Race Design Thread

[Lupetto]

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?

Yeah. Of course you can overwrite your course.

 

[lemon cheese cake]

Paris - Nice Stage 6 Draguignan - Fayence (MTF) (134km)

KOMs:
Col de Val Ferriere 26.5km @ 3.3% Cat 2
Col de Bourigaille (including Mur de Fayence) 8.2km @ 5.9% Cat 2
Mur de Fayence (Finish Climb) 1km @ 11% Cat 3

Primes:
Callas
Fayence (first passage of finish)
Callian

We have moved 300 kilometres by road south-east for the start of stage 6 Stage 6 actually starts in the little town of Draguignan. They shall head north. As they head north, they shall start climbing immediately as we head to the first prime of the at Callas. From here the riders shall carry on climbing up towards the first climb peak. This is a sub-climb of the main one that peaks out a while later and is called the Col de Brov?s. They shall carry on towards the peak of the main climb after a short descent. The climb is called the Col de Val Ferriere. After a long descent, the riders will start climbing again. But while climbing the Col de Bourigalle they shall cross the finish line in Fayence. This shall be where the second prime is as they cross the finish line. Once through, they shall continue climbing up to the top of the Col de Bourigaille. This was used in the finish circuit of the Paris - Nice 2014 with Carlos Betancur winning atop the Mur de Fayence. The climb has also been used during the Tour du Haut Var with Lars Boom winning in 2013 the stage to Draguignan that featured the Mur. The riders will then descend down into the town of Callian for the final prime of the day. Once ou of the town, the riders shall finish by climbing the Mur for one final time, up to the finish just ouside the little town. This steep little climb is the only up hill finish of the race but hopefully wont actually decide it.

Start:

Finish:

 

[McLovin]

@lemon cheese cake are the numbers of the climbs in some of your PN stages ok? I'm sure you missed some comas.

 

[rghysens]

@lemon cheese cake are the numbers of the climbs is some of yout PN stages ok? I'm sure you missed some comas.

I rather think he took the maximum gradient for average gradient, at least in some cases.

 

[lemon cheese cake]

@lemon cheese cake are the numbers of the climbs in some of your PN stages ok? I'm sure you missed some comas.

I rather think he took the maximum gradient for average gradient, at least in some cases.

They are just rough estimates from looking at the profiles on websites like Climbbybike. Its just a quick sum to find the mean/average.

 

[Eshnar]

They are just rough estimates from looking at the profiles on websites like Climbbybike. Its just a quick sum to find the mean/average.

how can the Mur de Fayence be 4 km at 14% when the very same link you provide says it's 1 km at 11%?
EDIT: If the data of that stage was all true, it would feature three of the hardest climbs ever...

 

[Bavarianrider]

This time it's a stage leaving the Alpes and I think it'd be very good as the final mountain stage in a Tour. Although it has the most vertical gain since the epic Sestriere stage in '92 (not to mention vertical loss!), its HC climbs are only borderline and with the last mountain being 47km from the finish, I don't think it'll block the stages prior to this one. It could very well follow a stage ending on Risoul or Les Orres like the similar stage from 1973.

Barcelonnette -> Menton (228km)

km 19: Col d'Allos (HC) - 17km @ 6.5% - 2247m
km 53: Col des Champs (1st) - 12km @ 7.0% - 2090m
km 93: Col de Valberg (1st) - 12.2km @ 7.1% - 1673m
km 145: Col de Saint-Martin (1st) - 16.4km @ 6.2% - 1503m
km 181: Col de Turini (HC) - 15.1km @ 7.3% - 1604m
km 212: Col de Castillon (2nd) - 6.7km @ 5.4% - 707m

Coming after the other mountain stages in the Alpes or at the very end of a Tour, the GC should be somewhat settled and contenders not in yellow should see this as an opportunity to take the yellow jersey after having failed to do so on regular mtfs and tts. The hard start with the Allos/Champs combo should make the legs decide the break of the day. Time to seal the polka dot with an epic raid ? la Virenque/Rasmussen? Whatever is left of 'fresh' teammates should be send up the road. There's not much flat in this stage and organizing a chase (especially if only by the defending team) will be very tough. Valberg and Saint-Martin will drain everyone before the showdown on Turini. It might be with 47km still to go, but with the difficulty behind, the difficulty of the climb and the more or less technical descents ahead, there's no excuse for not attacking. Only the fewest and strongest doms will have any impact on the race from now on and as such there won't be much of an advantage to what's left of the peloton. Gaps on the top of Turini should be similar to those of a hard mtf, so there's no use in sitting up, instead it's a mano a mano (or trio a trio perhaps?) chase down to Menton. Castillon is a small interruption and quite easy, but after so much even that will be enough for riders to distance one another. The final descent is fairly technical until 3km to go, so hopefully any attack (uphill of downhill) will stick.

What do you think? Will a stage like this (if it's the final mountain stage and the following stage is flat) see real action between the main contenders? Do you think it's logistically realistic to have in the Tour?

Turini:

Menton:

Surely the best "going out of the mounatins" stage that has ever been designed. One of the best sages i've ever seen designed, no doubt. Just briliant Great Job.
It offers so many options.
Saddly we'll never see anything like that in real life, although it would be absolutely realsitic to do it.

 

[Netserk]

Surely the best "going out of the mounatins" stage that has ever been designed. One of the best sages i've ever seen designed, no doubt. Just briliant Great Job.
It offers so many options.
Saddly we'll never see anything like that in real life, although it would be absolutely realsitic to do it.

Thanks very much I like it very much as well.

