Ok, i hope it's a good time to post this race and not disturb the flow of OlavEH's Giro. I've created this race on the last week of March and i've waited to post it because this thread had some big seismic activities in last couple of weeks. Sorry if i'm interfering with your race but i must be fast enough before (hopefully) LS will post his 2nd Tour de France.
In this thread i've posted before only one GT (
Dauphine) and one classic (
Landerneau). This project below is my 2nd attempt at a one day race and 2nd one that doesn't involve any cobbles or sterrato and is on relatively wide roads with an acceptable surface in a western Europe country. While the Landerneau classic can be a bit realistic this one is more of a fantasy design.
My objective was to create a one day race similar to Lombardia. I would propably place it on the first or second saturday of october and it is for these teams and riders who didn't made the cut for Lombardia. It would most propably fight for the spot with Tour de Vendée or much bigger Paris-Tours but these two races are rather flat with only small hills while this race is more suited for climbers or lighter punchers who can survive bigger climbs. That means a lot of capable climbers in those smaller groups propably would prefer to ride this race than those mentioned. Of course Lombardia is a monument and i don't even think about creating anything that could fight with it for the spot. It's just a smaller
1.1, 1.HC or less race for less known riders or eventuall doms from bigger Continental or smaller World Tour teams. LS summed it nicely (as always):
Libertine Seguros said:
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.
As this classic is placed in october the weather can be rainy and freezy. I actually hope it'll happen as downhills are quite technicall and such weather would bring more challenge to competition and give bigger advantage for daredevils. It can be a bit snowy as some of the parts are over 1000m a.s.l. (max. 1188m) but they're on roads that are opened all year and eventual snow should be taken care of relatively fast. I dunno if such race would get any TV coverage, maybe on some local station. BTW sorry for a generic race name, but my french is only basic so no place for poetry here.
Porte des Alpes/GP Val du Grésivaudan
Vizille – Albertville, 197km, ~3750m asc
Start: Vizille, Place du Château, Château de Vizille
Km 0: Vizille, Les Corniers, 1,8km from the start
Start – km 0: Place du Château - Rue du Général de Gaulle - Route d'Uriage - Les Corniers
Finish: Albertville, Cours de l'Hôtel de ville, Mairie Albertville, 1,2km straight
Special prize sprint: Pontcharra, Avenue de la Gare, 620m straight
Feed zone: Saint-Pierre-d'Allevard, D525; Bourgneuf, D925
I think i've clearly overdid with the amount of
climbing creating almost a mountain stage. 3750 significant uphill meters is basically an easier GT mountain stage but i think if this race would be in a GT or a more mountainous stage race it would propably be categorised as a medium mountain one. It's around 1km uphill more than in Lombardia. While climbs in Lombardia are much more steeper the climbs in this race are longer, more numerous and more densly packed. Sadly you don't see such designs in real life as in one day races you rarely see such amount of back to back hills/mountains for such long stretch. In the real world such race would propably have a flat portion between 95km and 125km rather than zig-zags like here. Because of the difficulty and placement in late season i've decided to be generous and project two feed zones.
I'm not sure if Grenoble and Albertville would be interested in giving
money for a 1.1 or 1.HC or whichever lesser category classic and close some of their roads for the riders. At least both cities are relatively big, seems to have something left in the budget and are interested in cycling. Maybe this race won't need that much of money so Vizille could handle it independently. As this race seems to be more pure and diesel climbers friendly than Lombardia which loves muritos it could sport not that bad of a roster. Such team like AG2R, who has a very deep squad, can send someone relatively big like Pierre Latour (0,01% for Vuillermoz) even if he would most propably be a dom in much more important Lombardia.
Now about the
length. I'm not targeting the monuments. This is a smaller one day race which could or could not be choosen by some riders as a less hectic alternative. Lombardia is a monument and has a very big prestige. This race here is more for the lesser groups and maybe lesser known riders of bigger (most propably french and spanish) groups to have something to fight for. It's basically the same scenario as the Landerneau classic i designed a while ago. Besides, the amount of climbing should compensate lack of kms. Now, Echoes, you can begin your rant.
