Race Design Thread

[Netserk]

After consulting Linkinito, I have also made an alternative finish, taking a different descent from Turini (the one they took in '73) this time finishing in Contes:

Barcelonnette -> Contes (219km)

The last climb (which I don't know the name of) is 4km @ 5.7% (compared to the 6.7km @ 5.4% of Castillon, so not that different).

Edit: Found out what name it had (Berre-les-Alpes) and a profile. It seems the numbers I got (from t4b) were wrong.

Only the first 3km:

So 2.5km @ 7.1%

 

[lemon cheese cake]

Paris - Nice Stage 2 Versailles - Orleans (137.7kms)

KOMs:
None

Primes:
Limours
?tampes
Autruy-sur-Juine

For stage two of this Paris - Nice, we have a wind fest. For the last 30k, There is no protection until a wooded area just outside the finish town of Orleans. But anyway, today we start in Versailles at the Place d'Armes. The riders will then ride for a short bit down the Avenue de Paris before heading south along rolling wooded roads. Once through one of those sections, they will have the first Prime of the day at Limourson an uphill stretch of road. The riders will once again enter a section of woods before leaving them into flat open country all the way to the second Prime at Etampes. From here there is an uncatorgorised climb out of the town and a river. We will head straight back out into wide open land with no place to hide once again. Since nobody would have really had time to get back on after going through the Prime and the protected section being on a gradient, even more riders will be slung out of the back door. Once they reach the third Prime at Autruy-sur-Juine, they will still have no protection until woods outside Orleans. But even there the riders that have been dropped wont make it back on with the pace being so hight coming into the finish. It was quite hard trying to find a wide finish with no tram lines in the way. So we take a direct line to the riverfrontas that is the only place suitable for a finish and that doesn't have tram lines.

Versailles:

Orleans:

 

[phil-i-am]

Hi guys! I guess I'm not only one who ever think about big cycling races in one's home city. I live in Gdańsk, Poland, where I can see a lot of possibilities to ride. I would love to see UCI Worlds being held over here one day. Tour the Pologne did start here last year, but that's not the same, right?

Gdańsk is beautiful city with many stunning views and Baltic Sea. As one of the few cities in the north of Poland Gdańsk is kind of hilly. There are climbs longer than 2 or 3 kms outside of town (which is really uncommon wherever but in the very south of Poland), but I prefer to stay closer to city centre and use couple of short but steep roads.

Right at the start of the round riders will pass "Manthattan" mall and turn right onto Victory Avenue and stay there for couple of kilometers. This is main road which passes just close to University of Technology, Baltic Oprah, Medical University of Gdańsk and Main Station. Road is very wide, straight and flat. After 5 kilometers riders will cross a small watercourse and hit first, short and very easy cobblestone section. This is a moment where road gets narrower and after turing right - steeper for the first time. It is not going to be flat until the finish line. "Shipbuilders street" kicks at the begining with 9% gradient, but getting easier after 400m the bump reaches overall 900m long of 5,1%. Right up there cyclists will cross the narrow bridge and start very tricky and challenging cobble sector which cannot be compared with the first one. Road is narrow and winding. Initially leads up and then a little big longer - down. As you can see stones are irregular and not easy to ride on.

