Race Design Thread

[Gigs_98]

Re:

Sending a prologue indoor through a building, love the idea.

I don't think there will be indoor parts in this route, but I visited the eden project some years ago, so I can say that this prologue will really be interesting

 

[lemon cheese cake]

With all the copying up to a word document complete I shall present my Giro della Campania sometime in the very near future. (Tomorrow maybe)

 

[Gigs_98]

@VO2Max
@OlavEH
Do you write the text and everything else on a word document and then just copy and paste it into the reply?

 

[Progsprach]

Cadiz - Huelva (212 km)
After after a couple of really hard stages, we give the GCers some time off and the sprinters a chance to shine. On the way northwards from Cadiz to Huelva there are no significant difficlties, so the riders will only have to think about the intermediate sprints in Seville and Bonares and of course the run-in to Huelva, which is rather straightforward except for a short bit of descending road a few km from the finish. The fastest man will probably win here and try to secure the sprinter's jersey.

 

[OlavEH]

@VO2Max
@OlavEH
Do you write the text and everything else on a word document and then just copy and paste it into the reply?

No, I upload the pictures to imgur in advance, and then write the text directly in the editor in addition to pasting links to the map and profile.

 

[Gigs_98]

Deutschland tour stage 1: Binz-Neubrandenburg (142 km)
I think it is almost a shame that although Germany is one of the most successful cycling nations, there is only one world tour race in this country. Moreover there is only one big stage race in this huge country, which is the Bayern rundfahrt (and as we all learned from libertine seguros, the Bayern rundfahrt is the race which uses its possibilities the worst way ) The last Deutschland tour was held in 2008, but I think the route of this race mostly wasn’t that great too. I think one of the main reasons for that is that Germany is just too big to make a really good race in one week, so I decided to create a two week long Deutschland tour.
My first stage is one of this stages you would call pan-flat. It starts at the coast of the Baltic sea in the idyllic town Binz. From there the stage first goes westwards then southwards to Neubrandenburg where the stage will probably finish in bunch sprint.
Map:

profile:

Binz:

Neubrandenburg:

 

[lemon cheese cake]

Re: Re:

The Giro as there are to many tours on this forum. .....




He says about to start designing a Tour for after his next race.

Anyway stil the Giro. You've done too many vueltas.

Scrap the tour I cant be bothered at the moment.

 

[Gigs_98]

Deutschland Tour stage 2: Neubrandenburg-Teufelsberg (159km)
At the first view this is a stage which is exactly flat as stage 1. But on the second view you might notice that there is a categorized climb at the end of the stage. This climb is the Teufelsberg a hill which was built by humans after World War 2. To be honest, this is only a little bump and in a different stage it probably wont be categorized but I just liked the idea that the winner of this stage gets the first mountain-points jersey. Before this last uphill km, the peloton will drive through Berlin, the capital of germany. I guess that there would be lost of visitors, inside the town as well as on the climb.

Berlin:

Teufelsberg:

climbs:
Teufelsberg 4th category

 

[fauniera]

TIRRENO - ADRIATICO

stage 6: Macerata - Roseto degli Abruzzi, 114 km

After the brutal stage 5 the riders deserve an easy stage, and they get one. It's only 114 km long and nearly all flat along the Adriatic Coast. After 80 km there is a chance to attack at the 4 km climb to Colonnella and with 10 km to go a last little dig leads from the coast to the historic centre of Giulianova. But let's face it, anything else than a bunch sprint would be a huge surprise.


Macerata

Roseto degli Abruzzi

 

[Progsprach]

Huelva - Badajoz (239km)
This is another transitional stage bringing the riders northwards along the Portuguese border. Before the first intermediate sprint at Valverde del Camino the stage is essentially flat. Afterwards a stretch of hilly terrain follows containing two categorized climbs at Jabugo (9.4km@3.5%, cat4) and Cumbres de San Bartolome (3.3km@5.4%, cat4). After the second intermediate sprint at La Albuera the rest of the stage is flat again until the finish in Badajoz. A sprinter or a breakaway should triumph there.

 

[Gigs_98]

Deutschland Tour stage 3: Berlin-Potsdam ITT (32 km)
You might say that such a long Time Trial on stage 3 is kind of strange but there will only be 2 mountain top finishes in two weeks and one of these isn't very difficult". So I think its important that there are some time gaps between the gc contenders before the mountain stages begin. So if there is a really bad time trialist who is a great climbers, he probably has to take some risks to take the lead (also because there is one more ITT, which is about 15 km long, upcoming). The TT itself is very flat and most of the streets are wide, so it shouldnt be a very technical challenge too. The course starts In Berlin, at the Brandenburger Tor and finishes in Potsdam.

