Race Design Thread

[Broken_Leg]

Tough one indeed: the closest wine appelations would be Die and Chatillon, 20-30km west of Gap.

Good idea. Don't know how I missed it. From a quality point of view, I would then go with a Clairette de Die - Chatillons are nothing to write home about.

I can't imagine there being enough space for Le Tour at the Col de la Lombarde, even compared to Tourmalet in 2010 (I assume the race caravan will have to stay at Isola 2000 to account for it)

My benchmark was Galibier 11. It's been a very long time since I last went up the Lombarde, but I've been in Galibier recently and IIRC it's far more cramped than Lombarde.
Anyway, if a finish line here is not possible, Isola it will be ...

 

[Broken_Leg]

Stage 13 [Friday] : Frejus – Toulon
213 km – Hilly
Climbing 3098 m



Col du Vignon 5.5 km @ 5%
Côte de la Garde Freinet 6.8 km @ 3.5%
Col du Canadel 9.2 km @ 4.5%
Col de la Citadelle 11.3 km @3.4%
Mont Faron 5km @ 8.5 %

Today’s stage will start in Frejus, 50 km west of Antibes where we ended and will end in Toulon. Both cities being on the coast, it’ll be a pan flat stage for sprinters, right ? Wrong. First the coastline in the area is anything but flat, and we will have some detours to visit the hinterland.
This will result in a hilly route, a good setup for a strong breakaway : none of the climb is very difficult (but the last), but after the days in the Alps and with 213 km, it will be an endurance test.

The riders will first head to Ste Maxime, not exactly alongside the coastal road but close enough so that there is only a small uncategorized bump on the road. At Ste Maxime, we will start our first visit inland, through the Massif des Maures through picturesque roads.

This visit will start with the Col du Vignon. As a cat. 4 it’s not really difficult. After a short descent we will cross the Maures once again to get back to the coast, with another 4th cat. climb, at la Garde-Freinet., whence the riders will descend towards the well-known upscale resort of Saint Tropez.

After a few more kilometers inland, we will rejoin the coast at Cavalaire. Here again, after a few kilometers, the riders will tackle another climb in the Maures to another beautiful point of view

Here again, after some kilometers on the northern side of the hills, we will come back to the sea through another not very difficult climb, the col de la Citadelle, and rejoin the coastal road at La Londe Les Maures, where the intermediate sprint is located.

After that the riders will follow the coastal roads to Toulon, but won’t reach the finish line before one last difficulty : the Mont Faron, which they will both climb and descend [note : I’m assuming here that some work is done for the asphalt before my Tour takes place, in some places it’s really bad]. The climb is a tough one, especially in July heat, and the descent is very tricky. This should decide the winner of the stage among the breakaway and should feature GC skirmishes.

At the bottom of the descent there remain only one km or so on large avenues to the finish line.

Wine of the Day :
A few km west of Toulon lies the Bandol Appelation d’Origine Contrôlée, one of the most prominent name of the Provence wine region. The Mourvèdre grapes give a strong dark red (the large majority of the production), which requires some aging before opening.

 

[Gigs_98]

I wasnt at home in the last week so I unfortunately couldn't post any new stages of my giro. However now that I'm back I'll try to finish the race as soon as possible so I can start to creat my route for the race design challenge

Giro d'Italia stage 8: Rovereto - Alpe di Pampeago (151 km)

After the first long TT on stage 7 this will be the day where there will finally be big time gaps between gc contenders on climbs. Tbh they could already have been created earlier on stage 5, but this is the first mtf, and not an easy one.

The start of the stage is in Rovereto a few kilometers eastern of the finish of stage 8. Only a little bit over 15 k's after the start the first climb of the day starts and it's already a brutal one. The Monte Bondone is one of the longest ascents in the whole race and still not a flat one. Especially this side is very interesting because it is very irregular, with a very steep start, a flatter middle section and then again steeper gradients near the end.

After the descent and an intermediate sprint in Trentino, the finish town of stage 6, there is another short ascent, which might be a categorized climb in a different stage, but the giro usually doesnt categorize small climbs in mountain stages with numerous 1st category climbs. After this ascent there is quite a long flat section before the next climb starts, the Passo Manghen. Well, while I'd say that the Bondone is a very hard climb, I'd say the Manghen is a monster, because... just look at this profile:

A climb which finishes with 6 kilometers at 10% is automatically difficult but if the riders already have to climb 14 kilomters at over 6%, before they even reach that section the climb is more than only difficult. Understandable that the climb is used quite regularly in the giro, but still I think it isnt as legendary as a climb like this could be. Also because besides its difficulty, this pass is also incredibly scenic.

