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Race Design Thread

Page 202 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
Jun 30, 2014
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Ok, that's a little bit longer than my 33km ITT.
Sorry, I've got some problems with my internet connection right now, but I'll post the next stage tomorrow.
 
Re:

Mayomaniac said:
The stage finishes in Graz, the capital of Styria and second-largest city in Austria. Graz has about 270,000 inhabitants and nearly 50, 000 of those are university students, it has a reputation of being an university town, even if the six universities in Graz are a bit overrated and nothing special.
Sadly I know a decent amount of pretentious hipsters that study in Graz, so I'm not the biggest fan of the town, but it's a stunning City, I'm just a hater. ;)

It's my town, i also studied there, so thanks a lot.
 
Giro d'Italia

first week
(Mon) rest day
(Tue) stage 9: Siena - Terni
(Wed) stage 10: Spoleto - Recanati
(Thu) stage 11: Jesi - Urbino
(Fri) stage 12: Fano - Ferrara

(Sat) stage 13: Valdobbiadene - Monte Grappa, 113 km

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We have finally reached the Alps and celebrate this with a short but very intense stage. Valdobbiadene is a beautiful wine growing area so the first few kilometers will be very pretty indeed.

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The first climb is Monte Cesen (15,7 km 6,5%) at km 18.

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The ascent is nearly completely in the woods, but at the top it opens up and there are spectacular views of the valley below.

The riders then descend back to Valdobbiadene and have the luxury of some 15 easy km. The rest of the stage is simply brutal. There are at least 9 ways to climb Monte Grappa; we will use three of them, two for climbing, one for descending. We won't use the most famous road from Romano d'Ezzelino.

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The second climb of the day is the yellow road on the map above, Bocca di Forca (km 60). It is a monster, 9,9 km with an average gradient of 11,4%. This is even steeper than the Mortirolo, but a bit shorter.

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Most of the suffering will be done in the woods (again similar to Mortirolo), but the final kilometers are out in the open.

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The next 7 km are done on a ridge road, which is narrow but has good tarmac. It is at first downhill, then slightly uphill. The uphill part has a few tunnels but also some great views.

The actual descent will be done on the road to Semonzo (green road), which was used in the Giro as an ascent in 2010 and 2014.

After 8 flat km Monte Grappa is tackled again, this time to the top. For the ascent we choose Salto della Capra (purple road), also known as La Vedetta. From the village of Fietta this means 9,6 km with an average gradient of 10,7% and more than two dozens hairpins. The hardest part is at the end with a full kilometer at 15%, the hairpins are often even steeper.

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After that the ridge road again and the final rise to Cima Grappa, which is comparatively easy.

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This should be a massive stage for gc. I would expect major action at Bocca di Forca, as it is simply too hard to be ignored. Even if the favorites wait until Salto della Capra, it should still be very good.
 
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Looking at the map Bocca di Forca should be the Strada degli Alpini side of Monte Grappa, there's an even better profile for that side of the climb, Moose McKnuckles once wrote that this side of the Monte Grappa is the hardest climb that he has ever ridden.
 
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Stage 5: Voitsberg - Lammerdorfer Hütte; 192km
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The first MTF of the race and it's an ungodly steep one that Javier Guillén would love.
The race starts in Voitsberg, a small town in Styria, the hometown of Bernhard Eisel.
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The first 11km of the day are false flat, then the first cat. 1 climb of the race starts, Gaberl Sattel.
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It's a long climb, but the first part is false flat and only the last 9km are over 4% steep, but the climb has a max. gradient of 14.3% and a few ramps at 12%, so we should get a pretty strong breakaway.
After the long descent we have 80km of false flat, shortly after the descent the riders will ride through Judendorf the hometown of Christian Pfannberger.
After 80km of false flat the next climb of the day starts, Turracher Höhe, 21km at 4.1%, most of the climb is just flase flat, but you have 5km at 9.4% with 1km at 11% and a max. gradient of 12.5% near the top of the climb, the final 2km are once again false flat.
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The following descent is really steep, the max. gradient seems to be 23%, it's not the most technical one but such a steep descent is always challenging.
Then we have 8km of false flat before a 2nd descent will bring the riders down to the shore of the stunning Lake Millstatt/Millstätter See.
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The the final climb of the day starts, the brutal Lammersdorfer Hütte, 5.2km at 15.2% with a max. gradient of 18%, Guillén would love this climb.
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Before the actual climb you have 5.2km af 5% with a max. gradient of 11% that will bring the riders to Lammersdorf.
There are 2 parking lots around Lammersdorfer Hütte, so there's enough space to host a MTF for a one week race. I wouldn't have any teamcars on such a steep climb, only motobikes just like on the Zoncolan.
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The stagewin could go to the breakaway, the next stage will be longer and feature multiple hard climbs, so the gc group will probably softpedal most of the stage until we reach the Millstätter See. From Millstätter See to Lammersdorf the strong teams will use the firepower to keep their leaders near the front, those trains will probably set a brutal tempo until we reach Lammersdorf, from Lammersdorf onwards it's every man for himself, riding at your own pace is probably the best thing that you can do on such a steep climb, it's almost too steep to attack.
 
It's the kind of climb where in most places I'd ask, how actually ridable IS that thing? But in Austria I know there are a ton of such roads that are perfectly ridable, they just elected to go as close to going as the crow flies from the valley floor to the summit as vehicle capabilities would allow...
 
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Yeah, the thing is rideable and you can see one of the parking lots on the penultimate picture, I haven't found better pictures of the parking lots, just like you said, there any many similar roads in Austria.
 
Stage 7: Windischgarsten - Hinzenbach, 163km

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GPM:
Magdalenaberg (cat.3) 3,5km @ 5,2%
Pöstlingberg (cat.3) 3,2km @ 7,2%
Stroheimer Berg (cat.3) 4,1km @ 5,0%

After the ITT comes the easiest and probably least interesting stage thus far; a comparative flat stage and veritable Sanremo-alike, only at barely half the length.

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We start in a Luftkurort, Windischgarsten, which sits close to the Hengstpaß and held an IBU Cup round a few years ago, not far from Tauplitz where we finished yesterday. It got its name because it needed to be differentiated from a different Garsten; due to the high number of Slovenes settling in the area it was given the modifier "Windisch", a reflection of an old Germanic word for Slavs in general (similar to how the Lusatian Sorbs were previously known by Germans as Wends). It's also close to Hinterstoder, which hosts the Alpine World Cup, one of the main Oberösterreich ski venues, but we're heading out of the mountains and onto something that comes at a very high premium in Austria: flat terrain.

There are a couple of climbs in the stage, however, because it IS Austria. The Magdalenaberg isn't going to cause anybody any trouble, however, and then we head through a few fairly sizable towns such as Wels before heading for an intermediate sprint in the regional capital and the third largest city in the country, Linz, whose history and eponymous cake has been mentioned here recently so I shan't bore you with a repeat.