Roads are mostly wide on fine enough surface but some are narrower like a small, around 2,5km part of the last climb. Downhill sections can be tricky as they're quite difficult. Because this race is smaller in size i've tried not to use too much of important, traffic-heavy roads and rail crossings but it does use or interfere them in very small doses.
There will be two additional
competitions added to this race. First one is the climbers competition. Each climb is categorised from cat. 3 to 1. Of course winner of this competition is one, who get the most points. Because most of the climbs are over 50km to go the KOM competition should be contested between the breakaway companions.
KOM points distribution:
Cat. 1 – 1. 10p, 2. 8p, 3. 6p, 4. 4p, 5. 2p, 6. 1p.
Cat. 2 – 1. 5p, 2. 3p, 3. 2p, 4. 1p.
Cat. 3 – 1. 2p, 2. 1p.
There are 9 categorised
climbs in this race, mostly like these you see in hilly or medium mountain stages. All of them are located south-east of Val d'Isère between Grenoble and Albertville which at this section is known as Val du Grésivaudan. This race transits from the foothills of Belledonne Alpes to Lauzière Alpes in the last half of the race. Overall there are 60km of categorised climbing in the race averaging in 6,7km per climb. They aren't extremely steep (not like 4km at 10%) but their averages can be high – overall average of 6,5% (max 8% for 3 climbs).
List of climbs:
Côte de la Croix de Pinet - 12,8km, 4,7%, 1 cat. 845m
Col des Mouilles - 6,1km, 4,3%, 3 cat. 1020m
Col du Barioz - 6km, 6,8%, 2 cat. 1038m
Côte de la Chapelle-Blanche - 4,4km, 4,9%, 3 cat. 485m
Montée d'Huille – 7,1km, 6,3%, 1 cat. 785m
Col de Cochette - 3,5km, 8%, 2 cat. 587m
Col de Champ-Laurent - 10km, 8%, 1 cat. 1116m
Col du Grand-Cucheron - 4km, 8%, 2 cat. 1188m
Côte de Bonvillard – 6,5km, 6,6%, 2 cat. 745m
Second competition is something like sprinters one. There is a
special prize to win in the small city of Pontcharra which can be like 1/2 or 2/3 of climbers competition prize. I created this additional competition to compensate a detour from the main destination to use some of the hills nearby and give a couple of additional kms to the race. I hope baroudeurs and less suited riders for this race will be interested enough in such attractions to try be active, try to break and be active in such break. I am quite generous with the money for the breakaway to compensate propable lack of extensive TV coverage which means the sponsorship showing has less impact for any baroudeur actions. Hope the eventual money will tickle their eroded by wind noses.
This race should propably have similar
teams to these in Tour de Vendée with maybe bigger amount of smaller spanish teams (maybe even Movistar would be interested or their development team if they still need to decide who is good for promotion and who needs to stay a bit) and/or change the Benelux groups to these better suited for climbing (no Topsport, doubt about Wanty). I'm yet unsure of the teams size – if 8 is not too much. I guess it can be between 6 and 8. There propably will be no radio connection except to the main race radio that would be warning about upcoming weather and any unplanned difficulties on roads ahead. Time differences would be then covered traditionally by a blackboard moto. Because it's a smaller race with propably limited coverage there will be a limited amount of motos on the road.
I hope i've explained close enough the logistics behind the race so i can move on to the design flaws i've commited. The race in its whole length is on the south-east bank of Isère. The valley in between Grenoble and Albertville is known as
Val du Grésivaudan which comes from latin and it can be translated as Val de Grenoble. It will start in the beautiful town of
Vizille, over 15km south of Grenoble, on Place du Château in the shadows of majestic
Château de Vizille which houses the museum of French Revolution.
Château de Vizille with a park and fountain in front.
It was very important in the times of French Revolution where there were meetings of Dauphine revolutionists. It was build in early XVII century. It has a very nice park which in 2005 was awarded the „
jardin remarquable de France” which i guess translates as remarkable garden of France or something close to it. Vizille lies at the entrance of Val de la Romanche (Lautaret, Deux Alpes, l'Alpe d'Huez, Col du Solude, Col de Sarenne, Besse d'Oisans, Col Luitel). The race will then turn east into Route d'Uriage where this awaits:
Tunnel carved in stone just behind Château de Vizille (in the background).