Brandenburger Tor:

Potsdam

 

[Progsprach]

Plasencia - Las Navas del Marques (228km)
Coming fresh out of the second rest day, the riders will tackle a more difficult stage today. The first about 100km are a little bumpy, but mostly flat and contain two intermediate sprints in Jaraiz de la Vera and Candelaba. After that the main climb of the day, Puerto del Pico (14.8km@5.8%, cat1) is on the program. It is a very consistent grind of a climb. Almost directly after as a sort of second step the Puerto del Menga is climbed (8.8km@3.6%, cat4). Then there is a mix of flat and lumpy terrain toward the finish. The final 2km are ascending at about 4% again.

 

[Progsprach]

@Gigs_98: Yeah, as you might have seen my World Tour also contains a two week Deutschlandtour and to get through the North without it being too boring, there really aren't many other options other than putting an ITT there. In fact my tour also contains an ITT from Berlin to Potsdam, which makes sense because Berlin is such a focal point.

 

[Gigs_98]

@Gigs_98: Yeah, as you might have seen my World Tour also contains a two week Deutschlandtour and to get through the North without it being too boring, there really aren't many other options other than putting an ITT there. In fact my tour also contains an ITT from Berlin to Potsdam, which makes sense because Berlin is such a focal point.

lol, sorry that I took your idea with the Berlin-Potsdam TT. You haven't posted the race yet, right?

 

[Progsprach]

lol, sorry that I took your idea with the Berlin-Potsdam TT. You haven't posted the race yet, right?

No, I haven't yet. It doesn't really matter, I just found it funny how similar we race designers seem to think.

 

[Gigs_98]

Deutschland Tour stage 4: Potsdam-Sangerhausen (224 km)
And another flat stage. Yes, I know its a little bit boring that there are so many flat stages at the beginning but at least I tried to make the first stages interesting with the hill top finish on the Teufelsberg and the ITT. Moreover the finish of this stage, Sangerhausen, is the south end of the big flat region in germany so the next days will be more hilly. In fact the end of stage 4 is hilly too, but I doubt that the bump "Pferdeköpfe" (to everyone who speaks german, thats not a translation error, the hill is really called Pferdeköpfe ) which will be passed 13 km before the finish could avoid a bunch sprint. However there may be some attacks and at least the finish of this stage, which is the longest one of my tour, probably won't be completely without action.

(normally I create the stages on cronoescalada as well as on openrunner because I don't like the cronoescalada maps, but because of reasons I don't know, I can't open the route on openrunner so I just used the cronoescalada map)

Sangerhausen:

 

[Gigs_98]

Deutschland Tour stage 5: Sangerhausen-Habichtswald (194 km)
As I announced it, the flat stages have an end. Of course this isn't something you would call a mountain stage but at least the final climb should be hard enough to crush some pure sprinters. But lets start from the beginning.
The start is in Sangerhausen, where yesterdays 4th stage finished. After the start almost the whole stage will go westwards. On the way to the finish the route will pass 4 categorized climbs: Kaltenber´sche Klus, Kattenbühl, Lutterberger Höhe (which will start directly after the descent from Kattenbühl) and finally "Hohes Gras". Between the last two climbs the peloton will drive through Kassel a big city where I firstly wanted to finish the stage but I think the new finish with the "Hohes Gras" climb is much more interesting.

picture of the final climb:

Habichtswald (I didn´t find a good picture of the town, but I think this is better than nothing)

climbs:
Kaltenber´sche Klus: 4th cat.
Kattenbühl: 4th cat.
Lutterberger Höhe: 4th cat.
Hohes Gras: 3rd cat.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

@Gigs_98: Yeah, as you might have seen my World Tour also contains a two week Deutschlandtour and to get through the North without it being too boring, there really aren't many other options other than putting an ITT there. In fact my tour also contains an ITT from Berlin to Potsdam, which makes sense because Berlin is such a focal point.

There are quite a few possibilities to put a serious cobbled stage in the Lüneburger Heide and in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, but that's all you can do really. There's about a 15km cobbled stretch between Stralsund and Greifswald, for example.

However, the opportunities for cobbled hells here are not as good as around Halle or Erfurt.

 

[Gigs_98]

@Gigs_98: Yeah, as you might have seen my World Tour also contains a two week Deutschlandtour and to get through the North without it being too boring, there really aren't many other options other than putting an ITT there. In fact my tour also contains an ITT from Berlin to Potsdam, which makes sense because Berlin is such a focal point.