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This leads us to the toughest ascent of the day, Pöstlingberg with its scenic castle, the Hausberg of Linz (rather small in comparison to many Austrian Hausbergs, such as the Gaisberg for Salzburg or Dobratsch for Villach!); after this we have an undulating stretch over the hills of the left bank of the Danube, before crossing it back to the south for a loop around our finishing circuit.

Hinzenbach is known primarily for its small ("normal hill") ski-jumping hill, which is used regularly in the Summer Grand Prix and annually in the Women's World Cup. It also sits at the foot of an interesting little climb called Stroheimer Berg.

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The opposite side of the climb is harder - around 2,5km at a little under 8% - but there's already enough for puncheurs and climbers in this race, I want to make them have to work hard for their time here, so it's the easier, Poggio-esque side for us. The first 500m is at 9% or so, before it flattens out; we then get some uphill false flat - 2km at 3-4% - before it really ramps up for a final kilometre at 8% including ramps of up to 17%. This crests 14km from the line, with the descent being very technical, before some wide open roads back into Hinzenbach to give the bunch the advantage in the chase if the gap is small. This could be a small break or it could be a reduced sprint, with the latter seemingly more likely - except that the GC men may just let a break go here after all the heavy days to date, so the sprinters' teams - what few there will be given the lack of opportunities for them on this parcours - will need to work hard to justify the chance to fight for the win.

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Sorry for the delay, but i really need to get ready for the exams. I could wait with it after everything will settle down, but will take like a month or so, so i prefer to end what i begun. Next stage will be posted propably after this weekend.

Critérium du Dauphiné by railxmig - stage 5

First flat stage of this race intended for sprinters between Vienne and a town outside Valence that's propably new to Dauphine.

Library: click here

Vienne - Saint-Marcel-lès-Valence, 155km, ~700m asc, Flat

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Start: Vienne, Espace Saint-Germain
Km 0: Saint-Romain-en-Gal, Rue des Missionnaires, 4,3km form the start
Finish: Saint-Marcel-lès-Valence, Avenue de Provence, 1,1km straight
Sprint: Saint-Donat-sur-l'Herbasse, Avenue Général de Gaulle, 450m straight
Feed zone: Viriville, Route de Marcilloles

Start – km0:
Espace Saint-Germain - Avenue Général Leclerc - Cours de Verdun - Cours Marc-Antoine Brillier - Cours Romestang - Place de Miremont - Rue Henri Jacquier - Rue Victor Hugo - Chemin des Aqueducs - Place Saint-Louis - Pont de Lattre-de-Tassigny - Saint-Romain-en-Gal, D502 - Saint-Romain-en-Gal, D386 - Saint-Romain-en-Gal, Avenue de la Gare - Saint-Romain-en-Gal, Rue du Trye - Saint-Romain-en-Gal, Rue des Missionnaires

List of climbs:
Côte du Recru - 7,1km, 4,9%, 3 cat. 515m
Côte de Chambaran - 4,3km, 4,7%, 3 Cat. 579m

Departaments:
Isère, start - km0
Rhône, km0 - 21,9km
Isère, 21,9km - 102,7km
Drôme, 102,7km - finish

Preface:
First and propably the only sprint stage in this race. It's quite short – just over 150km. It's unchalenging and should be used by GC riders as a recouperation day. At the beginning it goes west into Rhône dep. and Massif du Pilat. Then south to Condrieu and through the east bank of Rhône to immediately go inland as far as Roybon. It will share some of the stage with Dauphine 2012 stage 1 Seyssins – Saint-Vallier. Then it will enter the Drôme dep and continue around Romans-sur-Isère and Bourg-lès-Valence (entering Valence aglomeration) to finish in Saint-Marcel-lès-Valence.

This stage has two cat. 3 hills but the last one is 70km off the finish so they won't be threatning. There shouldn't be any problem with wind either. This stage has its amount of turns but not than much to count it as technically challenging. Last 10kms can be quite difficult as the stage will proceed through the outskirts of Bourg-lès-Valence and will go through some amount of rond-points and a couple of road islands.

Purpose:
Not much to write. The purpose of this stage is to give something for sprinters. They've been neglected so far so there they have. There shouldn't be any changes to GC classification as GC contenders should use it for recouperation. Next days will be much more intense and climb-heavy.

Start:
Stage will start in Vienne on Espace Saint-Germain/Avenue Général Leclerc. Last time Vienne was hosting a stage was the start to Dauphine 2008 stage 4 Vienne – Annemasse. The km 0 will be in Saint-Romain-en-Gal on Rue des Missionnaires, 4,3km form the start. Saint-Romain-en-Gal is a town west of Vienne, on the other side of Rhône river. Technically I should count it as part of Vienne aglomeration but it belongs to different departament – Rhône instead of Isère. To reach km 0 peloton will follow:
Espace Saint-Germain - Avenue Général Leclerc - Cours de Verdun - Cours Marc-Antoine Brillier - Cours Romestang - Place de Miremont - Rue Henri Jacquier - Rue Victor Hugo - Chemin des Aqueducs - Place Saint-Louis - Pont de Lattre-de-Tassigny - Saint-Romain-en-Gal, D502 - Saint-Romain-en-Gal, D386 - Saint-Romain-en-Gal, Avenue de la Gare - Saint-Romain-en-Gal, Rue du Trye - Saint-Romain-en-Gal, Rue des Missionnaires.
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Climbs:
This stage has two cat. 3 hills that won't be any challenge to anyone.

Côte du Recru (515m). The first climb of the day is a cat. 3 climb – 7,1km at 4,9%. It begins just after km 0. First 2kms are the hardest one at around 7,3%. Then it's basically a false flat. It's located at the foot of Mont Monnet in Région de Condrieu, east part of Massif du Pilat. It should be a good terrain to create a breakaway.

Côte de Chambaran (579m). Located just outside Roybon in Plateau de Chambaran. It was in mentioned before stage to Saint-Vallier. It's a cat. 3 climb – 4,3km at 4,7%.

Sprint:
Sprint will be held after 127,8km in Saint-Donat-sur-l'Herbasse on Avenue Général de Gaulle at the end of 450m straight line. It is quite close to the finish line – only 27km. Being so close to the finish line should limit the chances of breakaway succeding and should nicely warm up legs before the actual stage finish. Tempo might be high enough to even catch the breakaway to give place for another, much stronger try to break after this sprint making those last kms quite chaotic.

Feed zone:
Feed zone is located in between Marcilloles and Viriville on Route de Marcilloles [D156] 76,2km from the start; 3km before the base of Côte de Chambaran and 50km before sprint.

Finish:
Finish will be held in Saint-Marcel-lès-Valence. It will be on Avenue de Provence at the end of around 1,1km straight line.
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It's definitely first time ever Saint-Marcel-lès-Valence hosted a stage in either Paris-Nice, Dauphine or Tour. It's one of the group of towns belonging to Valence aglomeration that developed on the old roads to Valence (ex. Portes-lès-Valence) so they're quite long but thick in size. I doubt Saint-Marcel-lès-Valence will ever host a Dauphine/Paris-Nice stage in real life.
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Run-in to the finish line is interesting. Peloton enters Bourg-lès-Valence around 10kms from the finish line. 3km inside Bourg-lès-Valence are a series of 5 rond-points in span of 4km on Route de Talavard – Rue Marcel Vivier – Avenue Georges Brassens – Chemin de Saint-Barthélémy – Avenue Jacques Brel. Last 3km however are outside Bourg-lès-Valence and are lot less technicall with only 2 significant turns inside last 2kms.

