MikeTichondrius said:
Still, only good racing will excuse all these Maurienne valley stages. Now they have three of those instead of two which already was strange. The local tourist board sure won't mind. I was going to complain we weren't seeing any mountains north of the Madeleine this year, but we're getting Allos/Pra-Loup which we hadn't seen in a while. I just wish they'd try doing a full tour of the French alps one of these years. I mean something like starting with Allos or Bonnete on the first day and ending it in Morzine over 3/4 stages. There's just so much that can be done it sucks to see Toussuire/Huez every 2/3 years. Bring back Iseran and Val Thorens!
They want to make the Alps just as predictable and limited as the Pyrenées where it's always exactly the same few climbs in Midi-Pyrenées and never anything east of Port de Pailhères - this year they're going further west than usual with Pierre-Saint-Martin, but they're going Unipuerto with this to make sure there isn't any accidental discovery of anything good west of Marie-Blanque.
Appreciate that the regions that pay the most get the most visits, but the Tour seems to be a lot more predictable even than it used to be in respect of the areas it uses in the mountains. Lots of self-repetition. They havent's been south of Bonette since 2008, and even then they went into Italy for it. Semnoz in 2013 was at least an attempt at something new further north, and of course in the Jura they added Grand-Colombier, albeit in an appallingly-designed mess of a stage, in 2012 (had it been the last mountain stage in the range it wouldn't have been such a bad design, mind). Morzine area not seen in a few years though. I love the Madeleine, it's one of the few big name Tour climbs I'm not sick to death of, but could do with revisiting the likes of Cormet de Roseland (Col du Pré?), and all of the Trois Vallées climbs (Val Thorens, Méribel-Mottaret and Courchevel). How about La Plagne? It's been a while since we had that. Would be nice to see something like Collet d'Allevard (it can host the Dauphiné as it did back in 2011, so it must be at least close to having enough room for the Tour?).
Of course, it's been a looooong time since we had meaning climbs of more than 3km in the Massif Central. Can we have a Col de Béal/Chalmazel stage with the Chansert-Béal double? How about Col de l'Œillon, that's a really nice climb. There's more that can be done than just Super-Besse and Montée Laurent Jalabert - even without places paying for mountaintop finishes.