This short tunel is thankfully lightened. You can see the same cliff in the earlier picture behind the castle.
Km 0 is located in Les Corniers, 1,8km from the start.
First 13,5km are rather slow and unchallenging – to give the riders chance to warm up their legs before first obstacles begin. They'll go by route D524 passing by Vaulnaveys and Uriage-les-Bains, just west of Saint-Martin-d'Uriage, where a cassino is located. These names may be known as on the same roads there was a Grenoble ITT in 2011 Dauphine and Tour and we're now on the base of well known Chamrousse climb. After Uriage-les-Bains race will turn into Grenoble with a false-descent down to Gières.
As peloton reaches Gières they will immediately start the first climb of the day –
Côte de la Croix de Pinet. They will use propably new to cycling world road – D164. It's an alternative road to the well known D524 up to Saint-Martin-d'Uriage which was used countless times as a downhill to Grenoble, uphill from Grenoble, run-in to Chamrousse and in this race as a downhill just a couple of seconds ago. The alternative road i'm using was widened in most of the parts just a couple of years ago to handle a two-lane traffic but upper parts are still narrower. It directly links Grenoble with Saint-Nizier-d'Uriage just north-east of Saint-Martin-d'Uriage while passing Venon in the process. This climb is actually harder and more twisty than the regular one to Saint-Martin-d'Uriage, which in most parts is a false-flat.
Côte de la Croix de Pinet is very inconsistent, it's composed of 3 uphill stretches separated by 2 small downhill sections. The first part of the climb is relatively consistent, 6,5km at 7,3% and is located on the new to cycling road up to Saint-Nizier-d'Uriage i wrote about in previous section. From the top of this stretch there are about 1,5km of this road left which goes slightly downhill to Saint-Nizier-d'Uriage where riders will connect with much more known road to Allevard, extensively used by various races in the past (last time in Dauphine 2013
stage 6). As they connect with this road they enters the next uphill part of the climb. This time they climb up to a small village of Pinet d'Uriage, which lies at the top of a picturesque hill for 2,3km at 6,1%.
Chapelle Saint-Férréol, Pinet d'Uriage.
After Pinet d'Uriage there is another small, 1km long slightly downhill section and then the last uphill stretch of the whole climb. This one is very shallow, mostly false-flat, around 1,5km at 3%. The whole climb is
12,8km at 4,7% and i've decided to be lavish and categorise it as a cat. 1 to give baroudeurs something tasty to fight for.
Now i'll detour for a short time to write about a possible finish for a hard mountain stage. Most of you propably really like Col Luitel south. So how about expand Luitel with Chamrousse and then a downhill finish from it to Grenoble including this Venon road. It would be close to 30km but with like 30 serpentines or tighter turns and other countless smaller turns on varied roads of varied quality. Put some Glandon or Galibier as a warmup and it could be an interesting experiment. Of course completly unrealistic but for a fantasy cycling might not be that bad.
Next close to 60kms are exclusively on the Allevard road which turns and twists around western foothills of Belledonne Alpes. Peloton will pass through a couple of small bumps (terrain similar to that on Route Napoleon between Grenoble and Gap) of which
Col des Mouilles is the only one i've decided to categorise as a cat. 3 climb. It's
6,1km at 4,3%.
Massif du Belledonne.
Next climb, just before Allevard, is well known
Col du Barioz. This side (begins from Theys on the profile below) is
6km at 6,8% and it's cat. 2 climb.
After the climb there are roughly 20km of mostly flat roads as peloton soon reaches Saint-Pierre-d'Allevard which is separated from Allevard by a small artificial lake – Lac du Flumet created in 1978. First
feed zone of the day is located just outside Saint-Pierre-d'Allevard and ends just before Allevard. In Allevard supposedly Pierre Rambaud, a fairly known french sculptor (at least i've heard of him) was born.
Centre of Allevard with Église St-Marcel in the back.