Roads:
Most of the roads in this stage are two-lane on good surface. Only narrowings are obviously in visited towns and cities. It's intersting that this stage practically doesn't use any of more important (or as i call red) roads. Only intersects with four of them – D386 in Condrieu (21,2km), N7 in Auberives-sur-Varèze (29,2km), D519 in Marcilloles (76km) and D532 in Chanos-Curson (136,6km).

Possible outcome:
There is basically only one possible outcome – sprint to the finish line. This stage was created for sprinters.There are no difficulties in last 50km and presence of sprint just 30km off the finish line almost makes sure that this stage will be won by the fast men.

Geography:
Start of this stage – Vienne is located in Val du Rhône between the Rhône river and Les Balmes Viennoises – hills on the east bank of Rhône in the historic region of Bas-Dauphiné. Then the stage goes west to Région de Condrieu, east part of Massif du Pilat. Then south crossing Rhône in Condrieu and through the Val du Rhône for around 5km before turning east to Bois de Taravas and Massif des Bonnevaux as far as Penol (a couple of kms outside La Côte-Saint-André). Then the stage goes south into Plateau de Chambaran (Côte de Chambaran) as far as Génissieux (just outside Romans-sur-Isère) turning west into Saint-Donat-sur-l'Herbasse. The stage comes back to Val du Rhône, crosses Isère in Châteauneuf-sur-Isère and enters Valence aglomeration in Bourg-lès-Valence to then turn east in last 5km to finish in Saint-Marcel-lès-Valence.

Les Balmes Viennoises – hills outside of Vienne, on the east bank of Rhône river. They are formed by a base of molasse (Miocene) topped by a layer of puddingstone (Pleistocene). Highest hills reach around 415m a.s.l. (Le Télégraphe, 413m).

Bas-Dauphiné – historic region of lower Dauphiné. Now it's mainly region around Vienne and Bourgoin-Jallieu.

Région de Condrieu – east part of Massif du Pilat with hills as high as Mont Monnet (789m).

Massif des Bonnevaux – hills located north of Comelle in la Plaine du Liers. Summits reaching up to around 610m (Mont Buffet, 606m). It's home to around 300 ponds that habits some rare dragonfly species.

Plateau de Chambaran – area and natural park around Roybon and Saint-Siméon-de-Bressieux, mostly forested (Bois de Chambaran). Most of the molasse formed land is located around 700m a.s.l. Highest point – Camp de César, 789m. The area is rich in wildlife – deer, boars, birds etc.
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Tourist attractions:
Saint-Romain-en-Gal (0km) – Gallo-Roman archeological site
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Condrieu (21,2km) – Château de Condrieu, Château du Rozay
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Vernioz (34km) – Jardin du Bois Marquis

Assieu (36,5km) – Château Juveneton, Château Richoux

Saint-Romain-de-Surieu (43km) – Donjon de Surieu, Église Notre-Dame de Surieu – registered under the Historic Monuments in 1927

Moissieu-sur-Dolon (53km) – Château de Bresson
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Faramans (68km) – Base de Loisirs les Eydoches

Roybon (88km) – Château des Loives, Château Saint-Romme, Église Saint-Jean-Baptiste, La statue de la Liberté de Roybon – hilarious copy of the obscure and relatively unknown Statue of Liberty in New York, made in 1906 in memory of Henri Saint-Romme (1797 – 1862), one of the main people of French Second Republic (1848 – 1852) in the departament of Isère.
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Saint-Antoine-l'Abbaye (100km) – Abbaye de Saint-Antoine
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Génissieux (116,5km) – Château Giller from XVIc.

Peyrins (120km) – Château du Gatelet, Château de Sallemard, Église Saint-Ange

Saint-Donat-sur-l'Herbasse (127km) – Collégiale et Palais Delphinal, Château de Collonges
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Châteauneuf-sur-Isère (141km) – Chapelle Saint-Hugues, Fontaine de Saint-Hugues, Saint-Hugues – bishop of Grenoble (1080 – 1132)
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Bourg-lès-Valence (150km) – Collégiale Saint-Pierre, Château du Valentin, Château des Confolens – medieval castle from XI c.
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Stage 6: Spittal an der Drau - Ried im Zillertal; 224km
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After the only MTF of the race we have the longest stage of my Österreich Rundfahrt and it's a pretty hard one.
The stage starts in Spittal an der Drau, a town in Carinthia. It's the hometown of the former ski jumper Thomas Morgenstern, winner of the 2010–11 Four Hills Tournament (ok, now I've got at least one winter sports reference in my Österreich Rundfahrt, Libertine should appreciate that).
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After 69km the riders will ride trough the alpine town Lienzthat is sorrounded by a few really hard climbs (at least 3 of those, Hochstein, Zettersfeld and Lienzer Dolomitenhütte are probably in the same league as the Mortirolo) but today we won't use any of those climbs.
After 87km the first climb of the stage finally starts, it's Felbertauern, not the hardest climb in the wold but it's a nice warm-up and only the first climb of the stage.
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on top of the climb we have the 5,313 m long Felbertauerntunnel, then the descent starts.
After the descent we have about 20km of false flat, then the next climb starts,
Gerlospass, 11.1km at 5.8%, but the first part of the climb is much steeper, the max gradient of the climb is about 17%.
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The following descent will bring the riders to the Zillertal and the final part of the descent is rather technical.
Now the hardest part of the stage starts, even if I'm only using two of the easiest climbs of the Zillertaler Höhenstraße.
Right after the descent we have Zellberg, 9.8km at 10% with a max gradient of 15%, followed by a steep and technical descent.
Right after the descent the final climb of the day starts, Äußere Embergstraße, a secondary road of the Zillertaler Höhenstraße, 6km at 10.1%.
The final descent on the Zillertaler Höhenstraße will bring the riders down to Ried im Zillertal.
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After the hard MTF this will be a really hard stage, it's long and it features a few hard climbs. If someone has a strong the he could use it to set a high pace on the Gerlospass, in that chase the climbs of the Zillertaler Höhenstraße would probably create even bigger gaps. But it's not just about climbing, descending skills will also be pretty important on this stage, a good descender should be able to gain some time on the descents.
Sorry Libertine, I haven't used the brutal Melchboden-Zirmstadel-Hochfügen combination, you seem to love that one, but that would have been a little bit too much the final stage of my Österreich Rundfahrt is going to be a hard one and it should have an impact on the gc, so I didn't want to go full Zomegnan on stage 6.
The next stage is going to be an easier one.
 
