles? I can't seem to see them on letour.

 

[Red Rick]

Re:

Any place to see the stage profiles? I can't seem to see them on letour.

Guess they'll be up soon enough on there.

 

[Axis]

 

[Taxus4a]

38 km flat ITT is very small distace, but it is more than last year when lot of kms were uphill on the ITTs.

 

[Axis]

 

[Alexandre B.]

Thanks!

 

[MikeTichondrius]

Overall I like the route I suppose.Bit heavy on MTFs with PDBF, Rousses, Izoard, Peyragudes and Galibier (is it a summit finish though?). I hope Foix and Chambery are properly raced. That Biche, Colombier, Chat stage is...Whoa. But I wish we had a finish at Le Bourget.

ASO keeps going for new stuff along the classics. Good on them I say. We had too many years of the same stuff. Races like the Vuelta are much more flexible and better for it (at least they vary their muritos every now and then!).

 

[Alexandre B.]

Re:

Overall I like the route I suppose.Bit heavy on MTFs with PDBF, Rousses, Izoard, Peyragudes and Galibier (is it a summit finish though?). I hope Foix and Chambery are properly raced. That Biche, Colombier, Chat stage is...Whoa. But I wish we had a finish at Le Bourget.

ASO keeps going for new stuff along the classics. Good on them I say. We had too many years of the same stuff. Races like the Vuelta are much more flexible and better for it (at least they vary their muritos every now and then!).

The Galibier stage finish in Serre-Chevalier. It's a descent finish.

Les Rousses is not really a MTF.

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

23km of TT is a travesty.

Normally I'm not a Froome fan at all, but hopefully Froome or somebody else with a good TT wins, so we at least get a worthy winner who would've also won on a real route.

 

[Red Rick]

It has 2 good mountain stages and another mountain finish. With 36km of ITT the only positive thing you could say is that at least is somewhat balanced.

 

[Miburo]

I blame Contador and Nibali for those super short stages.

The organisers are idiots if they think there are other guys who will just go from the start and don't give a ***

 

[18-Valve. (pithy)]

The Le Puy-en-Velay stage could have a killer finale with that climb. Very nice.

 

[Netserk]

You think 2km @ 10% is enough 30km from the line?

 

[movingtarget]

The best course Quintana might see for quite a while or the most suitable for him. If he turns up in better shape than the 2016 Tour he will have no excuses. Bardet won't mind it either. Froome and Porte would have preferred more TT kms.

 

[Taxus4a]

Re:

You think 2km @ 10% is enough 30km from the line?

No alone, but someone could lost his Tour there...

 

[ILovecycling]

Re:

Lolzers, that penultimate weekend yet again...

Typical aso joke lol

 

[ILovecycling]

Ok, with this route...

Sagan to win 2017 Tour!
You heard it here first lol

 

[vedrafjord]

Re:

23km of TT is a travesty.

Normally I'm not a Froome fan at all, but hopefully Froome or somebody else with a good TT wins, so we at least get a worthy winner who would've also won on a real route.

I honestly thought that they'd give up on Quintana after this year, and do a more balanced 80's style route to give the likes of Dumoulin and Pinot a shout. Instead they've gift-wrapped another route with a bow on top for Quintana, although he'd prefer fewer flat stages. They have added some steeper finishes, which is important - it's one of the reasons the Vuelta is better at creating gaps (as well as the weaker teams). Riders, and especially domestiques, are in way too good shape these days. The steady 7% Alpine slogs can't hack it anymore, they're too easy to draft. But yeah the race is more boring with so little TT - there won't be the resulting gaps to force the pure climbers to go from further out.