There is no time for rest after that hard section cause another obstacle grows out of the ground. Turning left they will start "Mr. Tadeusz" hill. 450m at 7.3% averange does not seem much, but ridden for the 14th time just in between of cobbles and other hills even this is going to hurt. When short downhill is done they will be back on wide roads, no longer than for one kilometer though. A roundabout next to Technology Park will be a signal that "Piecewska" hill is just about to start. It is like a copy of the previous climb in terms of difficulty - 500 meters at 7,1%. From the top is less than 7 km to the finish line. Two left turns, gentle downhill (~3%) on wide road, then right turn and after several hundrad of flat meteres probably the most important part of the whole round is going to welcome the peleton - "Hunting Street". Even though this is the even shorter than previous climbs I have no doubts that some serious race is gonna to be done on here. It is only 400 meters but very steep one - 11.3% averange and more than 13% maximum. Having done 250 km it is obvious that the remaining group is bound to rip apart on this short but steep bump. Instead of downhill there is a kilometer of windy 'plateau' and then short and quite narrow descent. Then cyclists will make 180 degree curve and climb for the last time up to "Jaśkowa Dolina" which is only 300m but with roughly 6% slope I could see last attack also there. Now, there only two kilometers remaining - more than 1 km of "migowska" descent which is kind of narrow and last 800 metres on very wide and straight "Jaśkowa" street, stlightly downhill just to the finish line.

Summing up there are 6 km of pan flat and then 12 km which include 4 climbs worth to mention, one after the other and hard cobble section between 1st and 2nd. Climbs are very short but kind of steep, in particular the "Hunting Street". My profile looks like queen stage of Zomengan's Giro, having just one 'climb' longer than 500 metres. I do believe though, that this route could be very selective and inpredictible. If you want to win you have to be good at hills, have a great stamina, well positioned, capable of doing cobbles, good at descending and punchy. Do you agree with me this could be too much for Gerrans or rather you reckon this most likely would end up with selected sprint? (and GVA taking 2nd)

I am totally new here, so it would be nice to hear from you what you think about this route.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Tour of Russia Stage 4: Moscow (Krylatskoye Ring) - Moscow (Krylatskoye Ring), 207km

Climbs:
Krylatskoye Ring lap 3 (km 2,3)(cat.3) 1,1km @ 4,6%
Krylatskoye Ring lap 6 (km 2,3)(cat.3) 1,1km @ 4,6%
Krylatskoye Ring lap 9 (km 2,3)(cat.3) 1,1km @ 4,6%
Krylatskoye Ring lap 12 (km 2,3)(cat.3) 1,1km @ 4,6%

Intermediate sprints:
Krylatskoye, lap 4
Krylatskoye, lap 8
Krylatskoye, lap 12

The hills of the circuit:
km 2,3 (1100m @ 4,6%)
km 2,8 (170m @ 9,4%)
km 6,3 (550m @ 6,4%)
km 7,2 (260m @ 8,5%)
km 9,8 (700m @ 5,1%)

The fourth day of the race through Russia, and we're on a circuit in the capital. But not just any circuit; the Krylatskoye Ring (Крылатское Ринг) is something of an iconic cycling site in this part of the world. Purpose-built for when the Olympic Games arrived in Moscow in 1980, this ribbon of tarmac just under 14km in length winds up and down and back on itself a number of times on the hillside of Moscow's affluent Krylatskoye district.

The location was selected for two reasons; one, the flat land next to the river adjacent to the hillside was a perfect spot to place some other facilities, including the velodrome, which is accessed from the road that passes the base of the hill; it was simple enough for them therefore to place the finishing line for the road race on this road. The second reason was that it gave the best opportunities for the Russians to produce a selective road race as, it likely has not escaped your attention, much of their country and almost all of the land around Moscow, is rather too flat to produce a selective parcours. There are no major hills on the Krylatskoye Ring, however it is endlessly up and down. As a result, when the Olympic road race came around, the amateur field of the day was quickly decimated. At kilometre zero, fabled climber Sergey Sukhoruchenkov attacked, and a select group was formed; he later attacked this group and soloed in from distance, with his compatriot Yuri Barinov marking the most dangerous counter move, that of Czeslaw Lang. The duo came in 2 minutes behind Sukhoruchenkov, with the rest of the pack nearly 10 minutes down. You can watch the closing stages of the race, along with some all-too-rare archive footage of the greatest climber the Eastern Bloc ever produced, here.