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Re: Re:

Tonton said:
Mayomaniac said:
After the only MTF of the race we have the longest stage of my Österreich Rundfahrt and it's a pretty hard one.
Yes, pretty hard :D . The final two climbs are nasty. You could see riders explode and lose 3-4 minutes. Great stage. Great course.
Those are two of the easier climbs of the Zillertaler Höhenstraße, Melchboden (13.5km at 10.5%) and Zirmstadel (10.1km at 11.9%) are even harder, the Zillertaler Höhenstraße is just brutal.
 
Re: Re:

Mayomaniac said:
Tonton said:
Mayomaniac said:
After the only MTF of the race we have the longest stage of my Österreich Rundfahrt and it's a pretty hard one.
Yes, pretty hard :D . The final two climbs are nasty. You could see riders explode and lose 3-4 minutes. Great stage. Great course.
Those are two of the easier climbs of the Zillertaler Höhenstraße, Melchboden (13.5km at 10.5%) and Zirmstadel (10.1km at 11.9%) are even harder, the Zillertaler Höhenstraße is just brutal.
Damn :eek: .
 
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Re: Re:

Tonton said:
Mayomaniac said:
Tonton said:
Mayomaniac said:
After the only MTF of the race we have the longest stage of my Österreich Rundfahrt and it's a pretty hard one.
Yes, pretty hard :D . The final two climbs are nasty. You could see riders explode and lose 3-4 minutes. Great stage. Great course.
Those are two of the easier climbs of the Zillertaler Höhenstraße, Melchboden (13.5km at 10.5%) and Zirmstadel (10.1km at 11.9%) are even harder, the Zillertaler Höhenstraße is just brutal.
Damn :eek: .
Yes, those two monster with only 5km of flat between eachother would be a little bit over the top.
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It's kind of funny that always when someone mentions the Zillertaler Höhenstraße someone else in the forum notices this pretty unknown climbs for the first time and is like "WTF? something like this exists" :D

When I used them for the last time the first comment to my post was
Valv.Piti said:
What the hell are those climbs Giggs.....
:D :D :D
 
I know there is a Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré already started, but there are two Tour of Austria's going on, so lets get started with the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré. It's my first attempt at the race so I probably haven't got the balance of stages quite right.

There are:
1 ITT, 2 possible Sprint stages, 2 Medium Mountain stages and 3 High Mountain stages

Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré Stage 1: Le Teil - Vallon Pont d'Arc (152km) (Sat) (Medium Mountains)

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Climbs:
Gorges de l’Ardèche 5.4km @ 2.8%
Col du Cavernes 6.2km @ 5.1%
Gorges de l’Ardèche 5.4km @ 2.8%

Sprints:
Vallon Pont d'Arc @ 73.2km
Bourg Saint Andéol @ 103.8km

We start in the department of the Ardeche. Though to be precise, we start in the town of Le Teil right next to the Rhoneriver. Which as you can see, has a rather nice bridge. The riders head downstream for about 30km from Le Teil and it's neighbour across the river, Montelimar. This is where the riders reach the first climb of the day. This is the Gorges de l’Ardèche With an average gradient of just 2.8% it's nothing special that will blow the race apart, however it may be a launch pad when the riders tackle it for a second time, later in the stage. An example of this, was last years race on the first stage. The riders head along the top of the famous Gorges, before descending though the finish line into Vallon Pont d'Arc Here is of course the famous arch/arc that will probably be shown a few time when the Tour de France comes down here later this year. The riders will then head back out up the Col du Cavernes which takes the riders past the Caverne du Pont d'Arc a museum home to ancient drawing from the walls of the caves. The riders reach the top of the 5.1% Climb, and descend a little before rider along a plateau. This is followed by a descent down to the town of Bourg Saint Andéol for the prime, next to the Rhone. The riders leave this town to rejoin the route they completed earlier in the day, as they head up the Gorges de l’Ardèche climb for the second time. The rolling plateau at the top might make for a reasonable amount of attacks that may or may not stick. An example was given above. This is followed by a descent back into Vallon Pont d'Arc for the finish.

Vallon Pont d'Arc:
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Gigs_98 said:
It's kind of funny that always when someone mentions the Zillertaler Höhenstraße someone else in the forum notices this pretty unknown climbs for the first time and is like "WTF? something like this exists" :D

When I used them for the last time the first comment to my post was
Valv.Piti said:
What the hell are those climbs Giggs.....
:D :D :D

I'm not from this (Austria) neck of the woods, and although I know my geography, I can't help but notice how many killer-climbs are out there and how little we know about them. These two climbs are absolute beasts, and there are more of them in Austria. But don't get the recognition that they deserve. Mostly because of GT legend, Mortirolo and Angliru, or make-a-wish-for-a-TdF like the Grand Colombier. That's why I like these designs in Austria or South America. I never stop being amazed: after the now-pretty-much-defunct Fantasy Doping Draft, it is my favorite thread. And yes, WTF!!! More please :) .
 
@Austria. I've thought that Zillertaler Höhenstraße was overused, but seemingly i was wrong. Propably not for long though. I hate Austria. There is like thousands of 10km, 10% climbs with mostly good enough road conditions. It's like with Giro, too many possibilities. I will never design anything here, this place is too good for me. I hope, that Austria will remain kind of wild and unexplored. I don't want to see those magnificent specimens living here to be hunted to near or full extinction.

lemon cheese cake said:
I know there is a Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré already started, but there are two Tour of Austria's going on, so lets get started with the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré. It's my first attempt at the race so I probably haven't got the balance of stages quite right.

There are:
1 ITT, 2 possible Sprint stages, 2 Medium Mountain stages and 3 High Mountain stages

Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré Stage 1: Le Teil - Vallon Pont d'Arc (152km) (Sat) (Medium Mountains)

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Climbs:
Gorges de l’Ardèche 5.4km @ 2.8%
Col du Cavernes 6.2km @ 5.1%
Gorges de l’Ardèche 5.4km @ 2.8%

Sprints:
Vallon Pont d'Arc @ 73.2km
Bourg Saint Andéol @ 103.8km

We start in the department of the Ardeche. Though to be precise, we start in the town of Le Teil right next to the Rhoneriver. Which as you can see, has a rather nice bridge. The riders head downstream for about 30km from Le Teil and it's neighbour across the river, Montelimar. This is where the riders reach the first climb of the day. This is the Gorges de l’Ardèche With an average gradient of just 2.8% it's nothing special that will blow the race apart, however it may be a launch pad when the riders tackle it for a second time, later in the stage. An example of this, was last years race on the first stage. The riders head along the top of the famous Gorges, before descending though the finish line into Vallon Pont d'Arc Here is of course the famous arch/arc that will probably be shown a few time when the Tour de France comes down here later this year. The riders will then head back out up the Col du Cavernes which takes the riders past the Caverne du Pont d'Arc a museum home to ancient drawing from the walls of the caves. The riders reach the top of the 5.1% Climb, and descend a little before rider along a plateau. This is followed by a descent down to the town of Bourg Saint Andéol for the prime, next to the Rhone. The riders leave this town to rejoin the route they completed earlier in the day, as they head up the Gorges de l’Ardèche climb for the second time. The rolling plateau at the top might make for a reasonable amount of attacks that may or may not stick. An example was given above. This is followed by a descent back into Vallon Pont d'Arc for the finish.

