Race Design Thread

[Libertine Seguros]

Re: Re:

I do love the 24h du Mans, my first Tour route started with an ITT on the Circuit de la Sarthe. Also I am liking Gigs' most recent Deutschland stage with the bumpy run-in.

One of the things that is really cool about that circuit is how a large part of it is on public roads. I made sure to read through a lot of the races on here before getting my tour designed, a lot of really good races from you obviously. This will not be my only stage on here that has something to do with auto racing by the way as there will be another stage that is inspired by another famous race. I won't give too much away on that yet though.

This suggests to me either Circuit de Charade circuit, or, far more likely, Monte Carlo Rally with Col de la Madone.

 

[52520Andrew]

Stage 5, Limoges - Brive la Gaillarde 182.2 km

As you can see, we finally start getting into some hills today. The hills more than likely will not be big enough to get the GC men too worried but it will throw off all but the hardiest sprinters. The first part of the stage is flat to a little hilly for the most part but the real fun picks up around 55 km out where things are constantly going either up or down. I should mention of course the great stage that Steven Roots recently had in this area as it shows the potential fun to be had with all the hills they used. I was originally going to finish this stage in Tulle but I decided to keep going to Brive la Gaillarde as I kept running into good hills to use for the area.

The finish today will be at the Parc de la Guierle, shown below. The line will be on the road on the right of the image below which is hidden a bit by the trees. There should be enough space for a post race ceremony and any extra parking can be at a shopping center not too far back.

There is a fairly long transfer after this stage to Ussel for the start of the next stage, a little more than an hour on the drive. Then things continue to crescendo into the Massif Central.

 

[Gigs_98]

DACH Rundfahrt stage 7: Bayreuth - Ingolstadt (182 km)

difficulty: *

After the first two hilly stages the race gets flat again, but its kind of the calm before the storm. Stage 7 starts in Bayreuth. This idyllic town is located in the northern part of Bayern, but while the south of this stage is already very mountainous, the riders will only ride through some soft hills.

To be honest, the route isnt completely flat, or at least not as flat as the first few stages in the north of Germany, but the little bumps definitely wont be a problem for any sprinter. This is also another stage with 3 intermediate sprints and a Goldener Kilometer, so there are lots of points for the points jersey to get, and also lots of bonus seconds, so maybe a sprinter has still the chance to fight for the leaders jersey. The first categorized climb is the Grünberg, a short little ramp, which goes up to about 10% (as always don't look on the data on the profile. That says about nothing for such short climbs). There is another 4th category climb up to Paulushofen, but this ascent also will only be interesting, if the break is still in contention to take the stage. Otherwise the sprint teams will simply power up there.

The finish is in Ingolstadt, Germany's youngest metropolis, which is located at the Danube. Here the sprinters have their last chance of the first week to shine and take a stage win. Besides that there are generally not many sprint stages left, so this day is very important for the sprint teams --> we will see a big fight for this stage.

Ingolstadt:

 

[52520Andrew]

Re: Stage 6

Stage 6, Ussel - Clermont - Ferrand 168 km

The race finally goes into some real climbing with the Massif Central where it will be for these next 4 days. The climbs will not be terribly crazy today but compared to what we have had so far in this tour, it will be a nice boost. We have our first second category climb of the day, the Col de la Croix Saint - Robert followed by another second category climb in the Col de la Croix - Morand. They shouldn't be too steep but they will wear a bit on the riders. Things will flatten out a bit after that before we descend into Clermont - Ferrand for the finale up the Cote de la Baraque before a downhill finish back in Clermont - Ferrand.

The riders will need to be smart to time their attacks given the climb at the end and the downhill finish. I would imagine there is still a fairly large group at the top of the climb but there should be a flurry of attacks by riders looking for glory in a stage win. It should be an exciting stage until the end for the stage win and it could give a little info on the form of the GC men.

The site for the finish is not a pretty one but works well for the logistics as we finish next to the Stade Marcel - Michelin along the Avenue de la Repubique. It should be a good straight in the event that there is a group sprint for the line.

There will be no transfer for today, next we go to an area that had not been included as a finish in the tour since 1975.

 

[Gigs_98]

Nice stage. Reminds me on the La Spezia stage in this years giro

 

[railxmig]

OK, planned to post my dig at Tour de France but thanks to '16 edition my route is just outdated. Maybe I'll post it in future, but only as a TdF pre-2016 variation. In the meantime I decided to try with classics. It's first time for me to design a one-day classic and to describe the stage so the description might be lacking quality and there might be a lot of bugs. The region i chosen is Bretagne (more precisely - Haut-Léon area) as there seems to be no LBL-like classics but the region can deliver such a route.

With recent flop of Liege-Bastogne-Liege I'm worried that this race might end up as a 20-30 group sprintfest, but there's a quite technical descend that ends just 1,3km off the finish line. Furthermore, taking into consideration that the last climb is harder than Muur Saint-Nicolas it might be enough to secure selection, attacks and smaller groups or individuals on the finish line.

Classique du Haut-Léon:
Morlaix - Landerneau, 199km, ~1700m asc

Basics:
start: Morlaix, Place des Otages;
km0: Saint-Martin-des-Champs, Allée Saint-François, 4,1km from the start;
finish: Landerneau, Quai de Léon, 140m straight;
lap: Landerneau, 3x16,2km;
feed zone: La Martyre, Le Queff.

climbs:
name - length, slope, category, height
Côte de Lodegalet - 1,7km, 3,9%, 3 Cat. 72m
Côte de Saint-Draff - 1,7km, 4,1%, 3 Cat. 74m
Côte de Pontigou - 1,4km, 4,9%, 2 Cat. 321m
Côte de Stumenven - 2,7km, 3,6%, 3 Cat. 263m
Côte de Hengoat - 2,3km, 4,1%, 2 Cat. 260m
Côte de la Croix Rouge - 2km, 5,2%, 2 Cat. 142m
Côte de Pernaman - 2,2km, 3,5%, 3 Cat. 124m
Côte de Kerhéré - 1,3km, 4,8%, 2 Cat. 82m
Côte de Bel Air - 0,8m, 7,8%, 2 Cat. 85m
Côte de la Croix Neuve - 2,8km, 6%, 1 Cat. 173m

Introduction:
Tro-Bro Léon – over 200km of difficult roads including lotsa off-roading (ribins) that takes place the weekend after Paris-Roubaix. It's the Bretagne version of P-R/RVV but with more gravel rather than cobbles. It's very popular among cycling hipsters and fans of XIX century, while casual cycling fan might hear about this race for the first time. Teoretically it's for the hard-mens (ruleurs) as most of the action is on the off-roads rather than hills. Of course, they are present but they are petit. Still, this year edition was won by no other than Alexandre Geniez, who is hardly a ruleur.

