Grand Depart

[doperhopper]

how about kazakh steppes - money are only at the first place (and please, give the plane enough supporting fighter jets)

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/kazakhstan-keen-on-tour-de-france-grand-depart

 

[VO2 Max]

St. Petersburg

Would be awesome when the politics are better. Apparently the drive is shorter from there to, eg Stuttgart in Germany than they've just done from Dublin in the Giro so the logistics must be feasible with a Friday start. From Prague presumably you needn't even have a transfer, just a few stages heading west and you're back in France.

For me though, I like there to be some connection, some reason to go there besides the obvious financial. I could see the Giro in the US - the famous Italian-American communities in the big cities there; also Belgium where Italians went to work in the Ardennes mines. Some romance and symbolism please! 2019 will be the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Wall and the Iron Curtain so we should get plenty of trips east hopefully.

 

[Christian]

how about kazakh steppes - money are only at the first place (and please, give the plane enough supporting fighter jets)

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/kazakhstan-keen-on-tour-de-france-grand-depart

called it......

 

[Armchair cyclist]

Yes, the organisers charter flights and everyone needs to be on it. But there's all the logistical teams as well, the sponsors' vehicles and other promo stuff, even the banners that have to be transported: anywhere that needs a flight, as opposed to GB, Ire, or western mainland Europe where you can drive a truck if necessary, makes life a lot more difficult. Dublin to Giovinazzo back in May is 28 hours driving according to google.

My comment was in reply to comments about inequity between teams with different budgets dealing with such a situation, not race logistics.

 

[Cult Classics]

France! It's their race and while I don't mind the occasional foray overseas 3 foreign starts in a row is a joke! Given that a sizeable chunk of the race already gets hogged by the Alps and the Pyrenees, some regions of France barely seem to get a look in. Somewhere in Normandy, Brittany, the west coast or the centre.

 

[RedheadDane]

I know where it should start: Martinique, or Guadeloupe!

It's still part of France.

 

[valentius borealis]

I know where it should start: Martinique, or Guadeloupe!

It's still part of France.

I'd prefer a Reunion Grand Depart.

 

[Fight.The.Power]

I'd prefer a Reunion Grand Depart.

As its only 43 miles across, may get a bit repetitive over three days

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Prologue & 1 stage in Réunion
1 stage in Mayotte
- TRANSFER -
Cayenne - Cayenne
2 stages in Martinique
3 stages in Guadeloupe
- REST DAY TRANSFER TO MAINLAND FRANCE -

 

[RedheadDane]

Dumb Redhead is dumb!

Is Reunion a place?

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Dumb Redhead is dumb!

Is Reunion a place?

Yes, it's a French overseas territory much as Martinique, Guadeloupe and French Guiana are. It's in the Indian Ocean, between Madagascar and Mauritius. Mayotte is the other French territory in the region, between Madagascar and Comoros.

Guiana is a favourite of mine for quiz trick questions. For example, the question "which two neighbouring capital cities are the furthest apart?" is answered "Paris and Brasilia" because of it, and if you ask people to name the countries France borders, Brazil and Suriname are the most commonly forgotten.

 

[RedheadDane]

Oh. Cool, thanks for explaining this to geographically challenged me.

Hm... my post before was actually a joke (in case you hadn't figured), but a week or so of touring the oversea territories could actually be rather cool. Though a nightmare transfer-ish.

 

[Sciocco]

Would be awesome when the politics are better. Apparently the drive is shorter from there to, eg Stuttgart in Germany than they've just done from Dublin in the Giro so the logistics must be feasible with a Friday start. From Prague presumably you needn't even have a transfer, just a few stages heading west and you're back in France.

For me though, I like there to be some connection, some reason to go there besides the obvious financial. I could see the Giro in the US - the famous Italian-American communities in the big cities there; also Belgium where Italians went to work in the Ardennes mines. Some romance and symbolism please! 2019 will be the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Wall and the Iron Curtain so we should get plenty of trips east hopefully.

That would be nice, especially for me since that is where I live. The only problem is I doubt they could create quality stages in the area where you find "italian-americans" (new jersey, new york city, long island, connecticut, rhode island).

sorry for small map.

I'd definitely center one stage around NYC/Long Island, but it would be tough to make it anything more than a flat stage. So either head from the east end of Long Island to NYC or the opposite. Highest point on Long Island is only 122m...

Another thing would be a stage in New Jersey, 99% of the state is awful to look at and no one wants to be there. Reasonable description of areas of NJ: http://donsnotes.com/nyc-nj/images/nj-cultural-map.jpg (Big map w/ possibly offensive names for different areas of NJ). I guess a NJ boardwalk part could be nice, a lot of people ride their bicycles on the boardwalks of NJ in the morning (generally no bicycles allowed past 10am or 11am). I don't know if the boardwalk would count as road though?

There is also the possibility of cobbles I guess. There are some parts of the city areas where you'll find small section of cobbles. Though I believe it is not like the cobbles you may be used to in European classics. On the other hand, lots of dirt roads would be available.

In all, it would be amazing to see my favorite grand tour in what may as well be my backyard. If it were to be three stages or prologue + two stages I'd hope for maybe one stage to venture into Pennsylvania(plenty of mountains/poconos), upstate New York(castkills/adirondacks), western Massachusetts(I think there's some hills?), Vermont(famous ski areas) or New Hampshire (mount washington 12.2km, 11.6% average gradient, max elevation 1873m) so there could be some hills.