It's basically the anti-thesis of modern design. Long, really hard, no (super) steepness and the last major difficulty is almost 50km from the finish line (and it's a descent finish). Not to mention that it can create gaps. Real gaps.

 

[rghysens]

Crit?rium du Dauphin? Lib?r?, stage 2: Veynes - Villard-de-Lans: 203km, high mountains + hilltop finish


Map & Profile:

Climbs:
Col de Cabre: km23.5; 5km @ 6%; 3rd cat; 1180m
Col de Rousset: km88; 20.6km @ 4.2%; 2nd cat; 1258m
Col de la Chau (and beyond): km103; 5.8km @ 6.4%; 2nd cat; 1431m
Col de Mont Noir: km158.5; 19.3km @ 6.2%; HC; 1421m
C?te de la Balme de Rencurel: km175; 3.4km @ 7.3%; 3rd cat
Col d'Herbouilly: km180; 6.2km @ 7.6%; 2nd cat;
Le Balcon de Villard: km203; 2.5km @ 5.8%; 3rd cat

 

[rghysens]

Crit?rium du Dauphin? Lib?r?, stage 3: Lans-en-Vercors - Privas: 161km, flat

Allthough it's considered to be flat, it finishes on a small, uncategorised hill (1.2km @ 5.5%).

Map & Profile:

Climbs:
C?te des Chaumats: km85; 3.8km @ 4.4%; 3rd cat

 

[rghysens]

Criterium du Dauphine Libere, stage 4: Lamastre - Annonay: 46km, time trial

Time trial on a rolling course, quite technical in the first half, more straightforward in the second half.

Map & Profile:

 

[Eshnar]

This week I designed yet another Giro. This one has nothing special, besides that I wanted to test the features of cronoescalada.com (which turned out to be awesome)... I didn't plan to post it here since it is nothing special, but then I thought why not.
So here it is...

STAGE 1: Ancona - Ancona (TTT) 15 kms
Not much to say for this one. Short TTT in an ondulated city circuit. Just meant to show the team colors.

 

[Eshnar]

STAGE 2: Ancona - Porto S.Elpidio 237 kms
Longest stage of the race for the first Sunday. Very tough hilly route, with pretty much the same finale of the Tirreno 2013 stage. 5 Categorized climbs, all cat 4.

 

[Eshnar]

STAGE 3: S.Benedetto del Tronto - Termoli 200 kms
First flat stage, although it won't be an easy sprint, as the final kms feature a couple of easy bumps.

 

[Eshnar]

STAGE 4: Termoli - Foggia 176 kms
This one is really an easy sprint. First and only time I put two consecutive flat stages, I promise

 

[Eshnar]

STAGE 5: San Severo - Vesuvio (MTF) 183 kms
First MTF of the race, and it's not exactly Montevergine. The climb to the famous volcano (Cat 2, 13 kms at 7%) will already give several answers about the GC. Here you can notice the only big flaw of the website... MTFs data are not shown in this type of profile. Hopefully it'll be fixed soon.

 

[Eshnar]

STAGE 6: Battipaglia - Scalea 172 kms
Medium mountain stage, with only one categorized climb but with many little climbs and bumbs, especially in the finale. A stage for the breakaway.

 

[Eshnar]

STAGE 7: Scalea - Tropea 181 kms
Flat stage with the classic Tropea finish, which favours the attackers.

 

[Eshnar]

STAGE 8: Gioia Tauro - Villa S.Giovanni (ITT) 44 kms
First individual time trial, with a hilly start (steady gradients around 5%) and a flat second part. A very important stage. After that, the riders will take the ferry to Sicily.

 

[Eshnar]

STAGE 9: Messina - Catania 183 kms
First high mountain stage, with two ascents of the mighty Etna. The first one is to Rifugio Citelli, the same climbed as first ascent in the Giro 2011. The second one is to Rifugio Sapienza, but the side is from the east (harder), unlike that famous stage. Then, the riders will descend all the way to Catania.

 

[Netserk]

Cronoescalada is awesome

Your TTs are missing intermediate time checks

 

[May0maniac]

Giro del Trentino

Stage 3 Rovereto - Piereni; 135km

The 3rd stage starts, just like the 2nd, with Passo del Sommo, 16km at 7,2%, this time right after 7,5km of flat, followed by a short easy climb, 6km at 4%, before descending down to Levico Terme. After 20km of flat the next climb of the day starts, Passo di Brocon form Borgo Valsugana, the climb consists of 2 ramps that are separated by 5km of false flat, the first one is 8,3km at 6,1%, the second one 9,8km at 7,1%.
After a long and gentle descent another short climb, 3,2km at 6,9% with 250m at 15% the riders will descent to Tonadico, where the final climb of the day starts.
It's the steep first part of the climb to Piereni, the rest of the climb is just false flat, 3,5km at 14,1% with a max. gradient of 20%, a nasty short steep climb that Javier Guill?n and Purito would love.
The short steep climb shouldn't create huge gaps, but it could break someones legs and build fatigue, a few guys could end up loosing a big amount of time on the final stage that is hard enough on it's own.

 

[Eshnar]

Cronoescalada is awesome

Your TTs are missing intermediate time checks

I know, but there's no way to put them as for now.
All stages also lack intermediate sprints, they can be easily put, but I was just lazy

 

[Eshnar]

STAGE 10: Firenze - Monzuno 198 kms
After a rest day and a transfer to Florence, the Giro restarts with a very tough medium mountain stage with uphill finish. The main difficulty of the day is the Muro di Campeggio, already featuring in one of my all-mountain Giri.

 

[Eshnar]

STAGE 11: Marzabotto - Parma 152 kms
Transitional stage, all flat.