After Allevard the race changes it's overall north-east direction and turns west for a small detour into Pontcharra where a
special sprint will be held (on profile it's assigned as a normal sprint). Otherwise it's a relatively easy terrain and one of the last good spots to catch some breath. Still it doesn't last long as the next climb is looming ahead just outside Pontcharra.
Château Bayard south of Pontcharra.
It's a very nicely located city with good connection to some good hills/medium-mountains at the foot of the Belledonne Alpes east and small Massif de Montraillant north-east. I've actually have almost ready two versions of a propable one day race around Pontcharra which idolizes rather good amount and connection of nearby hills. Below are the profiles of these two races.
Variant 1:
Variant 2:
After sprint the race basically enters it's 2nd phase. This propably will be the place where favourite teams will pick up pace which could result in thinner peloton. It's still around 100km to go but i quietly hope this race will be ridden like a benelux cobble classic where QuickStep (or FailStep, whichever you prefer) likes to show their numbers trying to create a carnage from like 80 or 70km to go and then lose a 5-man sprint where 4 are from QuickStep or to missjudge who's the strongest of them. I hope for such scenario because last 30kms to the finish line aren't that difficult and these 70kms ahead are propably the hardest one in the race.
Leaving Pontcharra peloton will turn back east and tackle next climb of the day –
Côte de la Chapelle-Blanche which is
4,4km at 4,9% and is a 3 cat. It lies on the south slope of Pic Montraillant (809m). From this side there are three possibilities to reach the village of Chapelle-Blanche. First one, red, is propably the most regular one on D202 from Les Mollettes, second one, blue, is directly from Pontcharra on a narrower and steeper D29 Rue du Thouvard with 1,5km close to 8% and the last one, green, downhill from Villaroux which i used as a descent in my Pontcharra races i presented two sections before.
I've decided to use the 2nd (blue) side as it gives some fine percentages and i'm not that concerned about width of the road as it's just a smaller one day race. If monuments don't have any problem with smaller roads then in this case i shouldn't back off. Still it's not that narrow – like 1,3 lane wide. Propably the pace will pick up to keep up good positioning on this climb. Pace on it shouldn't be high but propably it will be higher than on any of climbs before. Some of the riders stuck behind could have trouble to reconect as a more demanding obstacle awaits just after the descent into La Rochette.
D29 from Pontcharra to Chapelle-Blanche.
La Rochette lies at the entrance to Val du Gélon which separates small Massif de Montraillant from west (north of Pontcharra where Chapelle-Blanche was located) and Massif des Hurtières from east where riders will find the next obstacle.
Château de La Rochette, fort from XI century.
This climb which begins on the outskirts of La Rochette is a borderline cat. 1/2
Montée d'Huille which should hurt less climbing capable riders. Punchers can have some problems too as i hope pace will be quite moderate at this time. This climb ends just west of Pic de l'Huile (910 m), that's why i named it after this pic. In Tour de France 1983
stage 17 it was called after a nearby village –
Côte de la Table. It belongs to the same plateau as quite well known but underused Col de Champ-Laurent to which i will come back later. The climb is
7,1km at quite consistent
6,3% and it's a borderline 1/2 cat. I've decided for a cat. 1 to give more chances for a breakaway to win the KOM competition. At the top two roads await, one slightly up to the village (or maybe even a hilltown) of Le Table and then either straight to Col du Grand-Cucheron via Val des Huiles or staying on the plateau to Col de Champ-Laurent and the used one – descending back to Val du Gélon. The descent is steep – 6km at 8% and quite challenging – 10 serpentines in 6km but the road is wide on a good surface. As the descent will end there'll be no respite as yet another climb of the day awaits.
The race is now wandering back and forth through Val du Gélon, extensively using what Massif des Hurtières and Massif de Montraillant have to offer. Next climb might be known to the cycling world. It's
Col de Cochette which is shorter than Montée d'Huille but much steeper. This is more of a Lombardia climb. It's
3,5km at 8% and it's 2 cat. It's mostly under 8% but has around 1km at roughly 10% in the middle. Col de Cochette is located almost in the centre of Massif de Montraillant and it's the only road that goes through it. The descent down to Villard-d'Héry is short – 2km but steep – 9% and has 7 loosely profiled tight turns. After Villard-d'Héry it continues for another 2,5km down to the town of Coise and Val du Coisin where riders will have time to catch some breath after quite tense last 30kms. The road up and down from Cochette is quite wide, almost two-lane and the surface is in moderate condition.