Tour du Finistère – classic taking place day after Tro-Bro Léon. While Tro-Bro Léon is more of a Bretagne P-R/RVV, Tour du Finistère is Amstel or Fleche Vallonne finishing on Quimper's Côte de Meilh Stang Vihan. It doesn't sport any ribins, but most of the roads are still tricky and narrow.

The classic I present here can take place after Tour du Finistère, as an equivalent of Bretagne's LBL. It's roads are propably the best quality of this small series, but the climbs will have the biggest impact to the race. There are 10 distinct climbs in the race with the last two repeating two more times making it 14 climbs through the course.

There will be two additional competitions held during the race – climbers & combativity. Combativity is of course for a rider that was the most active in the race. Climbers is for a rider, who will get the most points on climbs during the race. Climbs are categorised from the easiest one – 3, to hardest one – 1 cat. The point distribution is the same as in Tour de France:
3 Cat. - 1. 2p, 2. 1p
2 Cat. - 1. 5p, 2. 3p, 3. 2p, 4. 1p
1 Cat. - 1. 10p, 2. 8p, 3. 6p, 4. 4p, 5. 2p, 6. 1p

You can assume cat. 1 climb as cat. 3 in actual TdF and cat. 2 – cat. 4 TdF. Of course i took the Tour categorisation rather than Giro one, as Giro nowadays doesn't even bother with categorising climbs that in Tour/Vuelta would be even 2nd cat. (with exception of Holland). Below you have the list of the KOMs in the race:
Côte de Lodegalet - 1,7km, 3,9%, 3 Cat. 72m
Côte de Saint-Draff - 1,7km, 4,1%, 3 Cat. 74m
Côte de Pontigou - 1,4km, 4,9%, 2 Cat. 321m
Côte de Stumenven - 2,7km, 3,6%, 3 Cat. 263m
Côte de Hengoat - 2,3km, 4,1%, 2 Cat. 260m
Côte de la Croix Rouge - 2km, 5,2%, 2 Cat. 142m
Côte de Pernaman - 2,2km, 3,5%, 3 Cat. 124m
Côte de Kerhéré - 1,3km, 4,8%, 2 Cat. 82m
Côte de Bel Air - 0,8m, 7,8%, 2 Cat. 85m
Côte de la Croix Neuve - 2,8km, 6%, 1 Cat. 173m

The name of the race is taken from the region it covers – Haut-Léon. This region span from Morlaix to Brest expanding as low as Saint-Rivoal in Monts d'Arrée. The race will start in Morlaix and end in Landerneau with 3 laps, 16,2km each. The last two climbs are on the lap, that's why they will be ridden three times each. It will pass by some roads and locations known from Tro-Bro Léon or Tour du Finistère, but most of them will be exclusive to this race. The race will also visit Monts d'Arrée and region of Saint-Urbain in Cornouaille.

Stage:

The départ of Classique du Haut-Léon will be in Morlaix. It is located in very hilly banks of Rivière de Morlaix with most of the city being in shadows of a gorgeous, aqueduct like viaduct that supports a railway linking Brest with Paris. The viaduct was built from 1861 to 1863. The fictive start will be just below the viaduct on Place des Otages. Before reaching the km 0 the race will visit the west side of Morlaix and adjacent city of Saint-Martin-des-Champs goint through the Gare de Morlaix.

This climb is around 1,2km at 4,3%. If it would be in the race, then it would be a cat. 3. After pasing Pont Bellec the bunch will enter Saint-Martin-des-Champs that has more modern, urban architecture than Morlaix. Riders will pass through Saint-Martin-des-Champs encountering a viaduct of an old, now extinct narrow rail track on Rue de Saint-Germain in the process. The km 0 will come after the bunch will descend from Saint-Martin-des-Champs into Rivière de Morlaix valley on Allée Saint-François 4,1km from the start.

First 15k are bumpy with two cat. 3 climbs in. First one is Côte de Lodegalet at 1,7km, 3,9%. Next one is Côte de Saint-Draff at 1,7km, 4,1%. After those first kms the terrain flatens out for about 30k, passing Plouvorn, Plouzévédé and Landivisiau in the process. After Landivisiau race steadily goes uphill entering Monts d'Arrée where next categorised climb are located.

Monts d'Arrée are the hightest massif in Bretagne with Roc'h Trevezel at 384m, Ménez Kador at 384m and Roc'h Ruz at 385m over the sea level being the highest hills. They belong to the Parc naturel régional d'Armorique. They are one of the oldest geological formations in Europe – created as mountains around 600 million years ago. There are various types of hills, some have tendency to have very rocky summits and monadnock like apperance - Roc'h Trevezel or Ménez Kador, some being very rounded - Mont Saint-Michel-de-Brasparts.

In Monts d'Arrée there are three categorised climbs. The first one, Côte de Pontigou, is the highest in the race (321m) and it's a cat. 2 climb, 1,4km at 4,9%. It's located west of Roc'h Trevezel in a very barren, exposed terrain. Monts d'Arrée are known for their random, often foggy weather and wind so conditions there can be quite difficult but luckly the roads are not the most technical ones.

Before next climb the race will pass close to Ménez Kador. The second climb is Côte de Stumenven located west of Mont Saint-Michel-de-Brasparts. It's a cat. 3 climb, 2,7km at 3,6% - second longest climb of the day. Just after the descend and Saint-Rivoal there's another, this time cat. 2 climb – Côte de Hengoat. It's 2,3km long at 4,1%, shorter but steeper than it's twin brother. After this climb the bunch will have some moment of respite as they're leaving Monts d'Arrée.

Next 25k are not hard with only small, uncategorised rises. The race will pass through Saint-Cadoc, Sizun, Irvillac and Kerbaol close to Saint-Urbain where the next climb begins. The climb is a cat. 2 Côte de la Croix Rouge. It's the hardest climb outside the last one, 2km long at 5,2% so it's still not something to be scared of. After the climb race enters plateau de Ploudiry where feed zone is located. In the next 20k there are no difficulties so the bunch will gladly use the rest before the last part of the race.

The race is looping around the region as it heads back just outside Landivisiau. There they will descend from the plateau and turn harsh left to go back to it end enter next climb. The climb is Côte de Pernaman, it's a cat. 3 climb, 2,2km long at 3,5%. After the climb terrain is still going slightly uphill as the race will pass Ploudiry and La Martyre before gradualy descending to l'Élorn valley where La Roche-Maurice and next climb is.