Cycling has changed since then, of course, and I would not expect the same kind of time gaps today. Not at the World Tour level. Nor would I expect an elite climber to be the deciding rider either. Perhaps a better pointer would be to look at more recent races on the Krylatskoye Ring, for it features annually in the Five Rings of Moscow stage race. However, they only do 12 laps of the circuit in that event, whereas I would be looking at 15 here, to take the distance up above 200km and make this into a more challenging course considering the higher standard of riders (with respect to several of the people in the Five Rings p?loton) we would be seeing in a World Tour race. In 2014's race, Sergey Lagutin won, from a group consisting of himself, teammates Balykhin and Solomennikov and Ukrainian Oleksandr Polivoda, who came in three minutes ahead of the chasing pack. The previous year Klimov won from a group of 7, 2 minutes ahead of a chasing group, and then a larger group at 2'38. 2012 saw a largish group contest the final sprint, while in 2011 the escape duo of Komkov and Janorschke just held off the pack. In the Five Rings the finishing line is placed in the middle of the course, however to host the World Tour circus they would need to move it back to the original place.

That there are no major long, severe climbs but there is also very little in the way of flat terrain suggests to me that we could well see some classics-styled racing here; or that of a hilly-but-not-too-hilly Worlds. This isn't Mendrisio, but it might more resemble Ponferrada or Stuttgart. Of the annual World Tour races, perhaps Plouay gives the most reasonable guide to what we can reasonably expect. Even if they are short, there are some steep ramps to contend with, so the sprinters that can get to the end are likely to be more like the Kristoffs, Matthewses, Lobatos and so on; of course the likes of Sagan, Gerrans and even Valverde need to be factored in for a sprint, while the likes of Cancellara, Pozzato, Costa, Kwiatkowski, Roelandts, van Avermaet, Voeckler and Paolini come into the picture as well. Straight off the back of a 230km rouleur stage there could be some tired domestiques to take advantage of.

I honestly think it's overdue that Russia hosts the Worlds, and if they do this would be an ideal place to do it. It has cycling heritage and can produce a variety of different styles of race, on which a wide variety of riders can feel like they have a legitimate chance of winning. Even more pure sprinters can look back to the 2008 stage of the Five Rings, when now-disgraced sprinter Denis Galimzyanov won, and think it might be worth giving a go to in case the race is conducted conservatively.

 

[lemon cheese cake]

Paris - Nice Stage 3 Chateauroux - Clermont-Ferrand (212.4km)

Note: route missing first few kms

KOMs:
C?te de Les Bouchards Cat 3
Col de Ceyssat 4.9km @ 4.7% Cat 2

Primes:
Culan
Montlu?on
La Goutelle

After the first road stage yesterday (stage 2), which would probably been echelon fest, we have the first stage where the GC men will be licking their lips with joy. We start in the town of Chateauroux. The site of Mark Cavendish's first Tour stage win along with his seventeenthalso here. They will leave the town and head south-east to the venue of the first Prime in Culan home of a fortified Chateau. The riders will continue heading south-east until they get to the second prime, at Montlu?on. They will then ride south along the D1089 to the first climb of the day. The catorgory three C?te de Les Bouchards. They will then wiggle through the french countryside to the village of La Goutelle for the third and final prime of the day. Once throught the little village, the riders will start climbing the climb everyone (GC riders anyway) was waiting for on this stage. The catorgory one ascent of the Col de Ceyssat. I didn't want a summit finish on stage 3 so i'm not taking the riders up the Puy de Dome. But the TV helicams will still get to show off the wonderful viewsaround the area. The actual climb is quite steady with it mostly 5%. They will peak out at the top before the descent down into Clermont Ferrand and finishing on the Rue Blatin.

Start:

Finish:

 

[roundabout]

Not sure Ceyssat from that side would be cat 1 even in a Paris-Nice

http://cyclingcols.com/profiles/CeyssatW.gif

 

[lemon cheese cake]

Not sure Ceyssat from that side would be cat 1 even in a Paris-Nice

http://cyclingcols.com/profiles/CeyssatW.gif

The length and final few kms mean it deserves a cat 1. Although i am starting along way before it does on your profile or mine.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

The length and final few kms mean it deserves a cat 1. Although i am starting along way before it does on your profile or mine.