Vallon Pont d'Arc:
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Judging by your 1st stage's place we won't collide much as i'm heading straight into Alpes now and i barely spend any time west of Rhône (around 20km). I'm not 100% convinced if Le Teil is a good place for a grand depart, but it is technically a fine choice, as i think it was a finishing town a couple of years ago so there must be enough space for Dauphine.

Rest of the stage seems to be very unorthodox with a very big lap on D4 - D290. This stage doesn't seem to pose much problems challenge-wise, so i assume it's mostly about Gorges de l'Ardèche. If the beautiful, twisty D290 road is available for Dauphine then i assume this stage is mostly about presenting the natural goods of this region. I wonder, if changing the start place to somewhere further or to a more flexible place would change the outcome of this stage.

I see that Avignon is not that far away and it was Dauphine's grand depart a couple of times (last time in 2006?). Orange is maybe too close, but it's history of being one of the last cities to be in various degree independed from French kingdom, having very rich Roman heritage with a Triumphal Arc or Theatre Antique. I feel that those two places are more fitting as a grand depart rather than Le Teil unless your second stage will go in south-east direction or you just want to be original. If not, then the stage can wander north of Avignon or Orange and then cross Rhône in either Châteauneuf-du-Rhône (D73) or Bourg-Saint-Andéol (D59) and then straight to Vallon-Pont-d'Arc via D290 Gorges de l'Ardèche (or Col du Cavernes) reaching these 150-160km widthout any laps.

I'm not sure about Vallon-Pont-d'Arc. I know there will be an ITT in Tour de France, but ITT's are not that demanding if it comes to finishing. There is not much of straight roads in the town while this stage has a high risk of ending as a bigger bunch sprint and with such finishes there should be at least those uninterrupted 300m straight for safety reasons. I was wondering for some time if there's a possibility of a punchy hilltop finish in Aubenas (30km north of Vallon-Pont-d'Arc) somewhere around it's downtown. There is some parking space on Rue Charles Demars while the stage would then finish maybe on Faubourg Camille Laprade after Avenue Léonce Verny at the top of a 1km, 5% hill (similar to Auch finish in Route du Sud). I know Aubernas was in Tour 2009 stage 19, but then it was a flat finish on Avenue de Roqua (north of the downtown).
 
railxmig said:
Rest of the stage seems to be very unorthodox with a very big lap on D4 - D290. This stage doesn't seem to pose much problems challenge-wise, so i assume it's mostly about Gorges de l'Ardèche. If the beautiful, twisty D290 road is available for Dauphine then i assume this stage is mostly about presenting the natural goods of this region. I wonder, if changing the start place to somewhere further or to a more flexible place would change the outcome of this stage.

I see that Avignon is not that far away and it was Dauphine's grand depart a couple of times (last time in 2006?). Orange is maybe too close, but it's history of being one of the last cities to be in various degree independed from French kingdom, having very rich Roman heritage with a Triumphal Arc or Theatre Antique. I feel that those two places are more fitting as a grand depart rather than Le Teil unless your second stage will go in south-east direction or you just want to be original. If not, then the stage can wander north of Avignon or Orange and then cross Rhône in either Châteauneuf-du-Rhône (D73) or Bourg-Saint-Andéol (D59) and then straight to Vallon-Pont-d'Arc via D290 Gorges de l'Ardèche (or Col du Cavernes) reaching these 150-160km widthout any laps.

I'm not sure about Vallon-Pont-d'Arc. I know there will be an ITT in Tour de France, but ITT's are not that demanding if it comes to finishing. There is not much of straight roads in the town while this stage has a high risk of ending as a bigger bunch sprint and with such finishes there should be at least those uninterrupted 300m straight for safety reasons. I was wondering for some time if there's a possibility of a punchy hilltop finish in Aubenas (30km north of Vallon-Pont-d'Arc) somewhere around it's downtown. There is some parking space on Rue Charles Demars while the stage would then finish maybe on Faubourg Camille Laprade after Avenue Léonce Verny at the top of a 1km, 5% hill (similar to Auch finish in Route du Sud). I know Aubernas was in Tour 2009 stage 19, but then it was a flat finish on Avenue de Roqua (north of the downtown).

I started in Le Teil, as the race will only go into the Rhone Alpes region of france. As Avignon and Orange are both in the Vauclause department, I can not start in those two towns. In Hindsight, Montelimar is larger and probalby better to host the grand depart.

I wanted this to be a sort of test event for the Tour de France, so that's why the race finishes there. It finishes just outside the town on the D290 in between the two roundabouts just south of the town.

If I'm as slow at posting this as I am at posting my Deutschland Rundfahrt, then you'll have completed all of the races that the ASO organise, before I get to the Alpes. :D
 
lemon cheese cake said:
I started in Le Teil, as the race will only go into the Rhone Alpes region of france. As Avignon and Orange are both in the Vauclause department, I can not start in those two towns. In Hindsight, Montelimar is larger and probalby better to host the grand depart.

I wanted this to be a sort of test event for the Tour de France, so that's why the race finishes there. It finishes just outside the town on the D290 in between the two roundabouts just south of the town.

If I'm as slow at posting this as I am at posting my Deutschland Rundfahrt, then you'll have completed all of the races that the ASO organise, before I get to the Alpes. :D
I guess that's fair. Wait a sec... Ardèche is in Alpes!? Seemingly it is (checked out wikipedia to be sure). How far does Alpes reach? Pyrenees? I've always thought Alpes reach as far as Rhône. You don't need to post anything, theoretically the race can begin or end wherever you like to, it's your race. I was more messing around finding concepts and options. Sorry if you were offended or sth like that.

Critérium du Dauphiné by railxmig - stage 6

I guess i'll speed up to not conflict with you. I will go more religious today even if i'm not the most religious lad out there. I think i've seen this place in this thread once, so it should not be anything new to the public. It is a controversial place, as there is not that much of available space. Kind of a shame, as it looks like a nice place for a MTF in a medium-size french race like Dauphine or Paris-Nice. Maybe l'Avenir could use this place in real life. It's first of two Alpine stages that should decide the GC.

Library: click here

Portes-lès-Valence - Sanctuaire de Notre-Dame de la Salette, 181km, ~2200m asc, Medium Mountain/MTF

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Start: Portes-lès-Valence, Avenue de la Résistance, intersection with Rue Emile Zola
Km 0: Portes-lès-Valence, Route de Beauvallon, 3,4km from the start
Finish: Sanctuaire de Notre-Dame de la Salette, parking
Sprint: Die, Avenue Sadi Carnot, 550m straight
Feed zone: Aix-en-Diois, Le Prieuré, D539

Start - km0:
Avenue de la Résistance - Rue Emile Zola - Rue Jean Jaurès - Rue Marx Dormoy - Avenue de la Résistance - Place des Droits de l'Homme - Avenue de l'Europe - Route de Beauvallon

List of climbs:
Côte du Recru - 7,1km, 4,9%, 3 cat. 515m
Côte de Chambaran - 4,3km, 4,7%, 3 Cat. 579m

Departaments:
Drôme, start - 104,5km
Isère, 104,5km - finish

Preface:
After a couple of days in Val du Rhône the race comes back to Alpes with a cat. 1 MTF in Sanctuaire de Notre-Dame de la Salette at the edge of Massif des Écrins. The terrain before it is very bumpy with a couple of cat. 2 and 3 climbs but not enough to call it as a mountain stage. This stage can be separated into two parts.