After crossing l'Élorn river the race goes uphill through an ancient roman road to a plateau west to the river. The climb here is a cat. 2 Côte de Kerhéré, 1,3km long at 4,8%. On the summit peloton will pass close to Monastère de Kerbénéat and later turn left to Plounéventer where the race will enter roads known from Tro-Bro Léon. There is no descend and terrain here is still quite bumpy. In Plounéventer the race turns left to Landerneau where after a gradual descend three laps gloriously waits.

Lap:

There are 3 laps in Landerneau and small village of Pencran. The laps begins on Boulevard Victor Hugo and then turns north around city's gare into Rue du Commandant Charcot where Côte de Bel Air is situated. Then on Rond-Point de Kergonidec turn south into D770 and then turn into Rue de Mescoat where a short but steep ramp of around 120m, 10-15% awaits.

After the ramp bunch will go back into D770 and cross the L'Élorn river and turn into Route de Quimper and next into Rue du Pontic where today's biggest hill awaits.

Côte de la Croix Neuve is the longest climb of the day with 2,8km at 6%. In TdF it would be categorised as a cat. 3. Here it's cat. 1. This climb is steepest in the begining with first 1,5km at 8% but then it flattens with last 1,3km at 3,7%. Of course it's not La Redoute but it's only slightly easier, it's much closer to the finish line (around 5k) and it's ridden three times rather than once.

After this hill there's a small plateau in the village of Pencran but after 2,5km there's a quite technical descend on Route de Pencran back to Landerneau. Then the bunch goes through Pont du Voas and then turns right unless it's last lap. If it's not then they go through Rue de la Tour d'Auvergne and then Boulevard d'Estienne d'Orves where is an unsignificant rise of around 0,8km at 4,5% to the Rond-Point and the end of a lap. If it's the last lap, then after the bridge race turns left into Quai de Léon where the finish line is 140m after a slight right turn. From the bridge it's around 700m of mostly straight road with a small Rond-Point around 500m from the finish line.

Conclusion:
The race propably will be contested between continental teams and maybe AG2R & FDJ. The majority of the bunch proably will be french with some outsiders from Belgium, Spain and maybe Portugal.

I think this course is more favourable to climbers who have a good acceleration and rather than pure puncheurs. Technically it's simillar to LBL but the culmination of six hard hills and smaller bumps in last 50km could wear out puncheurs unless the tempo will be anemic. Propably the favourites would be among those, who could be an outside threats to do great in LBL. Those that are not as good as Valverde, Gerrans, Martin, Alaphillippe (future), Nordhaug (future), Fernandez & Bilbao (future?) and propably some French riders: Bardet, Geniez, Vuillermoz, Pinot?, Riblon, Rossetto, Remy Di Gregorio, Pierric Fedrigo, Pierre-Roger Latour etc. Maybe some of Spanish and Portugese guys could show up too.

First 15kms can be fast as there are two 3 cat. climbs ideal for a breakaway launchpad but then it will propably be just a typical race with peleton and teams controling the break. In the best scenario the race would proceed WC like: the break catched on the first lap and then another, stronger breakaway would go and the race would then begin. The worst scenario would be to catch the break before the last climb, then a skirmish on the climb and a 20-30 bunch sprint. Either way, the action obviously would be on the last 50 or less kms.

Attractions:
site (km of the race) - attraction
Morlaix – viaduct (start of the race), Château de Lannuguy (2,7km), Château du Taureau (baie de Morlaix).
Plouzévédé (26,3km) – Notre-Dame de Berven.

Landivisiau (37km) – home to the Breton Horse [https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breton_(cheval)] – breeding starts from XVIIc.
Lampaul-Guimiliau (41km) – Église Notre-Dame de Lampaul-Guimiliau with it's beautiful parish close. The close is so-called because it is a church yard entirely enclosed by a wall, with a ceremonial entrance arch. It's a distinctive feature of the Breton culture of the Léon area.

Mont Saint-Michel-de-Brasparts (61km) – Chapelle de Saint-Michel.

Saint-Cadoc (76,4km) – Église de Saint-Cadoc.
Sizun (82,6km) – Église Saint-Suliau with Pietà on the lawn outside the église, Loc-Ildut – coaching inn from XIXc. north of Sizun.

Irvillac (94,2km) – WW2 battle of Irvillac between German troops speeding up to Brasparts (missed by a couple of kms north by the race close to Mont Saint-Michel-de-Brasparts) and french partisants with 18 casualties on french side and unknown on german side.

Ploudiry (128,4km) – Église Saint-Pierre de Ploudiry, up to the French Revolution the parish was largest one in the Léon region.
La Martyre (129,8km) – place of death of Salomon, the Duke of Bretagne who was assasinated on 25.06.874. Église Saint-Salomon.

La Roche-Maurice (135,7km) – ruins of a castle from V century, ruins of chapelle de Pont-Christ.
Monastère de Kerbénéat (137,6km) – Benedictine monastery.
Plounéventer (143,6km) – Manoir de Mézarnou (fortified 16th century manor-house), archeological site of roman city Vorganium, Église Saint-Néventer, Château de Brézal (east of Keradoret, 138km)

Landerneau – just too many things, these houses over the L'Élorn river are plain hilarious.

 

[Domulec]

Great work on the Bretagne race. I feel that, as one of the homes of cycling, Bretagne deserves a big race. I like posts like these that also go into the landmarks and culture of the area. My one criticism of the route would be that a real classic should always be substantially longer than 200k. Otherwise this seems like a really hard race, going up and down all the time, and the wind will probably be a real factor here as well.

 

[Gigs_98]

DACH Rundfahrt stage 8: Regensburg - Zwiesel (151 km)

difficulty: ***

The second weekend of the DACH Rundfahrt and the next medium mountain stage. This time the stage is a rather short one, because an older Version of this stage was 223 km's long because it started in Ingolstadt and I try to make it a bit more realistic. So this stage is 72 k's shorter and it starts In Regensburg, another beautiful historical town located on the Danube.