The profile in your post is of the Clermont-Ferrand side, which is the descent in your stage though. That side is definitely a category 1, but the side you're climbing is prob cat.2 in Paris-Nice imo.

It could make for an interesting stage though, a relatively easy climb with a fast descent straight to the line. Somewhere between the Chiavenna stage of the '09 Giro and the Manse-Gap stages of the Tour recently.

 

[lemon cheese cake]

Not sure Ceyssat from that side would be cat 1 even in a Paris-Nice

http://cyclingcols.com/profiles/CeyssatW.gif

The profile in your post is of the Clermont-Ferrand side, which is the descent in your stage though. That side is definitely a category 1, but the side you're climbing is prob cat.2 in Paris-Nice imo.

It could make for an interesting stage though, a relatively easy climb with a fast descent straight to the line. Somewhere between the Chiavenna stage of the '09 Giro and the Manse-Gap stages of the Tour recently.

Changed to a Cat 2 and now the right profile.

 

[fauniera]

Tour of Russia Stage 4: Moscow (Krylatskoye Ring) - Moscow (Krylatskoye Ring), 207km

Very informative, thanks.

 

[May0maniac]

Giro del Trentino

Stage 1 Torbole - Riva del Garda; 13,5km ITT

I still have a Giro del Trentino that I'd like to share with you.
Stage 1 is a short ITT, mainly because i like short ITTs at the start of a stage race and if my Giro starts with a short one it also seems logical to have a short one in my preparation race.
The stage starts in Torbole, brings the riders to Arco and the back to the Lago di Garda, the finish line will be in Riva del Garda.
The route isn't very technical so it should be more of a pure power test.
The rest of my Giro del Trentino will be nothing but mountains but in my opinion Trentino should be something like this, a nice test to see if you have the climbing legs for the Giro and a great preparation and training for the brutal Giro climbs.

 

[phil-i-am]

Hi guys! I guess I'm not only one who ever think about big cycling races in one's own home city. I live in Gdańsk, Poland, where I can see a lot of possibilities to ride. I would love to see UCI Worlds being held over here one day. Tour the Pologne did start here last year, but that's not the same, right?

Gdańsk is beautiful city with many stunning views and Baltic Sea. As one of the few cities in the north of Poland Gdańsk is kind of hilly. There are climbs longer than 2 or 3 kms outside of town (which is really uncommon wherever but in the very south of Poland), but I prefer to stay closer to city centre and use couple of short but steep roads.

Right at the start of the round riders will pass "Manthattan" mall and turn right onto Victory Avenue and stay there for couple of kilometers. This is main road which passes just close to University of Technology, Baltic Oprah, Medical University of Gdańsk and Main Station. Road is very wide, straight and flat. After 5 kilometers riders will cross a small watercourse and hit first, short and very easy cobblestone section. This is a moment where road gets narrower and after turing right - steeper for the first time. It is not going to be flat until the finish line. "Shipbuilders street" kicks at the begining with 9% gradient, but getting easier after 400m the bump reaches overall 900m long of 5,1%. Right up there cyclists will cross the narrow bridge and start very tricky and challenging cobble sector which cannot be compared with the first one. Road is narrow and winding. Initially leads up and then a little big longer - down. As you can see stones are irregular and not easy to ride on.