First part. First 80km up to Aix-en-Diois is flat with an uphill tendency, characteristic for stages finishing in Gap. It's where the sprint and feed zone are located.
Second part. It begins with Col de Grimone ascent. Those around 100km are very hilly with 2 cat. 2, 2 cat. 3 and 2 uncategorised ascents. Most of this part will be featured in my Tour de France.

Purpose:
Second MTF of this race. Technically it's around the same difficulty as the one in stage 2. The stage before it is hilly, but propably not hilly enough to shake off less climbing capable GC threats. Climbers should use this stage to take back at least some eventually lost (most propably in TT) time on last MTF and mainly to create a pace hard enough to be feeled on the next, harder day. Next stage is theoretically hardest in the whole race. It might be used for a team like Sky to put the hammer down and unleash their extraterrestial power and tactical prowess, but such scenario is more propable on stage 2. Other purpose of this stage is to create a classic combo of a MTF hard day followed by even harder, downhill finish day.

Start:
Stage will start in Portes-lès-Valence on Avenue de la Résistance close to intersection with Rue Emile Zola. Portes-lès-Valence is part of Valence aglomeration. It's a couple of kms south of Valence. It's growth is thanks to being located on N7/A7, one of the busiest roads in France. It mostly has an agricultural, suburb like architecture but west and north sides are industrial (oil rafinery). Km 0 will be in (practically outside) Portes-lès-Valence on Route de Beauvallon, 3,4km from the start. To reach it peloton will follow:
Avenue de la Résistance - Rue Emile Zola - Rue Jean Jaurès - Rue Marx Dormoy - Avenue de la Résistance - Place des Droits de l'Homme - Avenue de l'Europe - Route de Beauvallon
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I don't think it ever hosted any of Paris-Nice, Dauphine or Tour stages before. I don't think this town will ever host any stage in real life. There is actualy quite a chunk of space on Avenue de la Résistance and surroundings that seem to be available and on Place/Rue du 8 Mai a small village could be established (or on this unidentified space between Avenue de la Résistance and Avenue de l'Europe). The alternative start could even be close to this place on Rue Auguste Delaune, Rue Emile Zola or Rue Jean Jaurès. I've chose this place mostly to be original, because stage races seems to like suburban towns that are part of bigger aglomeration and because propably nobody will ever think to put either a start or finish here (same with Saint-Marcel-lès-Valence).

Climbs:
This stage is very bumpy. Some of those hills will be categorised, some missed the mark.

Col de Grimone (1318m). The first climb of the day is a cat. 2 climb – 12km at 4,9%, 97km from the start. It's located in Haut-Diois between Le Jocou (2051m, highest in the region) and Toussière (1916m). It's long and not steep but it's quite irregular with slopes averaging between 3 and max 9%. There are some small plateaus and tougher slopes, but nothing too horrific. Hardest parts are just before and after the village of Grimone.
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Col du Banchet (900m). Cat. 3 climb – 2,6km at 6% lying 20km after Col de Grimone. Located in Trièves between Vercors and Dévoluy massifs at the foot of Le Ménil (1594m). Propably not the first time Dauphine sees it. It's tackled from the harder west side. This ascent is quite regular at mostly 6% with 3 serpentines.

Côte du Crozet (750m). Another cat. 3 climb just outside La Mure. It's located 33km after Col du Banchet. It's actualy very similar to Col du Banchet, a regular ascent of 2,6km at 6%.

Col de l'Holme (1215m). This, located in the northwest edge of Massif du Valgaudemar between le Chauvet (1705m) and Mont de Rousse (1877m) climb is quite important as it lies just 14km off the base of the MTF. Pace here will most propably be quite high. It's a cat. 2 climb – 6,9km at 5,6%. It's mostly regular, but gets progressively steeper towards the summit, where it reaches a 3km long plateau. The actual KOM will be where the intersection with Col de Parquetout (we're just a couple of kms away from this famous col) road is rather than where actual col is located, 3kms later. At the top there is a 3km long plateau and then a quite shallow but technically tricky descend. It was present at least once in Tour de France and propably a couple of times in Dauphine.
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Sanctuaire de Notre-Dame de la Salette (1748m). This is the MTF of this stage up to the sanctuarium. It starts a couple km after Corps and comes 14km after Col de l'Holme. It is a cat. 1 climb, 11,7km at 6,6%. Located in the northwest edge of Massif du Valgaudemar at the foot of Mont Gargas (2208m).

This climb can be separated into three ascents with small 1km plateaus. First climb is up to Saint-Julien village, it's about 3,3km at 7,5% with first couple of meters being the hardest with max 10%. it's actualy the toughest slope of the whole climb. Next ascent is up to Col des Prés-Salés (a 1km after the actual col). It's around 5km at 7,6% and max slope at rougly 9%. It's quite consistent but gets progressively flatter towards the summit. Last part of the climb starts from Col de l'Homme (not to mistake with Col de l'Holme) to the actual sanctuary. It's slightly over 1km at around 9%.

I don't know if this climb ever featured in Dauphine, i couldn't find any information about it. It could be in Dauphine in older times. Because this climb is quite inconsistent it can end up being quite selective and not easy for the diesel climbers.
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There are a couple of smaller hills that could be categorised but either just missed the mark or I've just decided to not bother with them to keep the profiles relatively clean. There are two hills that stand out from other bumps.

Col de la Croix-Haute (1179m). It's a very important col – 3km at roughly 4%. It is one of the rare cols that comfortably links Grenoble with Val Durance (Sisteron, Manosque). This, located between Trièves and Haut-Diois col is very important transport-vise as it's on the Genève/Lyon – Marseille E712 road. It's in between Col de Grimone and Col du Banchet. Dauphine used this col in 2015 Costa/Nibali breakaway stage.
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Col Accarias (892m). It could be categorised as a borderline cat. 4 climb with 3km at 3,6%. i decided against it as it is almost a false flat. It's located in Trièves at the south bank of Drac river. At the top of this col Château d'Accarias is located.

Sprint:
Sprint will be held after 60,2km in Die on Avenue Sadi Carnot at the end of 550m straight line. Wondering if any of the sprint teams will be eager to maintain a big tempo for those 60 flat kms to give their sprinters any chance for the points jersey as the next stage is not suited for them.

Feed zone:
Feed zone is located on D539, close to Le Prieuré village in commune of Aix-en-Diois after 68kms, 8kms after the sprint and around 18km off Col de Grimone base. Riders should be careful with their eating program as the feed zone is located quite early in the stage (113km from the finish line).