Tours de Montmayeur, 3km south-west from Col de Cochette.
Now peloton reaches 8km of mostly flat roads transitioning back from Val du Coisin to the end of Val du Gélon. There is a second
feed zone located just outside Bourgneuf and it ends just before Chamoux-sur-Gelon where propably the most importand climb of the day starts. This feed zone can be hectic and strategically important as there is no time to really slow down as the road in Chamoux-sur-Gelon is narrow and positioning will be very important but after this small bit it widens back to fully 2-lane. So why place a feed zone just before this narrowing? To give more places to use some brain and as a homage to older times when even a narrower bridge was enough to get a significant advantage. Small but nice looking trivia, just before the climb starts peloton will ride just outside
Château de Chamoux-sur-Gelon (these two pillars in both of pictures, in the second picture the road is up to Champ-Laurent).
Front gate of Château de Chamoux-sur-Gelon.
Front gate of Château de Chamoux-sur-Gelon and road up to the village of Champ-Laurent and Col de Champ-Laurent.
It's the last time peloton wanders across Val du Gélon as now they'll transit via Val des Huiles and Massif des Hurtières to Val d'Arc (Madeleine, Glandon, Croix de Fer, Telegraphe/Galibier, Iseran etc.) propably the hardest way possible. Combination of Col de Champ-Laurent and Col du Grand-Cucheron should be quite known in cycling world but is very underused. Both of these climbs would be very welcome in any race if not linking problems and lack of finish places nearby. Even in this race this combination is around 50km from the finish line.
Massif des Hurtières.
Because it's a one day race there is a small possibility of some long-range actions. In a stage race this combination would most certainly be softpedalled. I'm not thinking about serious attacks but rather pulling an Astana (Giro '15 La Spezia stage). A deep group like AG2R may use it to race Champ-Laurent quite hard and try to isolate other potential favourites and then outnumber others in last kms. Such group can either have 50-40 men in it or just around 20 and if the pace will keep high then those, who lost contact will have difficult time to catch back. I don't know what will happen here because at the end of this combination there are still around 30km to go with only one climb left but it's by far the hardest obstacle of this race and i feel not using it would be a shame. The roads are wide, 2-lane and their maintenance seems to be perfectly fine even if surface on Grand-Cucheron isn't in the best of shapes anymore.
Now about the climbs themself.
Col de Champ-Laurent is a clear cat. 1 climb, actually not that far from being a HC in TdF or Dauphine. It's
10km at 8%. First 2km are propably the hardest one at over 9% (max 12%). Then it slightly softens but it's still a consistent 5km at roughly 8,5%. Last 3km are softer but more irregular with a small plateau in Champ-Laurent village (around 1km from the top) and small patches of 12% just before the village. On the profile below the road to La Table is the one i've mentioned in Montée d'Huille section.
After Col de Champ-Laurent there's a short descent to Val des Huiles and then immediately a short but steep climb up
Col du Grand-Cucheron. It's
4km long at roughly
8%. Overall i think this combination is slightly harder than parallel Madonna del Ghisallo and Muro di Sormano/Civiglio combination from Lombardia. On the profile below it starts from the Champ-Laurent sign.
From Grand-Cucheron there is a long, 16km descent down to Val d'Arc and town of Aiguebelle. The descent is quite technicall with 10 serpentines in span of 9,5km where there's a junction (first road north to Aiguebelle, second one south to La Corbière). Then it goes slightly uphill to Saint-Georges-d'Hurtières and from there downhill to Aiguebelle. There are no more serpentines but the bends are quite loose and can be tricky. Whole descent is wide and on good surface.