There is no time for rest after that hard section cause another obstacle grows out of the ground. Turning left they will start "Mr. Tadeusz" hill. 450m at 7.3% averange does not seem much, but ridden for the 14th time just in between of cobbles and other hills even this is going to hurt. When short downhill is done they will be back on wide roads, no longer than for one kilometer though. A roundabout next to Technology Park will be a signal that "Piecewska" hill is just about to start. It is like a copy of the previous climb in terms of difficulty - 500 meters at 7,1%. From the top is less than 7 km to the finish line. Two left turns, gentle downhill (~3%) on wide road, then right turn and after several hundrad of flat meteres probably the most important part of the whole round is going to welcome the peleton - "Hunting Street". Even though this is the even shorter than previous climbs I have no doubts that some serious race is gonna to be done on here. It is only 400 meters but very steep one - 11.3% averange and more than 13% maximum. Having done 250 km it is obvious that the remaining group is bound to rip apart on this short but steep bump. Instead of downhill there is a kilometer of windy 'plateau' and then short and quite narrow descent. Then cyclists will make 180 degree curve and climb for the last time up to "Jaśkowa Dolina" which is only 300m but with roughly 6% slope I could see last attack also there. Now, there only two kilometers remaining - more than 1 km of "migowska" descent which is kind of narrow and last 800 metres on very wide and straight "Jaśkowa" street, stlightly downhill just to the finish line.

Summing up there are 6 km of pan flat and then 12 km which include 4 climbs worth to mention, one after the other and hard cobble section between 1st and 2nd. Climbs are very short but kind of steep, in particular the "Hunting Street". My profile looks like queen stage of Zomengan's Giro, having just one 'climb' longer than 500 metres. I do believe though, that this route could be very selective and inpredictible. If you want to win you have to be good at hills, have a great stamina, well positioned, capable of doing cobbles, good at descending and punchy. Do you agree with me this could be too much for Gerrans or rather you reckon this most likely would end up with selected sprint? (and GVA taking 2nd)

I am totally new here, so it would be nice to hear from you what you think about this route.

 

[May0maniac]

Stage 2 Arco - Gelmi del Finochio; 168km

The first road stage of my Giro del trentino already features the first monster Montain finish, Gelmi del Finochio, 11km at 10,6%. Monte Finochio is an even longer climb, 14,7km at 9,7% but the last few km are on sterrato and I don't know if there would be enough space on top of the climb of a MTF.
The stage starts in Arco and after 30km the first climb of the day starts, Passo del Sommo, 16km at 7,2%. After 13 rolling km on top of the climb a steep descent will bring the Riders down to Levico Terme and between Levico Terme and Trento we have a short climb, 4,1km at 5,6%.
Then we have Monte Bondone from Trento, 19,3km at 7,5%, a pretty hard climb on its own. The Monte Bondone descent is interrupted by another short climb, 3,8km at 6,2%.
After the steep 2nd part of the descent end there are only 7km of false flat, then the final climb of the day starts.
This will be the first mountain stage of the race, but a brutal MTF with 2 hard climbs before it should be hard enough to create decent gaps between the favourites.

 

[Eshnar]

I am totally new here, so it would be nice to hear from you what you think about this route.

Welcome Looks like your post had been unapproved by our spam filter, probably because of the gigantic number of links in it.

The route looks very good. The only issue is the cobbled descent after the first climb. In a WRR it would be very dangerous I think.

 

[Netserk]

Welcome Looks like your post had been unapproved by our spam filter, probably because of the gigantic number of links in it.

The route looks very good. The only issue is the cobbled descent after the first climb. In a WRR it would be very dangerous I think.

The altitude loss is something like ~10m, so not much of a descent, no? It looks to be 3% average and around the double for 150m, so not really any trouble.

PS: Spam filter?!? When did you get that?

 

[Eshnar]

The altitude loss is something like ~10m, so not much of a descent, no? It looks to be 3% average and around the double for 150m, so not really any trouble.

