Paris-Nice route unveiled

[MatParker1711]

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/2016-paris-nice-to-visit-the-ventoux-and-includes-dirt-roads/

Sunday 6th March, prologue: Conflans-Sainte-Honorine - Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, 6.1 km (ITT)
Monday 7th Marche, 1st stage: Condé-sur-Vesgre - Vendôme, 195 km
Tuesday 8th March, 2nd stage: Contres - Commentry, 214 km
Wednesday 9th March, 3rd stage: Cusset - Mont Brouilly, 165.5 km
Thursday 10th March, 4th stage: Juliénas - Romans-sur-Isère, 193.5 km
Friday 11th March, 5th stage: Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux - Salon-de-Provence, 198 km
Saturday 12th March, 6th stage: Nice - La Madone d’Utelle, 177 km
Sunday 13th March, 7th stage: Nice - Nice, 141 km

Froome vs. Contador on the Brouilly, Ventoux and the Madone? Should be a big barrel of Fun!

 

[Velolover2]

It's going to be fun to see if Porte is able to compete with Froome and Contador at a high level in an one-week race.

We have never really seen a Porte vs. Froome battle. I'm looking forward to it.

 

[LaFlorecita]

No real ITT? Just a prologue? It'll all be about the mountains, vamos!!

 

[Velolover2]

I'm fearing a little for Contador on Madone if he is facing Froome and Porte. They have the records on that climb.

But it's more of a Porte climb than a Froome climb because it's not that steep.

 

[Velolover2]

With a prologue, Madone and Col d'Eze, Porte is almost a bigger favorite than Froome and Contador.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

I'm fearing a little for Contador on Madone if he is facing Froome and Porte. They have the records on that climb.

But it's more of a Porte climb than a Froome climb because it's not that steep.

As long as Contador is in great shape he's got nothing to worry about. "They've got records on that climb" is completely irrelevant if Contador can climb as fast as them. A climb is a climb, some riders prefer steeper or less steep climbs, but that they've got records on that climb doesn't matter. Maybe Contador would have a record there too, if he actually trained there.

 

[LaFlorecita]

To turn it around if they would race on Verbier, would you say "I fear for Froome cause Contador once crushed the VAM record there"? Of course not, it's ludicrous.

 

[Velolover2]

Re: Re:

I'm fearing a little for Contador on Madone if he is facing Froome and Porte. They have the records on that climb.

But it's more of a Porte climb than a Froome climb because it's not that steep.

As long as Contador is in great shape he's got nothing to worry about. "They've got records on that climb" is completely irrelevant if Contador can climb as fast as them. A climb is a climb, some riders prefer steeper or less steep climbs, but that they've got records on that climb doesn't matter. Maybe Contador would have a record there too, if he actually trained there.

Maybe you're right. When I think about, I think it's more likely that it will be Froome vs. Contador. On a punchy staircase climb like this, Porte tends to be really bad. With no Valverde or Purito at the start, it's a stage between Froome and Contador.

Awesome climb btw. I've never seen anything like this before.

 

[roundabout]

Re:

I'm fearing a little for Contador on Madone if he is facing Froome and Porte. They have the records on that climb.

But it's more of a Porte climb than a Froome climb because it's not that steep.

wrong climb

The Nice based riders training climb is this one

http://cyclingcols.com/col/Madone

while Paris Nice 2016 will be climbing this one

http://cyclingcols.com/col/MadoneDUtelle

 

[Velolover2]

Re: Re:

I'm fearing a little for Contador on Madone if he is facing Froome and Porte. They have the records on that climb.

But it's more of a Porte climb than a Froome climb because it's not that steep.

wrong climb

The Nice based riders training climb is this one

http://cyclingcols.com/col/Madone

while Paris Nice 2016 will be climbing this one

http://cyclingcols.com/col/MadoneDUtelle

Ah ok. But that's a good climb for Porte too.

 

[Alexandre B.]

Re: Re:

I'm fearing a little for Contador on Madone if he is facing Froome and Porte. They have the records on that climb.

But it's more of a Porte climb than a Froome climb because it's not that steep.

As long as Contador is in great shape he's got nothing to worry about. "They've got records on that climb" is completely irrelevant if Contador can climb as fast as them. A climb is a climb, some riders prefer steeper or less steep climbs, but that they've got records on that climb doesn't matter. Maybe Contador would have a record there too, if he actually trained there.

Maybe you're right. When I think about, I think it's more likely that it will be Froome vs. Contador. On a punchy staircase climb like this, Porte tends to be really bad. With no Valverde or Purito at the start, it's a stage between Froome and Contador.

Awesome climb btw. I've never seen anything like this before.

It featured in the 2014 edition.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=748roWK68a4

 

[staubsauger]

It's a good route for a Froome versus Contador battle. But it also allows aggressive riders like Aru and Bardet to attack if in shape. Which normally increases the racing actually. Porte uses to be in great early season shape as well. So this one could easily become a pretty challenging edition of P-N once again.

 

[pastronef]

Re: Re:

It featured in the 2014 edition.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=748roWK68a4

that was a nice afternoon for me. a win for JV team, and SKY in yellow

as said above. the climb MTF is Madone d´Utelle. the Cote d´Azur guys, Porte Froome Dombro Tanner Warbasse Boswell Ellisonde and many others know it very well.