After the descent there are still exactly 28km to go. If the pace was high on Champ-Laurent, Grand-Cucheron and the downhill section then peloton should be thin, like 20-man or so. Propably such actions would catch the break. If this combination was softpedalled or ridden moderately then there'll propably be like a 50-man group and a breakaway around 1:30 up the road. If somebody lost the ground on Champ-Laurent then it's propably the last time he can catch up as leaders may slow down to check out who is and who isn't in their group while there are around 4km catch some breath and make decisions. I know it's not much but a couple of riders might just catch up before the last climb of the day begins.
Aiguebelle is a town with history reaching as far as Hannibal's crossing through Alpes to Italy. In early Middle-Ages it was a quite important town in the Savoie region as the placement of it in the entrance of l'Arc river and an important road up to Italy via Col du Mont-Cenis made it an important defence spot with quite a chunk of forts on top of neighboring summits (the race will pass by two of them in next couple of kms). Most prominent defence castle was
Château de Charbonnières which was ruined in XVIII century.
After Aiguebelle peloton crosses l'Arc and keeps on it's east bank for around 3km before going inland to begin the last climb of the day while still staying on the SE bank of Isère. Now the race is on the northern foothills of Lauzière Alpes.
Massif de la Lauzière. I assume the road in the foreground is up to Madeleine and the one going alongside slope is the Montgellafrey side of Madeleine.
The last climb of the day is
Côte de Bonvillard. It's
6,5km at 6,6% and it's a 2 Cat. The profile below shows last 4,5km from Aiton (from Randens sign).
It begins on the east bank of l'Arc with roughly 0,5km at close to 10% up to La Mure village to then soften out on a 1,5km slightly uphill plateau before reaching the hilltown of Aiton. From there the main climb begins as peloton turns right into D102 just outside
Fort d'Aiton. It's
4,5km at 8% (max 10%) which is actually slightly harder than Col de Cochette and Grand-Cucheron (a cat. 2 climb on it's own).
Fort d'Aiton from XIX century.
The climb ends on a plateau, around 2km before Bonvillard village where the road splits. First one goes to Bonvillard on the plateau, second one keeps up to
Fort de Montperché for another 2,5km at roughly 10%. It's worth noticing the amount of forts and other defensive structures in the area. Because it lies on the entrance to Val d'Arc which was a very important road to Italy from Middle‑Ages (Col du Mont-Cenis) to WW2 there are a lot of such structures in the area. Interestingly this climb was supposedly present in Tour '82
stage 17 to Morzine via Joux-Plane as Fort de Montperché.
Fort de Montperché from XIX century.
The road up this climb is mostly wide (almost 2-lane) on what doesn't look like a bad surface but it does slightly worsen closer to the top. After the top it narrows to around 1,5-1,3 lane for next 2,5km before reaching Bonvillard where it widens back to almost 2-lane. Thankfully most of this section is on a plateau and even has a slight uphill tendency. The descent is difficult, it's not on the best of surfaces, lasts 6km, averages at 7% and has 11 serpentines in span of 4,5km. Thankfully the barriers are present in every harder turn so it should be secure enough to not pull any protests.
It's the last climb of the day. Combination of 4,5km at 8% and quite technicall descent with around 10 flat kms to go must attract some activity. It depends on what had happened on Champ-Laurent. If some group, preferably AG2R, decided to go like Astana or QuickStep and is sure it will win a bunch sprint then i doubt anything will happen on this climb besides keeping up the tempo and time differences. If Champ-Laurent was soft-pedalled and the group is still big then there will be some movement as there is nothing left but a 10km drag to the finish line.
As descending ends peloton will burst through Sainte-Hélène-sur-Isère on the outskirts of Albertville. The race then goes straight into Albertville via D925. But before i'll turn into the finish i will wander a bit as there is a hidden possibility that i've ultimately decided to omit.
Château de Sainte-Hélène-sur-Isère from XIII century.
This
possibility is Côte de Monthion. It's 3km after Sainte-Hélène-sur-Isère (right turn into D64 in Le Moutonnet) and it's 2,1km at 8% which is a rather significant hill. The summit in Monthion would then be around 7,3km from the finish line. Counting a quite technicall descent (5 serpentines in span of only 1,5km) it would left only 4,8 flat kms. The road up to the village is actually narrow, basically one-way (still i think slightly wider than the Mortirolo ones) on a quite varied surface quality. Downhill is on a wide, two-lane road and fine surface quality.