PS: Spam filter?!? When did you get that?

dunno, still I think the UCI would not like it at all. Ofc if it was me there would be no problem

PS: A few months ago, when we got flooded by spammers

 

[phil-i-am]

Yeah, I agree with Eshnar, even though it's very short and not steep at all UCI most likely wouldn't like it. Originally I had thought to make an alternative route using "Cienista"(700m - 7%) instead of "Stoczniowc?w", cobble sector and "Pana Tadeusza", but then I realised that was just my fantasy design and it didn't have to be approved by Bryan Cookson

 

[Lupetto]

The cyclingnews race design challenge

Okay. What is this? I was thinking of a battle of the race designers. It is quite simple.

The Rules

I will give you a task for a race to design and you will send your race via PM or Mail to me. If you need my mail address, just sent me a pm. I have disabled the direct mail function. Once I have received your races, I will put them into a PDF file and post it here. Then the voting phase starts and every member of the forum can vote for their favorite course. So we will get a winner.

Deadline
Wednesday, 25th March 2015, 23:59h

What you send
-> An overall map of your race
-> Maps and Profiles of every stage
-> A stage description and a short race description why you choose this location or region.
-> Your key for Point, Mountain-Points and/or other point systems you might invent
-> How and if riders can gain bonus seconds on stages and in the stagefinish
-> The teams you would invite and how many riders are allowed per team

The Task

Unfortunately our friends of the Amaury Sport Organisation and the Corsican city of Porto-Vecchio didn?t extend their contract for the annual Crit?rium International. This race takes place on the last weekend of March and is listed by our other friends UCI as a 2.HC event. ASO now wants us to find a new location for this race and oh yes La Corse was great. The ASO wants the race to go down on the same weekend as every year, but they are willing to talk about the modus operandi. So you are not obliged to go with one normal stage and two half stages with one of those being an individual time trial. The only thing that has to stay are two days of racing. Also the ASO decided that the race is free to leave France and look for new opportunities. Of course they still want to invite like six to eight World Tour Teams. And as you might know, these teams are running on a tight calendar, so they might won?t fly to Australia for the weekend or race in the middle of the Alps at the end of March.

And of course, you are not Angelo Zomegnan, so you need to keep the UCI conditions for a 2.HC race.
-> A maximum of 240k per stage
-> A maximum average daily distance of 180k
-> A maximum of 60k for itt or ttt

I hope you guys like my idea.

 

[Netserk]

Great idea!

I've already got [strikethrough]three[/strikethrough]four possible locations. It sounds like this will be more than just a one time thing if it goes well?

 

[lemon cheese cake]

Just asking but is it only one route per person.

 

[lemon cheese cake]

I shall complete my Paris - Nice route now that a bout of illness has finished.

Paris - Nice Stage 4 Vichy - Lyon (162.4km)

KOMs:
Col du Beaulouis 25km @ 3% Cat 3
Col de Croix Sopha 24km @ 4.5% Cat 4
Col de Malval 5.7 @ 9% Cat 2
Montée des Forts 1km @ 8% Cat 4

Primes:
Saint-Just-en-Chevalet
Feurs
Craponne

For stage 4, we start in the town of Vichy. This is the home of the famous triathlon, Challenge Vichy. The riders will leave on the depart fictif in the Place Charles de Gaulle. Once out of the town they shall start for real in Cusset where they will start climbing immediately. This is the category three climb of the Col du Beaulouis. They will then head south-east towards the village of Saint-Just-en-Chevalet for the first of the three primes today. The usual 3, 2 and seconds and 3, 2 and 1 points. The riders will continue on to the second prime of the day at Feurs. Just as they leave the town the riders will have to cross a railway crossing. Once out of this little town they will continue on to the next climb of the day, which is the Col de Croix Sopha. This is a long climb, but at the same time the gradient isn't anything that will trouble anybody. Due to it's length and a shallow gradient, this is a catorgory four climb. They will continue on towards the next climb of the Col de Malval. This peaks out at an altitude of 732 metres. The riders will then descend on a quite gradual incline down towards the town of the final prime of the day. This comes in the town of Craponne. From this point on the race is all in urban areas as we head from the town of Craponne right into the outskirts of Lyon. Quite often finishes in Lyon result with a climb up the Montée des Esses/C?te de la Croix Rousse then a downhill and a finish somewhere in Lyon. But I wont let them ride up it. Instead they shall ride up the Montée des Forts in The north of Lyon. The riders will then make their way through the city to the climb of the Montée de la Boucle which they shall descend. All that's left is a ride along the river bank and a ninety degree right hander onto the finish straight in the Place Bellecour