 

[May0maniac]

Re:

It's a good route for a Froome versus Contador battle. But it also allows aggressive riders like Aru and Bardet to attack if in shape. Which normally increases the racing actually. Porte uses to be in great early season shape as well. So this one could easily become a pretty challenging edition of P-N once again.

Don't forget Spilak and Taaramäe, I expect big things from Taaramäe in one week races.

 

[WheelofGear]

1. Froome
2. Spilak
3. Thomas

But if Dumoulin is riding it, he will get 2nd. Contador to finish 6th or something like that, he has no team.

 

[WheelofGear]

Re: Re:

It's a good route for a Froome versus Contador battle. But it also allows aggressive riders like Aru and Bardet to attack if in shape. Which normally increases the racing actually. Porte uses to be in great early season shape as well. So this one could easily become a pretty challenging edition of P-N once again.

Don't forget Spilak and Taaramäe, I expect big things from Taaramäe in one week races.

Taaramäe will be Spilak's dom in Paris-Nice.

RT: I will start my season at the Tour Down Under, where I will be co-leader with Tiago Machado. Then I go to Algarve and Paris-Nice and Catalunya. In Paris-Nice, I will support Simon Spilak and in Catalunya, I will support Purrito.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/rein-taarame-q-and-a-i-can-be-a-really-good-captain-for-joaquim-rodriguez/

 

[May0maniac]

Rain on stage 7 would be awesome, with rain and cold weather that stage is goning to be brutal, Sky and Porte would probably hate a rainy stage 7.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6elLGSHuMU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cMZA-pkBsE

 

[WheelofGear]

Re:

Rain on stage 7 would be awesome, with rain and cold weather that stage is goning to be brutal, Sky and Porte would probably hate a rainy stage 7.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6elLGSHuMU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cMZA-pkBsE

Thomas is normally good in the rain, but Porte sucks badly. I'm not even excepting anything from Porte next year. I think he is going to finish outside top 5 in most major races and have a bad year.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

Rain on stage 7 would be awesome, with rain and cold weather that stage is goning to be brutal, Sky and Porte would probably hate a rainy stage 7.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6elLGSHuMU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cMZA-pkBsE

You are right: I will be doing a rain dance during the stage

 

[Dazed and Confused]

owns this race.

 

[May0maniac]

Re: Re:

Rain on stage 7 would be awesome, with rain and cold weather that stage is goning to be brutal, Sky and Porte would probably hate a rainy stage 7.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6elLGSHuMU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cMZA-pkBsE

Thomas is normally good in the rain, but Porte sucks badly. I'm not even excepting anything from Porte next year. I think he is going to finish outside top 5 in most major races and have a bad year.

Yes, the comment was more about Porte and Froome having problems on wet descent (I know, we haven't seen Froome on too many wet descents, but I think he'd struggle just like Wiggins in the 2013 Giro).
I like Geraint, I actually like many riders that ride for Team Sky (G, Swift, Stannard, Boswell and almost every single non-anglophone rider) and I respect Froome, even if I'm not exactly his biggest fan.

 

[Jspear]

Re: Re:

Rain on stage 7 would be awesome, with rain and cold weather that stage is goning to be brutal, Sky and Porte would probably hate a rainy stage 7.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6elLGSHuMU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cMZA-pkBsE

Thomas is normally good in the rain, but Porte sucks badly. I'm not even excepting anything from Porte next year. I think he is going to finish outside top 5 in most major races and have a bad year.

Porte needs to prove himself to his new team. If he wants joint leadership in the Tour then he'll have to perform well in these early races. Unless he gets sick or crashes I don't see why he'd have a bad year....at least in 1 week races. We know gts are a different story.

 

[MatParker1711]

He was fine on a wet swiss alp during Romandie last year.

 

[Jspear]

Re:

He was fine on a wet swiss alp during Romandie last year.

Ya, I'd imagine he'd only have trouble if he decided to try and follow a real good descender in the rain.

 

[WheelofGear]

Re: Re:

Rain on stage 7 would be awesome, with rain and cold weather that stage is goning to be brutal, Sky and Porte would probably hate a rainy stage 7.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6elLGSHuMU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cMZA-pkBsE

Thomas is normally good in the rain, but Porte sucks badly. I'm not even excepting anything from Porte next year. I think he is going to finish outside top 5 in most major races and have a bad year.

Yes, the comment was more about Porte and Froome having problems on wet descent (I know, we haven't seen Froome on too many wet descents, but I think he'd struggle just like Wiggins in the 2013 Giro).
I like Geraint, I actually like many riders that ride for Team Sky (G, Swift, Stannard, Boswell and almost every single non-anglophone rider) and I respect Froome, even if I'm not exactly his biggest fan.

I wasn't accusing you of making fun of Sky. I was just pointing out that Thomas generally is good in the rain while with Porte.. it's another story. He losses 20% of his power in the rain.

But it's no secret that Sky always have been my favorite team. Especially now that Porte is gone who I for some reason never liked.