The first 50 kilometers of the stage are completely flat. However shortly after the intermediate sprint in Straubing the first little hills start and the stage starts to get more difficult. The first of three 2nd category climbs is the Maibrunner Höhe after 70 kilometers so already "only" 80 kilometers away from the finish. Directly after the descent the next ascent starts up to the Markbuchener Sattel. These two climbs should already shrink the break (because yes this stage will probably go to the break, at least I don't know anyone who would like to control this) and show which riders might be the strongest at the end. After the 2nd descent the stage gets a little bit easier with the flat and short Altnußberg, followed by a bumpy section which is all in all more ascending than descending so the riders definitely wont be able to relax here. Meanwhile riders who have already dropped will try to get back to the break. However such riders probably still wont have a chance to win because there is another 2nd category climb to come. The Arberstraße is the final climb of the stage and has some pretty steep stretches which should decide the stage. On the top there will be a great view on the Großen Arber, the highest mountain of the Böhmerwald, the mountain range we are in, at the moment. That also means we aren't in the high mountains yet, but the hills of the area are scenic too, and should be a little bit Vosges/Central Massif like. After the descent from the Arberstraße there are still 9 flat kilometers. This section is slightly downhill, so the speed should be pretty high and if a rider is alone at the front he should be able to hold on and win the stage. Unfortunately the descent isnt very technical, sot that probably wont be a factor.

Großer Arber:

The finish is in Zwiesel. Personally I only know the town for Alpine Skiing races most recently in 2011. These races actually took place on the Arber so the riders have already been nearer to the skiing area as they are in the finish. There also were races in 2007 when Marlies Schild won the Slalom in Zwiesel by over two seconds, I miss the times

Zwiesel:

 

[lemon cheese cake]

Deutschland Tour Stage 5: Sonderhausen - Clausthal Zellerfeld (200km) (Wed)

Climbs:
Kulpenberg
Stolberg
Roßtrappe
Hüttenrode
Torfhaus
Auerhahn
Clausthal Zellerfeld

Sprints:
Braunlage
Goslar

Feed Zone:
Blankenburg

Today we start in the small town of Sonderhausen, from where the riders will head east towards the first catorgorised climb of the day. This the Kulpenberg which is approached from the south. Once compelted, a rather technical descent follows, as the riders head for the Stolberg. The second climb today is one of the easier of the lot, as at it only cat 4. A long and shallow descent follows, as we make our way towards the foot of the next climb. Roßtrappe. The feed now comes in the town of Blankenburg. It is then straight into the Hüttenrode climb. A long uphill drag is folloed by the prime at Braunlage. The next climb is started as we take on the Torfhaus. The first second cat climb of the race shall be ridden over. It is the Auerhahn. But before, the second prime is at Goslar. A long final drag up to Clausthal Zellerfeld is the final climb of the day. As I said in my stage to Karlsbad, the winter sports facility featuered there wont be the last. We've visited Obergof yesterday, and now we visit the most northerly ski facility in Germany. Something that Libertine went into previously.

Sonderhausen:

Clausthal Zellerfeld:

 

[lemon cheese cake]

Deutschland Tour Stage 6: Kassel - Fulda (150km) (Thur)

Climbs:
Niedensteinberg

Sprints:
Gudensberg
Lauterbach

Feed Zone:
Schwalmstadt

For stage 6 we start in Kassel. The riders will have a flat opening before loosening their legs on the Niedensteinberg. After that they will head for the prime at Gudensberg then the Feed at Schwalmstadt will take place at roughly half way through the stage. The second prime will take place at Lauterbach. A few lumps and bumps are followed by a straight foward run in to Fulda. This will be one of the few opotunitys for the sprinters to challenge for a stage win as over the two weeks, their are only three true sprinters stages, with another three possible sprint stages, if the sprinters can haul themselves up the climbs/get back on with enough energy before the finish.

Kassel:

Fulda:

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Sinky City!

As for the talk of 199km and the Brétagne race, I think it will fit well as a .1 race in April though, after Tro Bro Léon (204km this year) and Tour de Finistère (189km) and just before the Tour de Brétagne-Trophée des Granitiers, which is one of the most prestigious Pro-Am races as it's very historic. Back in the 70s and 80s you'd see high profile Ostbloc amateurs mixing it with the pros and local amateurs - the likes of Stanisław Szozda, Aleksandr Gusyatnikov and Yuri Kashirin appear on the winners' list, as well as its use as a developmental race owing to the mixture of tough rouleur and Classic terrains and also punchy climbing - Armand de las Cuevas in 1988 and Evgeni Berzin in 1992 perhaps the best examples of this, though Riccardo Zoidl won it in the midst of his super year with Gourmetfein that brought him to the pro ranks. Dries Devenyns and Lars Boom have also won it for developmental versions of their first pro teams.

The top 2 tier teams at Tro Bro and Tour du Finistère this year included, as well as obviously FDJ and Ag2r as mentioned, Brétagne (naturally) Europcar, Cofidis, Wanty-Groupe Gobert. If you bear in mind M13 are going ProConti in 2016, that will add another. If the race could bring along another couple of teams who perhaps didn't get to do Liège but have hilly riders - eg Caja Rural, who did Dunkerque this year along with some pre-Giro races owing to the gap in the Spanish calendar between Castilla y León (after the País Vasco races) and before the May races (Asturias, Madrid), and a couple of the smaller newer ProConti teams like ONE and Roth-Skoda, and a realistic and reasonable strength field for a .1 race could be put together when you then add all the French Continental teams (Armée de Terre, Auber 93, Roubaix-Lille Métropole) and a few Continental teams from further afield (eg Murias Taldea did the Breton one-dayers this year, as did Vorarlberg, Amore e Vita. If they can get a few of the Belgians, eg Wallonie-Bruxelles or Crelan-Vastgoedservice, that'll shore up a decent field). Perhaps they'd be a bit too short on numbers for a .HC, but a good and difficult .1 is manageable, and for that 200km is a pretty ideal length. Creating it as a sort of Bréton version of the Trittico Lombardo might help improve fields as well of course.

 

[52520Andrew]

Nice stage. Reminds me on the La Spezia stage in this years giro

Thanks, liking your combo tour so far as well

 

[lemon cheese cake]

Nice stage. Reminds me on the La Spezia stage in this years giro

Thanks, liking your combo tour so far as well

Yep your stage to Clermont Ferrand is good, as is your whole tour so far (apart from the 60km ITT)

The route of your DACHR us good Gigs. Glad the clash of the German routes has been avoided so far. It looks like they wont ever clash, as you are closing week one on the second weekend and also in that part of germany close to Austria.

Nice route Railxmig. Welcome to the thread.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Time to break this yellow up with some red...