There are quite a few possibilities to put a serious cobbled stage in the Lüneburger Heide and in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, but that's all you can do really. There's about a 15km cobbled stretch between Stralsund and Greifswald, for example.

However, the opportunities for cobbled hells here are not as good as around Halle or Erfurt.

How do you know where the streets are cobbled?
edit: damn, I just noticed that I could have used the 15 km long cobbled section from Stralsund to Greifswald on my first stage, I just didn't notice that there was a cobbled street directly beside the road I used

 

[Libertine Seguros]

@Gigs_98: Yeah, as you might have seen my World Tour also contains a two week Deutschlandtour and to get through the North without it being too boring, there really aren't many other options other than putting an ITT there. In fact my tour also contains an ITT from Berlin to Potsdam, which makes sense because Berlin is such a focal point.

There are quite a few possibilities to put a serious cobbled stage in the Lüneburger Heide and in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, but that's all you can do really. There's about a 15km cobbled stretch between Stralsund and Greifswald, for example.

However, the opportunities for cobbled hells here are not as good as around Halle or Erfurt.

How do you know where the streets are cobbled?

When I made my Deutschlandrundfahrt and Friedensfahrt routes I did quite a bit of research. There are quite a few old Kopfsteinpflasterstraßen in the north of the former DDR, but also there are sections about a few of the sectors north of Erfurt on quäldich, and there's also a pretty epic sportif around Halle called the Hölle des Ostens which takes in a large number of these (Lupetto also posted an Elbe-Saale Klassik which used many of these). The Lüneburger Heide is quite famous for its extant cobbled roads, perhaps because these are less common in the former BRD.

As to cobbled climbs, the Steiler Wand von Meerane is a 350m cobbled berg, but is arguably the most famous of all climbs in Germany, thanks to its position as THE iconic Peace Race ascent.

 

[Gigs_98]

@Libertine Seguros:
Okay I just looked for your deutschland tour and I noticed that two of my alp stages are very similar to your ones. But I swear I didn't see your race before so that is just a coincidence

 

[lemon cheese cake]

@Libertine Seguros:
Okay I just looked for your deutschland tour and I noticed that two of my alp stages are very similar to your ones. But I swear I didn't see your race before so that is just a coincidence

It's as Progspach said, us race designers think alike.

 

[Gigs_98]

Deutschland Tour stage 6: Kassel-Oberursel (207 km)
Before the really hard climbing starts, on the first weekend of the race, there will be two more medium mountain stages. The first one starts in Kassel and finishes in Oberursel, a town near Frankfurt am Main. To be honest the first 80% of the stage are very flat and even after that there is only one hard climb, but this one should be difficult enough to force the gc contenders to let the race explode for the first time. The "Großer Feldberg" is over 13 km long and it rises with slightly over 5%. That seems to be very flat, but there is a flat section in the middle of the climb so the increasing parts are about 6% steep. The finish will be directly after an easy descent so there may not be any attacks at the downhill section.

Oberursel:

Großer Feldberg:

climbs:
Großer Feldberg (2nd cat.)

 

[Progsprach]

Salamanca - Leon (199km)
As we make our way towards the North, the riders get another flat stage on the way to the mountains. The way from Salamanca past the intermediate sprints at Zamora and Benavente to Leon does not feature any significant climbing with the only slightly unusual factor being the around 700m of altitude at which the stage is held. The sprinters should fight for this one as they will only get one more opportunity until the final stage.

 

[Gigs_98]

Deutschland Tour stage 7: Frankfurt am Main-Neustadt an der Weinstraße (178 km)
The next hilly stage in my Deutschland Tour. I know until now the race isn't that difficult but the 8th stage will be the first real mountain stage. However, lets concentrate on this one. Stage 7 starts in Frankfurt am Main, one of the biggest cities in germany. After a flat first half the race will become more interesting in the second part. Firstly there are the two little passes called "Peterskopf" and "Roststeiger Höhe" (so flat that it isn't even categorized), but after a short flat section the route goes seriously uphill to the "Große Kalmit". After this climb there are only 25 km to go but less than the half of this distance is downhill, so there won't be any attacks by gc contenders. However there could be some other guys, who want a stage win, who may attack on this climb. Otherwise the stage will end in a reduced bunch sprint (maybe even in a big bunch sprint if the pace up to the last pass is really low)

Frankfurt am Main:

Neustadt an der Weinstraße:

profile of the "Große Kalmit":

climbs:
Peterskopf (4th cat.)
Große Kalmit (2nd cat.)