Finish:
Finish will be held in Sanctuaire de Notre-Dame de la Salette, close to Mont Gargas (2208m) in Massif Valgaudemar, part of Massif des Écrins. it's on top of a cat. 1 ascend – 11,7km, 6,6%. The road up to Sanctuaire is two-lane in a very good surface condition with around half of the ascent (as of 2014) being on a new surface (2 or 3 years old). Maybe right now the whole ascent is on a new surface. Sadly, theres not that much space (only about max 1000m^2). The buses could stay in ex. Corps where there seems to be some space availaible (a small chunk, but i think it once hosted a Dauphine stage before somehow, i don't remember if it was a start or a finish). I'm not sure if la Salette ever been in Dauphine or Paris-Nice before. I kinda doubt it as there isn't that much space but because it's a relatively big tourist attraction so maybe in more historic time there was an actual finish.
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Roads:
Most of the time varied terrain means varied road width and quality. This stage is no exception. First 80 km are flat so the roads are wide and in good contidion, outside the towns of course. Most of those kms are on well known from any cycling races D93 Valence – Gap road that was used many times ex. on last year Tour. Those well documented roads end in Aix-en-Diois where the stage turns east into Col de Grimone (D539) and Col de Menée (D120) where the road width and quality are varied.

I've had a tough nut to crack as both those cols were present in Tour and Dauphine (last time around 10-15 years ago) but they're maybe not the most suitable of the cols for today's standards. On both of the roads there are some short but unlight tunels. One is on top of Col de Menée, it's around 250m long, on a two-lane road and it's straight, but it's unlightened and 250m for unlit tunel (even if straight) is quite long. On the Col de Grimone road there are a couple of unlit tunels around 10km before actual col with the longest one being around 100m long but they're on a quite twisty and not that wide road. I've decided for Col de Grimone because of the environment (Gorges des Gâts) while Col de Menée road is a regular medium-mountain road. Col de Grimone propably will be in my Tour de France.

The descend from Col de Grimone doesn't have any hazards as it's on a two-lane, medium quality road. Then the stage turns north into E712 for about 7kms. As the name points it's an important european road. I would never decide to use it if not last year's Dauphine where this road plus Col de la Croix-Haute was actualy used. Then D66 (Saint-Maurice-en-Trièves – Mens) and D526 (Mens – La Mure) roads are used. They're mostly two-lane on mostly good quality surface outside of Mens, where quality drops and road narrows (as it's with 90% of french towns). Then the well known Route Napoléon N85 is used up to La Salle-en-Beaumont where the stage turns into D212 road.

It's one of those traceur must known's as it links with Col de l'Holme and famous Col de Parquetout. Obviously Col de Parquetout is out of my reach and i doubt it will ever be in any of the bigger races, but Col de l'Holme has some history with Dauphine and Tour and seems to be accesible. The road is obviously narrower (around 1,3 lane) and it's quality looks dodgy, but still wider and better looking than Col de Parquetout. The descend from Col de l'Holme to Corps is difficult but mostly because of the road's width rather than dificult turns. Most of this descend is quite straightfoward with a couple of loose turns. In Corps the D212C road up to the sanctuary is introduced. It's a two-lane road that has (partly or totaly) a new surface.

This stage uses around 80km of important roads (D111 Valence – Nyons – Avignon, D93 Valence – Gap, E712 Lyon – Marsillie and N85 Route Napoléon), but all of those were used before in either Tour or Dauphine recently so there shouldn't be many problem in using them.

Possible outcome:
Either a breakaway win or GC riders sprinting up this cat. 1 MTF. It should be hard enough to not end in a 10 or more group sprint but i don't think the time differences will be big especially as the whole stage is not the most challenging. Maybe somewhere around 1:00 to 1:30 from 1st to 10th. Pace in the first 60km, where the sprint is located, can be very fast if sprinter teams are willing to work. Rest of the stage should be quite slow. Change of the pace should be propably on the next-to-last climb – Col de l'Holme. Peloton at the foot of the last climb should be relatively big – around 60-man group.

Possible variations:
The most obvious possibility is to use Col de Menée as a replacement for Col de Grimone. Then propably the stage would go via Clelles crossing with E712 and then D526 straight into Mens to connect with the actual stage. This potential stage would be 180km long with Col de Menée as a borderline cat. 1/2 – 15km at 5,1% but without cat. 3 Col du Banchet. It can be a possible replacement if the tunel on top of Menée will be accepted.
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Another obvious (and propably designers favourite) possibility is to use Col de Parquetout and it's famous last 5km at 11% rather than Col de l'Holme, but not only road on Parquetout is at best barely passable in real life (i think it will never see any of the biger races, maybe l'Avenir?) but i feel like using it would be lazy and repetitive. Col de l'Holme is easier and smaller sister, but is a lot more passable than Parquetout, even if it still would have problems in real life. But if even l'Holme won't pass then just go with Route Napoleon as far as Corps.
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If la Salette won't be able to handle the stage then i projected an alternative finish in Superdévoluy. It even could go with the Noyer side as the stage would be something like 210km long with last 30km taken straight from 2013 stage. Even if i would prefer a shorter stage (i'm happy with the one i've managed here – 180km) it still would be passable. Actually, Superdévoluy is one of my favourite climbs as it can be a perfect finish for some really hard, unrealistic monsters like this one i've created back in october 2013:
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Geography:
Start of this stage – Portes-lès-Valence is located in Val du Rhône, by the Rhône river just outside Valence in the historic region of Valentinois. Then stage goes west through Val de Drôme in between Massif du Vercors and Massif du Diois into Haut-Diois where Col de Grimone lies. Then north into Trièves – a medium-mountain range where next two cat. 3 climbs are located. Stage then keeps going north-east changing direction into south-east in Crozet just before La Mure. Trièves ends just before Crozet where the stage croses Drac river on D526. After Crozet the stage crosses La Bonne river and enters the north-west edge of Massif Valgaudemar, part of Massif des Écrins keeping close to Drac river. Stage continues for a couple of kms south-east and then in Corps turns east into Valgaudemar and sanctuaire where the finish line is drawn.

Val de Drôme – located in between Massif du Vercors and Massif du Diois. Crests from Crest up to Beaurières at the foot of well known Col de Cabre (1180m) in span of 70km. Main road here is Valence – Gap D93 road. Main locations are Saillans, Die and Luc-en-Diois.

Massif du Vercors – mountain range between Drac and Rhône river. Made mainly of limestone. Mountains here have an apperance more resembling of Jura rather than Alpes. There are a lot of high plateaus between smaller mountain ranges, mostly forested by coniferous trees. Highest peak – Grand Veymont (2341m).
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Massif du Diois – mountain range between Vercors (separated by Drôme river) and Barronies (separated by L'Eygues river). Like Vercors it's made mainly of limestone, but their presence is more resembling of Alpes rather than Jura mountains. Highest peak – Le Jocou (2051m).