Stage 5: Requena - Requena, 39,4km (CRI)

The first long test against the clock falls early in the race, although not necessarily uncharacteristically so for the Vuelta prior to the recent direction that Guillén has been taking it; for example, in the 2008 race stage 5 was a 42km loop around Ciudad Real that set the scene for the weekend's mountain stages to come, and in 2003 Zaragoza hosted a 43km time trial on stage 6. I want this to be a proper three week race, and therefore there need to be obstacles that the riders should be wary of spread throughout the race. This is also as this is very much a race about the medium mountains, and with a huge amount of climbing but few stages of the super high ESP mountains style, so we need to introduce the rouleur gaps early on to incentivize more aggressive racing on the shorter climbs later.

The location for the ITT is the smallish city of Requena, in the western protrusion of Comunidad Valenciana that juts out into Castilla-La Mancha. Despite being one of the biggest urban areas in this part of the region and being a historic city (it was at one point a Moorish stronghold), I cannot see that it has ever hosted La Vuelta, although it has had metas volantes.

This will be a pure power man's ITT, not overly long, but suitable as a Worlds tune-up I anticipate. It is divided into three thirds, the first absolutely pan flat looping around to the north of the city, the second slightly downhill false flat heading westward and the third slightly uphill as the riders return east to Requena. The temperatures will likely be well above 30º, the roads are wide open and the course having no real ramps and repechos to break up the rhythm should allow the big engines to get into their best gear and put some time into the featherweights for them to have to win back.

The scenery should be pure Vuelta-in-south-Spain stage - blue skies, scorched earth, vineyards, ribbons of black tarmac. Perfect for an ITT, so we can keep our eyes on the clock if it isn't too visually arresting, and there should be some nice rolling countryside at least.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Stage 6: La Vall d'Uixó - Estación de Esquí Aramón Valdelinares, 167km

GPM:
Puerto del Remolcador (cat.2) 16,0km @ 3,9%
Alto del Puertomingalvo (cat.1) 11,7km @ 6,4%
Alto de Nogueruelas (cat.3) 7,6km @ 3,9%
Alto de San Rafael (cat.2) 13,7km @ 3,8%
Alto de Valdelinares (cat.1) 10,2km @ 5,9%

After a fairly lengthy transfer from Requena (riders will probably overnight in Valencia) comes stage 6, which is the first real mountain stage and, bizarrely enough, the toughest mountaintop finish of the whole race - and the only cat.1 finish as well. Yes, the hardest mountaintop of this, my 5th Vuelta, is of all the climbs in the whole of Spain, Valdelinares.

But before that, we have plenty to get on with, because there is a LOT of cumulative climbing going on in this stage.

The stage host, La Vall d'Uixó, was the site of the 2011 Spanish national time trial championships, won by Luís León Sánchez, and is a scenic city in an attractive mountainous backdrop famous for its underground cave system which boasts restaurants and the largest navigable underground river in the continent.

The city is barely 100m above sea level, however, whereas we're finishing at almost 2000, so we know that there's a lot of climbing to be done today. Happily for many riders, however, much of it will be pretty gradual. The start of the stage is benign enough; there is mostly flat and false flat for the first 50km, culminating in the village of Figueroles, which serves as the gateway to many hours of climbing. The first ascent on the stage is the relatively long but gradual Puerto del Remolcador, which is on wide open roads so will be a proper power climb. It backs into the second climb, a steeper ascent into the old town of Puertomingalvo, which is arguably the sternest test of the day.

As you can see from the profile, the steepest parts are the beginning (3km @ 7,5%) and the end (2km @ 8,3%) as we cross into Aragón for the first time. As well as being our first cat.1 climb of the Vuelta, Puertomingalvo has another issue for riders, which is that there's almost no recovery time, because there's barely any respite before the false flat up to the Puerto de Linares. Some traceurs categorise this as it's almost 10km in length, but as the gradient is so shallow and the race hardly lacks for climbing, I have elected to leave it as one of those traditional Vuelta "no puntable" ascents. After this there's a shortish descent on some very scenic roads into Linares de Mora before another gradual climb, this time the inconsistent (but only averaging just under 4%) Alto de Nogueruelas. After this, there's a gradual respite with two Metas Volantes, in the confusingly named adjacent towns of Rubielos de Mora and Mora de Rubielos. And then it's time for a classic one-two punch, the gradual two-stepped Alto de San Rafael and the MTF at Valdelinares.

San Rafael is wide and easyish and so is unlikely to see any moves from any real contenders who will undoubtedly leave it to the final climb, however because of that false flat stretch in the middle and the steepest slopes near the bottom may see some stagehunters gamble. Valdelinares pretty much always follows this climb, so it will be well known to the more experienced riders who remember it from years gone by; it used to be a regular climb in the Vuelta a Aragón, which like many Spanish stage races went the way of the dodo during the global financial crisis, and returned to the Vuelta in 2014 after a nine year absence in a stage which was mainly fought out by the break, although with late attacks Quintana, Contador and Purito were able to put a little over 20" into Froome, Aru and Urán (and Valverde). Nairito took the race leader's jersey and to cap off an excellent day for Colombia, Winner Anacona won the stage from the break - the performance that more or less won him his Movistar contract much as the Segovia stage in 2008 was the catalyst for the signing of Kiryienka. You can re-watch the stage here.

Of course, the stage that day was not as tough a day of climbing as this, although the run-in and the field of action is likely to be similar. The stage had this profile, which even so was a step up from the 2005 stage which barely featured anything of note prior to San Rafael, though it should be noted that pre-2008 Vuelta profiles had a tendency to focus on climbs to the point of producing some very misleading gradient charts.

The actual main body of the Valdelinares climb is only 9km long on scenic roads, and the toughest part is the last two kilometres of ascent, which are at over 8%. However, there is then a flat kilometre to take you in to the finishing line, which softens the climb's stats slightly. Nevertheless, it's hardly a super-imposing ascent - but it's still the hardest MTF of the Vuelta which, with an easier stage to follow, may incentivize moves and mean that we get a good stage. Otherwise, it's a wheat from the chaff day as we shear the pure TT specialists from the upper echelons of GC to replace them with the genuine all-rounders to get a first real clue on the GC movers and shakers.

 

[52520Andrew]

Stage 6, Clermont - Ferrand - Station du Lioran 207.8 km

If the hint I posted at the end of last stage was not a total give away, we are going to Lioran today just like the real tour is doing this next year. I really want to start with the combo of climbs at the end but we have a couple small climbs and the first first category climb of the race to get out of the way first. The Col de la Croix Maubert is a fairly easy climb but it is long like the other climbs yesterday and could weigh on the legs by the time we get to the ending combo.