Now back to the race. These
flat 10kms are on wide and straight roads. They can turn out to be a war of guts, feelings and tactics like in most of northern classics. Lack of technicalities should favour a bigger group but it will depend on stamina. It's after 180km of strong climbing and because it's a one day race it was propably fast and unforgivable. It can either be a showcase of inteligent wheelsucking (or however you want to call it if this term is too pejorative), good choice of leadership or just sheer power and resistance. It may end in a 20-30 man bunch sprint, a war of attrition between 5-10 favourites or 1, 2 Contadors with a furious or resigned chase of 10 or so. These 10km would be propably a nightmare for QuickStep and heavenly for Sky but both of these teams won't be in this race. It can be difficult for a team like AG2R who most propably will have the numbers in such winning move and a good choice of leadership and an eventual pull train may be crucial to comfortably win the race.
Now to the finish line. It's located like most of the past finishes in
Albertville on Cours de l'Hôtel de ville just outside
Mairie Albertville, after
1,2km straight. Run-in is uncomplicated and on wide roads with only two rondpoints between 2km and 1,2km.
Mairie Albertville.
So,
for who is this race? I have no clue. I guess it could be really fine for guys like Wellens, Costa or Valverde who can showcase fine climbing and sprinting skills while being excellent on difficult, technicall terrain. Of course they'll ride Lombardia so maybe a guy like Sam Oomen who just showcased some climbing potential in Criterium Internationale, Vuillermoz or Latour who would propably be (maybe even by far) the strongest climbers in the race even if they both are in the same group but propably one of them will be send to Lombardia as a helper. Yet still they have Dupont and Gastauer who are solid climbers and maybe will be available. Besides, is it me or is Grenoble home to AG2R? If yes then this race could have some glimpses of prestige for them.
From the other teams, maybe Voeckler if he would showcase glimpses of his 2011-2012 form or other young and relatively unknown daredevil. Romain Sicard seems to be slightly better than couple of years ago. Edet or Navarro for Cofidis seems to be fine unless they'll be in Lombardia. Rebellin i think is too old but if Paterski, Grosschartner or Pantano (if IAM will be present) will survive the climbing then sure they'll be one of the favourites in reduced bunch sprint. If Movistar will be interested in this race then maybe someone like Herrada who not only climbs good but if i remember has not that bad of a sprint after a hard day. Other spanish riders like Arroyo, Mas Bonet, Louis Angel Mate, Valls Feri or other countless spanish climbers/baroudeurs could be a good bet. Propably there are more riders that could be interested in this race that i don't know about or just plain forgotten.
I found a race and idea like this quite interesting and designing it was enjoyable (but at times i need to admit it was painful). Originally this race was supposed to look different but i've sadly encountered a small, but very important detail – used
rail tracks. Finish was supposed to be different as i've planed to use one of these countless hills north of Albertville (
Côte de Cléry – 4km at 7% like 13km off the finish line) but rail tracks on the run-in to the finish annuled this possibility. You never put any rail tracks, used or unused, inside 5km mark.
I have still like a couple of possible French one day race
ideas left. One is in
Beaujolais (west of Mâcon) wondering through some of surrounding hills like Mont Brouilly to then end in La Clayette (around 40km west of Mâcon) with a small hill up to Montrossin 5km from the finish line. Other one would be between Brive-la-Gaillarde and Mauriac going back and forth through
Val de la Dordogne where i have designed like last 100kms but i'm unsure of first kms. The second one would be much more technicall as Val de la Dordogne is rather uncivilized and roads in the area going through countless woods are mostly narrow and twisty. But i think the next stop will be a central Europe country that LS seems to like but he in his race and phil.i.am in his race missed some interesting opportunities of which one could be realistic enough to include in the real life. I guess a small sneak peak can be good here.
I hope my english isn't too bad to be indecipherable, didn't offend anyone, didn't forgot anything and this whole post isn't too boring or overwritten to not be enjoyable.
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