Trièves – a dale squished between Vercors (west), Diois (South), Dévoluy (South-East), Écrins (East) and Taillefer (North) mountain ranges. It's a medium mountain territory with terrain between 500m and 1000m a.s.l. The climate here is particulary dry for it's altitude.
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Massif Valgaudemar – high mountain range in Massif des Écrins, west to north-west branch of Barre des Écrins (4102m), highest mountain in Écrins and the southernmost alpine 4000m peak. It ranges from it to approximately Saint-Michel-en-Beaumont (Signal de Saint-Michel, 1428m) where it is separated from Valbonnais range by La Bonne river. This range is of glacial origin with typical alipne appearance. East part of this range is included in Ecrins National Park.
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Tourist attractions:
Montoison (10km) – Jardin des Oiseaux

Crest (23,3km) – Tour de Crest – one of the tallest towers in Europe at 52m high from X c. Neolithic and Gallo-Roman archeological sites, Église du Saint-Sauveur.
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Pontaix (50km) – Château de Pontaix – ruins of a castle from XIIIc. destroyed at the end of XVIc.
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Die (60,5km) – museum with remains from Neolithic and Gallo-Roman ages, Col du Rousset ski station, remains of Gallo-Roman ramparts and Porte Saint-Marcel gate from III c. Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Die from XII c. Tour de Purgnon – remains of a episcopal castle. Château Saint-Laurent.
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Châtillon-en-Diois (75km) – ramparts from XIVc. Clocher du Beffroi from XVIII c.

Gorges des Gâts (80-90km) – high valley with cliffs up to 400m high between Châtillon-en-Diois and Glandage with Ruisseau des Gas river. The road at times goest through a set of small tunels, galleries or is caved in those limestone cliffs. L'Arche des Gorges des Gats, Les Sucettes de Borne, tons of smaller or bigger waterfalls, ponds, cliffs and caves. Not as famous as Fedaia (!!IIii11oneone) but not that far away from it.
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Saint-Baudille-et-Pipet (121km) – Château de Montmeilleur from XV c.
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Mens (125km) - Halle de Mens, Fontaine de la Place de la Mairie, Église Notre-Dame de Mens. A large block of limestone whose upper part is flat, horizontal and without roughness, located above Mens, on the way to Chatel, is considered as a "sacrificial stone".

Accarias (128,5km) – Château d'Accarias – castle from XVII c. Used as a fortress guarding Col Accarias.
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Notre-Dame de La Salette (finish) – some young sheperds on some good drugs in 1846 in a nearby La Salette-Fallavaux village claimed they've seen Virgin Mary and obviously a sanctuarium was created. This sanctuary looks gorgeous.
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railxmig said:
I guess that's fair. Wait a sec... Ardèche is in Alpes!? Seemingly it is (checked out wikipedia to be sure). How far does Alpes reach? Pyrenees? I've always thought Alpes reach as far as Rhône. You don't need to post anything, theoretically the race can begin or end wherever you like to, it's your race. I was more messing around finding concepts and options. Sorry if you were offended or sth like that.
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I'm not offended, I just thought it was better to justify my reasons.
 
Stage 8: Amstetten - Semmering, 186km

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GPM:
Lunzberg (cat.3) 3,9km @ 6,5%
Zellerrain (cat.2) 7,0km @ 5,4%
Niederalpl (cat.2) 6,9km @ 5,9%
Alpsteig Sattel (cat.2) 9,7km @ 4,9%
Pfaffensattel (cat.2) 7,0km @ 7,2%
Semmeringpass (cat.3) 4,0km @ 3,5%

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This is my "Fuente Dé" type stage, the final GC-relevant stage of the Österreichrundfahrt. It starts and finishes in Niederösterreich, although for the most part the stage takes place in Steiermark. There's no huge obstacle... there's only medium-sized ones, but with the stages we've had so far, particularly Seefeld, Obertilliach, Ramsau and the chrono, there is every chance that there will be big GC gaps here, so if riders need to make up time, they're going to have to make the most of their opportunities here.

We start in Amstetten, a city of around 25000 inhabitants so plenty big enough to host the race, a little to the east of Linz, and traverse the foothills of the Alps to the south of it. Along the way we pass over six climbs, but all are only cat.2 or 3, and the hardest is misleadingly listed because of its inconsistency and is over 40km from the finish. This should therefore make for an interesting stage if the GC is on the line; if not it could still be an interesting stagehunters' fight. Scenery is as good as ever.

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The first serious climb of the day is Zellerrain, a relatively benign one broken up by a steep couple of kilometres early on, before a tough descent into the Catholic pilgrimage (and secular wintersports) city of Mariazell. This leads into the climb to another Alpine skiing resort, Niederalpl, via some scenic hairpins and a climb which, though a fairly unassuming 7km @ 6% type of "on-paper" climb, is in reality a bit tougher with the final 3km at close to 9% as you can see on the profile. This then leads to a lengthy flat period towards the scenic town of Krieglach.

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It's at this point that the stage starts to hot up really, as this is where riders who want to make a move for GC today will start to get antsy if the gaps are sizable (if they're small they can wait a little longer of course). With an average gradient of just under 5%, Alpsteig Sattel doesn't seem very threatening, but the two-stepped nature of the ascent means that with 500m at 12% and a whole kilometre at over 10% early on in the climb, there is a platform for attacking here. Cresting 39km from home, it will take a rider with guts, panache and probably some teammates up the road to help them on the flat à la Heras to make this work, but it has the ingredients there. It then leads into a quiet valley road, one of the narrowest of the day, so getting out of sight and out of mind could be a worthwhile goal ahead of the final significant climb of the race, Pfaffensattel. The kilometres leading up to it are uphill false flat, so tired legs will not enjoy the lead in, but I've elected only to categorize the final 7km of the below:

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Yes, those final 3km at 10% will discourage distance attacking, unless the gaps are big; riders with small time gaps to make up can wait until this, but that does mean options are there. If it goes to the break, here is where the decisive splitting of the group will take place. Pfaffensattel hosts a small Parkplatz but not enough to host the race; I think course-wise it's better to descend anyway. There's only 13km from here until the finish anyhow; we descend this over some technical beginnings before it opens out, leading to a final climb of the race, an otherwise-not-categorization-worthy false flat ramp to Semmeringpass, because I wanted to finish at Semmering, which although now only periodically hosting the Alpine World Cup is fabled as the oldest ski resort in Europe, which has to count for something on a course that's included a stage between ski jumps, a stage between biathlon venues, two Nordic Combined World Cup venues, a women's ski jump World Cup venue, a ski flying venue and two Alpine skiing World Cup spots.

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Stage 9: Semmering - Wien, 116km

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I've thrown the current organizers a bone and given them the finale they love: a flat Vienna sprint.

So, overall race summary:

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Stage 1: Sankt Anton am Arlberg - Lech am Arlberg, 8 x 21,6km (Series Race)
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Stage 2: Montafon - Seefeld, 170km
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Stage 3: Innsbruck - Bischofshoren, 191km
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Stage 4: Hochfilzen - Obertilliach, 171km
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Stage 5: Villach - Ramsau am Dachstein, 201km
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Stage 6: Schladming (Planai) - Tauplitz (Kulm), 47,4km (EZF)
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Stage 7: Windischgarsten - Hinzenbach, 163km
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Stage 8: Amstetten - Semmering, 186km
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Stage 9: Semmering - Wien, 116km

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