We will be using a very similar combination of climbs at the end as the actual Tour de France. I had already had this stage planned out by the time I learned the route was going here this year but it is a good stage so I did not want to change it just because of that. A couple differences in the routes are that I am approaching from the East originally and could potentially have more climbs preceding the combo at the end although it is hard to tell without the entire profile. Another difference is that they go around at the top of the Col de Font de Cere while I just follow the main road, a pretty good move on their part.

I attack the Pas de Peyrol from the West as well but I follow the D 12 to the foot of the climb and bypass the Col de Nerrone. What I do by doing this is making the climb up the Pas de Peyrol harder in theory and it could give riders an opportunity to drop more by the time we reach the steep bit. What do I mean by the steep bit? The last 3 kilometers of this climb average around 11% and could make an excellent springboard for an attack. I doubt we see any GC men give it a serious go as it is too early in the race but it gets hilly the rest of the way after this with the descent, the climb up Perthus via the harder side, and then up to Lioran. This type of combo on stage 20 of a close race could be a lot more interesting. I have other plans for my stage 20 however so here it must go. It could however be a nice point for a dark horse to make a go for some time and a stage win however.

Profile of the Pas de Peyrol, those last 3 km getting very steep.

Pas de Peyrol down below, we will be climbing from the top and descending towards the bottom left.

We will be finishing at Lioran of course and there is plenty of room up there for all the logistics to work out fine. I am actually kinda surprised they are just finally going back there due to the location in the Massif Central and the fact that there is so much room. Maybe the station is coming around on having the Tour finish there. Either way, happy to see them hosting a finish. It may be hard to tell but we top the Col de Cere with about 1 km to go and cruise downhill to the finish which could make things a bit interesting at the end.

Le Lioran

After this stage, we will transfer to Saint Flour where another tough stage awaits.

 

[railxmig]

Re:

Sinky City!

As for the talk of 199km and the Brétagne race, I think it will fit well as a .1 race in April though, after Tro Bro Léon (204km this year) and Tour de Finistère (189km) and just before the Tour de Brétagne-Trophée des Granitiers, which is one of the most prestigious Pro-Am races as it's very historic. Back in the 70s and 80s you'd see high profile Ostbloc amateurs mixing it with the pros and local amateurs - the likes of Stanisław Szozda, Aleksandr Gusyatnikov and Yuri Kashirin appear on the winners' list, as well as its use as a developmental race owing to the mixture of tough rouleur and Classic terrains and also punchy climbing - Armand de las Cuevas in 1988 and Evgeni Berzin in 1992 perhaps the best examples of this, though Riccardo Zoidl won it in the midst of his super year with Gourmetfein that brought him to the pro ranks. Dries Devenyns and Lars Boom have also won it for developmental versions of their first pro teams.

The top 2 tier teams at Tro Bro and Tour du Finistère this year included, as well as obviously FDJ and Ag2r as mentioned, Brétagne (naturally) Europcar, Cofidis, Wanty-Groupe Gobert. If you bear in mind M13 are going ProConti in 2016, that will add another. If the race could bring along another couple of teams who perhaps didn't get to do Liège but have hilly riders - eg Caja Rural, who did Dunkerque this year along with some pre-Giro races owing to the gap in the Spanish calendar between Castilla y León (after the País Vasco races) and before the May races (Asturias, Madrid), and a couple of the smaller newer ProConti teams like ONE and Roth-Skoda, and a realistic and reasonable strength field for a .1 race could be put together when you then add all the French Continental teams (Armée de Terre, Auber 93, Roubaix-Lille Métropole) and a few Continental teams from further afield (eg Murias Taldea did the Breton one-dayers this year, as did Vorarlberg, Amore e Vita. If they can get a few of the Belgians, eg Wallonie-Bruxelles or Crelan-Vastgoedservice, that'll shore up a decent field). Perhaps they'd be a bit too short on numbers for a .HC, but a good and difficult .1 is manageable, and for that 200km is a pretty ideal length. Creating it as a sort of Bréton version of the Trittico Lombardo might help improve fields as well of course.

It seems I've posted an unfinished version. I swear I wrote that it supposed to be placed on some day in between Tro-Bro Léon, Tour de Finistère and Tour de Brétagne, and that it's a Bretagne/continental equivalent to LBL for french and other continental teams just like Tro-Bro and Finistère are for other monuments. Basically just what you wrote but you did it with amusing depth. I might remember groups like Amore e Vita, Auber 93 etc. but most of the groups you listed are an enigma for me.

I do admit I was struggling with length. I tried to use better quality, wider roads as narrow ones are exploited in other Bretagne april classics. I wanted to not collide much with Tro-Bro and Finistère routes and to promote hills as the decisive factor rather than technical roads. Of course I wanted to limit the usage of bigger roads too for $$$ reasons, so I was pretty limited with options.

In the description I forgot to post the estimated profile of the last hill I made thanks to Google & IGN maps. I hope it's closer to reality than last Vuelta profiles.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

In fairness to you for having the same run-in as the 2016 Tour, who would ever have predicted that ASO would actually choose to go by the best possible run-in to their chosen stage finish?

Stage 7: Alcañíz - Vilanova i la Geltrú, 190km

GPM:
Coll de Fatxes (cat.3) 12,6km @ 3,7%

After another sizable transfer northward (we are heading from Aragón today into Catalunya ahead of the second weekend of the race, so the purpose is clear), it's time for a stage which the sprinters will fancy, given that we're at the end of week one and they've only had one chance so far, unless the racing was conservative in the Córdoba stage.

A historic city with a skyline dominated by its castle, Alcañíz was a former Moorish settlement which serves as the unofficial capital of Bajo Aragón within the Provincia de Teruel. It also had a Jewish population who managed mainly to evade the expulsions of the Sephardic population, however most of these had apparently converted to Christianity and assimilated by the time of the Inquisition. Alcañíz is rather out of fashion with the Vuelta at present; a stage in 2012 is noted as finishing in the city, but it in fact finished at the nearby motor racing venue, Motorland Aragón, which though one of Hermann Tilke's better offerings due to some off-camber corners and a range of different styles of corner for racing drivers, is not exactly Spa-Francorchamps when it comes to gradient changes, and left us with a pan-flat and rather sterile sprint stage summarized here in front of a disappointingly small number of fans after the comparatively electric crowds of País Vasco and Navarra at the start of the race.