Start:

Finish:

 

[lemon cheese cake]

Paris - Nice Stage 5 Bron - Valence (134.3km)

KOMs:
None

Primes:
Vienne
Tain-l'Hermitage
Valence (first passage)

Today we have a virtually flat stage along the Rhone river valley. The riders will leave the town of Bron, near the finish in Lyon on stage 4. The riders depart fictif will be in the Parc de Parilly. They will roll out towards the depart real in Feyzin. This is the site of the distillarywhere lpg gas spilled causing a notable disaster. They will start racing as they head out into the countryside next to the Rhone. They will head south towards the first prime of the day at Vienne before riding on towards the second at Tain-l'Hermitage. After a long straight piece of they will enter the town of Valence. At the finish line, their is the thirid prime of the day. From here they will cross the Rhone and ride to the town of Tournon sur Rhone. Here they will cross back over the great river back into Tain l'Hermitage. The riders will have exactly the same route into Valence as they diad earlier. The finish involves some street furniture and a ninety degree right hander with 200 metres to go on the Boulevard Bancel.


Start:

Finish:

 

[Lupetto]

Just asking but is it only one route per person.

Yes. Only one. You have to make a decision.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

If we submit one but then have an idea we think is better before the deadline, can we "overwrite" our previous suggestion... even if you think we're completely wrong about it being better?

 

[rghysens]

OK, time for my next project. I already announced it a while ago: a Crit?rium du Dauphin? Lib?r? (I'll use the name of the race before it was bought by ASO).

While the "real" Dauphin? usually starts with a prologue or short TT (out of the 20 last editions, only that of 2013 started with a stage in line), I'll start with a stage in line:

Crit?rium du Dauphin? Lib?r?, stage 1: Gap - Gap: 146km, hilly

Although I am well aware of the fact that is possible to design very hard stage around Gap, I'll hold back a bit and design a stage that probably will see a reduced bunch sprint at the end.

It immediatley starts with the climb of Col Bayard. Overall not too difficult, but with some steeper sections, it will probably see the peloton explode from the first km, as a breakaway will want to establish itself. Meanwhile the worst climbers of the pack will struggle to hold contact with the bunch. The summit is followed by some false flat before the peloton can enjoy a short descent. Next are 40 rolling kilometres that lead to the foot of the second big climb of the day: the Col du Festre. With an altitude of 1442m, it's the summit of today's stage, but later on the peloton will climb higher.
After 80km the peloton will leave the big roads and turn left, using the D20 that leads to the fifth official climb of the day: the Col d'Espr?aux. Its descent is soon followed by the Col de Foureyssasse. With only 30km to go this is the place to risk a daring attack. The technical descent is followed by some flat kilometres on wide roads and the final climb of the day: the Col de la Sentinelle with only 9 descending km to go.


Map & Profile:

Climbs:
Col Bayard: km7.5; 7.5km @ 6.8%; 2nd cat; 1248m
C?te de Corps: km36.5; 2.2km @ 6.8%; 3rd cat
C?te de Pellafol: km 44.5; 1.3 km @ 7.1%; 3rd cat
Col du Festre: km65; 12.2km @ 4.3%; 2nd cat; 1440m
Col d'Espr?aux: km92; 4km @ 4.7%; 3rd cat; 1142m
Col de Foureyssasse: km115.5; 7.4km @ 6.1%; 2nd cat; 1040m
Col de la Sentinelle: km137; 5.5km @ 5.5%; 3rd cat; 981m