The first half of the stage is typically rolling, a few periods of general uphill but mostly gradual downhill as we descend down to sea level, before heading to the coast via the reasonably long but almost certainly unthreatening Coll de Fatxes, a wide and gradual climb averaging under 4% before a similarly straightforward drop away to the coast at Miami-Platja.

From there, it is all along the Catalan coast, almost entirely flat and through resort towns; if we're lucky the wind will play a factor but it's not expected to, as the prevailing winds don't tend to come across from the Mediterranean here. There are around 80km of flat here passing PortAventura, a theme park which has hosted the Volta a Catalunya recently and the Vuelta back in 2001 (in that era there was a real spate of theme parks hosting Grand Tours; Parque Warner also hosted the Vuelta a couple of times, Futuroscope and Le Puy du Fou hosted the Grand Départ of the Tour in 1999 and 2000 as well) for a stage finish, the city of Tarragona, and heading all along the coast to finish in Vilanova i la Geltrú another well known coastal town in the region.

Vilanova i la Geltrú last hosted the Vuelta in 2010, in this intermediate stage which was won from the break by Caisse d'Epargne's Imanol Erviti; the Valverde-less team had several strong riders but no feasible GC leader and so went all out to get stages; this was their second in a row in the same form after David López had won the previous day. The main crux of that stage was the Alt del Rat Peñat, a short-to-mid-length but steep climb somewhat over-categorized 1st category, but racing among the main contenders on this was negated thanks to a combination of a 30km downhill false flat to the line and the following day's mountaintop finish in Andorra. Like in 2010, I am following my stage to Vilanova i la Geltrú with a key mountain stage, and therefore I don't feel it's of any real value to stick Rat Peñat into the stage. The sprinting field for this edition of Libertine's Vueltas will probably be quite thin anyway (in the parallel universe where these races exist, they've had four years of getting used to my route designs anyhow, although it would depend on the Worlds parcours of course) and the sprinters who would contest it would mostly be able to get over the climb if it was conservatively raced anyway or at least get back on on the descent. My run in for the last couple of kilometres is the same as the 2010 stage, so you can see them as per the last few minutes here - just imagine it's a bunch rather than Imanol Erviti on his own.

So, a sprint today, between two mountain stages. The Vuelta is about to heat up.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Time for the first monster stage.

Stage 8: Vic - Bergà (Santuari de Queralt), 182km

GPM:
Collada de Toses (cat.1) 20,7km @ 4,1%
Coll de Pradell (cat.ESP) 15,3km @ 6,7%
Coll de Fumanyà (cat.2) 5,0km @ 9,4%
Collada de Sant Isidre (cat.2) 5,1km @ 8,6%
Santuari de Queralt (cat.2) 4,4km @ 7,5%

After a rest for the night which is likely to be in Barcelona, the weekend is here with a vengeance, as we have the toughest mountain stage to date, and one of the hardest of the whole race, even though three of the five categorized climbs are only cat.2, as we take the Vuelta into the Pyrenees and shake the GC up big time.

The stage starts in the medieval centre of Vic, a city north of Barcelona which has surprisingly little tradition in the Vuelta and the Volta a Catalunya, but was a regular host of the Setmana Catalana back when that was still running, owing to its excellent place to transition from the lower coastal climbs and the higher Pyrenean monoliths as well as sitting at the base of descents from the Macizo de Montseny.

The first quarter of the stage is pretty much just flat to slightly uphill false flat as the land slowly ascends above sea level as we approach the Pyrenees, this uphill drag being well known to any stages heading from Cataluña to the mountains. After passing through Ripoll, real climbing begins. First up is the Collada de Toses. It's a long climb which isn't overly complex, but as you can see from the profile it makes 1st category mainly by virtue of that last 5km including 2km at 9,5% near the end; it consists of a long slow drag, then a slight descent, and then a tougher section that gradually ramps up to a steep finale. In fact, isolating the tough part of the climb out gives us some even tougher ramps, so not sure which of those profiles is the most accurate. After the summit it flattens out then there is an uncategorized ramp up to the Coll de la Creueta, for we are effectively climbing the toughest and least consistent of the many approaches to that summit.

After this we descent at length, passing through traditional cycling stop-offs like the scenic town of Castellar de'n Hug, often used as an ascent or a stop-off en route to La Creueta in the Volta or the Setmana.

The descent flattens out and takes us to the town of Bagà, which you may well remember hosted the queen stage and final mountain stage of my last Vuelta, which finished in Barcelona. That stage went over Creueta from a different side and looped around Bagà via the Coll de Pradell to finish with a mountaintop finish on the mighty Coll de Pal. Now, I try not to repeat myself too much, so while we are seeing the Coll de Pradell in today's stage, it is not with the Fumanyà-Pradell double-climb side that I used in the previous route, instead it's the more conventional Vallcebre side. This one is truly brutal, and that's why it's the first ESP-categorized mountain of the race. Take the same format as the Collada de Toses - a shallower first half, quick respite with a descent and then a much tougher - and progressively tougher - second half. Only this one is compressed into far less space, because the ramps are far more brutal.

Look at the second half there - MURDERKILLDEATH gradients, including a kilometre at 14,5% and ramps of up to 23%. This one is going to be seriously hurty, with the final 6,3km of the ascent averaging 10% and including more monstrous ramps than you can shake a rail-thin grimpeur's leg at! But if that wasn't enough for you, the Coll de Pradell has another weapon for you to consider in its arsenal: hormigón.

That's right - agonizing concrete roads along the same lines as Bola del Mundo or San Miguel de Áralar, ramping up to 20%. Not all of the climb is on this surface, but enough to make it matter. The climb crests at 63km remaining, so I wouldn't expect many serious moves at this point, but many domestiques will lose contact, a big grupetto will form, and the impact of the climb will be felt on the later ones. The descent is fairly tricky at first, but eases up. It lasts about 10km, then there is a rolling phase for 10km before the riders are back in Vallcebre, where they clone a small amount of the Pradell finish, only to turn left where they previously turned right, and take on the ascent from there to Fumanyà, which was descended between the two summits in my last Vuelta. It is not at all inconsiderable either, however - it is effectively the stretch from km 9 to km 14 in this profile - note the max ramp again of 23%, and the kilometre at 12,4% early in the climb (the 2km shared with Pradell), before the brief respite then the second ramp culminating in a final kilometre at 12,1%. Cresting with 38km to go, the first worthwhile strikes for home could well take place here, especially as after this there is a long, steep and technical descent to consolidate the advantages that can be gained on the steep final kilometres of the ascent. And then, the slopes ramp up in the reverse direction again. Of course.

At 5km at a little under 9% and a maximum of "only" 15%, it's slightly easier than Fumanyà, but it is also much closer to the finish (19km out) and wears its toughest gradients at the bottom to try to encourage some moves. Also, the descent is very irregular including an uncategorized ramp of 2km including a middle stretch averaging 9% as seen here. The expectation, given that there are so few mountaintop finishes in this race and that the hardest one was actually relatively unlikely to create gaps, is that riders should be tempted to make these stages work, which means that they will have to hunt out those time gaps, and here is a good time to move.

The stage will likely be paid for by Bergà, which hosts the last intermediate sprint (putting time bonuses here is another reason to go early, incentivizing the earlier attacks) - but notably, the sprint is at the top of about 3km at a little over 5%. As a result, while we have only categorized - as most sources do - the final 4,4km from Bergà to Santuari de Queralt, the actual climb is more like 7km at 6%. Nevertheless the final 4,4km profile is notable and has 2km at 8,5% close to the end, so even if the riders are complete and utter cowards (don't count it out) there will still be the opportunity to take some time today. But hopefully this one should be in small groups by then as the lack of domestiques should give incentives to move at least on Sant Isidre for some secondary contenders who can't be allowed to go too far up the road. And with 50km ITT riding already in the bank, there should be some people who've lost enough time to need to think about when they take it back.

There is a sizable car park to cater for visitors to the Santuari de Queralt so this spectacular location should have no problem with hosting the stage finale.

 

[bp92]

Well that escalated quickly...
While Pradell isn't my favorite climb for stage designs (not many good finishing locations near it), it's undoubtedly a very tough climb. And going through the hardest sections twice should hurt a lot.
Nice stage.


Since there's a Tour and a Vuelta being posted right now (and I just posted a Vuelta anyway), I think I'll do a Giro now.
The gimmick is the same as this year's Vuelta's: only never-before-used summit finishes. There are six of them in total; one in the Appenines, five in the Alps (my Giri tend to be very Alps-heavy; too many awesome climbs up there).
I tried to make the finishes as plausible as I could, mostly using ski stations that haven't been visited by the Giro (or locations that have been commented as possible finishes anyway), but there are a couple finishes in smaller locations which might not be that plausible.

 

[bp92]

Giro d'Italia Stage 1: Pompei - Napoli, 26km (TTT)(***)

Climbs: None.

The race starts with a team time trial between Pompei, famous for its ancient Roman ruins buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, and Napoli, the third-largest city in Italy and starting point of the 2013 Giro d'Italia. The route is pretty straightforward, with only a few corners near the start and end of the stage, and pretty much flat.

(yeah I know I'm not very creative with opening stages)

 

[52520Andrew]

Re:

In fairness to you for having the same run-in as the 2016 Tour, who would ever have predicted that ASO would actually choose to go by the best possible run-in to their chosen stage finish?

Thanks, I mean it stinks that it happened just as I was making my tour but at the same time it is nice to see ASO
using this combination and it should be great stage in the first week of the real tour. Really nice stage to Berga (Santuari de Queralt), that one is going to weigh on the legs.

Yep your stage to Clermont Ferrand is good, as is your whole tour so far (apart from the 60km ITT)

Thanks, don't worry too much about the ITT as I only have one more and it is hilly. Always a chance someone crushes the flat one but they will need to defend themselves the rest of the way and that will not be easy.

 

[bp92]

Giro d'Italia Stage 2: Mondragone - Fiumicino, 196km (*)

Climbs: Itri (8,2km @ 3,1%)

The second stage starts in Mondragone in northwestern Campania and ends in Fiumicino, home to Italy's largest airport (Leonardo Da Vinci-Fiumicino, serving nearby Rome). The route goes mostly along the coast, with several very exposed roads in the second half of the stage. Wind may play an important factor here. Other than that, the stage is pretty much flat except for a small climb early on the stage (whose only purpose will be to decide the first wearer of the mountains jersey), so a sprinter should take the win.

 

[52520Andrew]

Stage 8, St. Flour - Millau 236.6 km

Time to continue our journey through the Massif Central and this should be another tough stage. There are no first category climbs today and we do not get terribly high up but there are 7 total climbs on the day and it should wear the riders down quite a bit over the long length of the stage. The stage starts innocent enough although a bit hilly as we travel from St. Flour to the southeast towards Mende.

That is where the fun starts as we go into the Gorges du Tarn and start going up and down the different roads there. I am not the first person to go up and down river valleys to make hilly stages but it is a good idea and can make things a lot of fun as opposed to just going through the Gorges du Tarn along the bottom and not climbing anything. The roads are a bit narrow in some places, probably the biggest concern being the descent before the Cote de Vignes but if that becomes too much a problem, we can just follow the Gorges du Tarn along until the climb starts bypassing the Col de Rieisse. Even if the riders decide to soft pedal the climbs here, the scenery through the Gorges du Tarn is beautiful and the TV cameras can keep our attention.

The Gorges du Tarn

After the Cote de Vignes, there is a bit of flat before we get to the next climb which is not terribly steep. After this climb however we descend into Millau and under the shadow of the beautiful Millau Viaduct. Then more fun starts as we climb the Cote de Brunas just to the southeast of Millau at 4 km and 8% before looping back to Millau. I was tempted to finish the stage here with a downhill finish and I came very close to doing so but I want to make sure the GC riders battle a final climb out and get worn down a bit in anticipation of the stage tomorrow.

Millau Viaduct

So this final climb for the GC men to battle it out on is La Causse Noir, it is not a terribly hard climb and it will not hinder an attack on the Cote de Brunas if a rider is willing to make a go for it. It is big enough to provide some fireworks at the end of the day though and should provide a nice dress rehearsal for the stage tomorrow since without giving too much away, the GC men will need to show up. There is a gravel area at the top of the climb where the post race ceremony can take place and the cars can all park along the road ahead.

The riders will have no transfer tonight in anticipation for the stage tomorrow where we will have our first HC climb for the riders to battle on. It is a combo that has been used a fair amount on this thread so it should not be hard to guess what is coming next for our finale in the Massif Central.

 

[Tonton]

Damn it...MIllau with finish atop the Pouncho d'Agast . I'm back to the drawing board . Between ASO and the Super Lioran, and now this finish, that's a few setbacks for my own TdF design. BTW I'll let you guys finish before I post mine. Anyways, great job so far. I know this area quite well and there are ways to climb, descend, climb non-stop for great racing. No need to go vanilla in the Gorges du Tarn as in '15 and keep the toughy for Mende IMO. Nicely done .