Unfortunately after the descent and a short bump directly afterwards there is a short flat part, which makes attacks on the Manghen less likely. That however isnt such a big problem because don't forget, this is still only the first week, this is still only the first mtf and the 2nd real mountain stage, so it really isnt likely anyone would do a long range attack already. However this climb can be used to cause some carnage and isolate a rider to put him under pressure immediately when the next ascent starts. And just like the first 2 categorized climbs, this will also be a very very hard one. It's the Alpe di Pampeago, a relatively short but brutally steep climb, which was already used as a mtf a few times in the giro, also a few times after the Passo Manghen, like for example in this stage 2008
The climb is only about 7.5 kilometers long, but it gets steeper and steeper and finishes with about 3 kilometers at 11.6%. And even generally this is a climb with an average elevation gain of over 10%, so this will definitely hurt the riders. Considering that there aren't as many mountain stages as usually in the last two weeks the strongest climbed already has to attack here, anything else would simply be a huge mistake and on gradients like this one minute is easily lost if you aren't at your best. In the best case the fight for the gc already starts on stage 2, but even in the worst case this has to be the day where the first serious time differences will be made.

Some of you might criticize that this stage isnt very innovative and definitely not as innovative as it could be, but I think this stage just fits into this giro. I had another stage with a downhill finish after the Hofmahdjoch, which would definitely also be very interesting, but at this point of the race I think it's important that there is a mtf so the climbers attack and considering that the most famous passes of Italy are located in the Alps and the Alps will be over after stage 9, I think it's a good idea to include at least a few famous climbs in the first week of this giro

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Stage 8: Nantes - Mûr-de-Brétagne, 204km

GPM:
Côte de Cadoudal (cat.4) 1,7km @ 6,2%
Mûr-de-Brétagne (cat.3) 2,0km @ 6,9%
Mûr-de-Brétagne (cat.3) 2,0km @ 6,9%

We swap one cycling-mad region of France for another, as we move from the Vendée into that traditional cycling hub of France that is Brittany.

We begin in our largest stage town for some time, the historic city of Nantes, the sixth largest in France with over 900.000 in its extended metropolitan area, in which historic passages and dramatic architecture are commonplace. The roll-out will be from the imposing and attractive Château des Ducs de Brétagne shown above, reopened following extensive restoration in 2007, and now a historic monument which today hosts the museum of the city. Famous for its environmental work to clean up the city, it's now one of the most livable cities in Europe according to most indexes. The city is a fairly regular host of the Tour de France, in fact having been one of the six (seven if you include Montgeron) host towns of the very first Tour all the way back in 1903, with race leader (pre-maillot jaune of course) Maurice Garin taking the win in both the stage from Bordeaux to Nantes and the following stage from Nantes to Paris. Its most recent incursion into the race was as the host of the finish of stage 3 of the 2008 edition, in a transitional flat stage with all its most difficult terrain in the first third; a bunch sprint was expected, but with all the maillot vert contenders content after three early intermediate sprints and the likes of Cavendish not yet the unstoppable force he became, the sprinters' teams picked up the slack on catching the breakaway too late, once it became clear Caisse d'Épargne wanted to offload the maillot jaune so as not to expend too much energy for Valverde early; Samuel Dumoulin took the stage ahead of Will Frischkorn, Romain Feillu and Elisa's older brother Paolo Longo Borghini, with Romain taking the maillot jaune for a single day ahead of the contre-le-montre.

Of course, Nantes is actually in Loire-Atlantique, but this département is part of the historical terrain of Brittany and the city in many places proudly displays its Bréton heritage in much the same way as Pamplona bears unmistakable signs of Basque history. It has appeared on the Tour de Brétagne route in recent years, and either way, we quickly head northwest from the city into Morbihan, the first of the Bréton provinces we meet from this direction. This is a pretty easy stage for a weekend, I confess, but it will still have the GC contenders needing to be active and should have some concern in terms of being a potential banana skin and allowing some contenders to make time over others. And the crowds here should be phenomenal, given that Brittany is a region which is fabled for cycling in France and provides a huge amount of the country's amateur and semi-pro scene in much the same way as País Vasco and Navarre does for Spain. When it was originally set up, Brétagne-Schuller (the team that is now Fortuneo-Vital Concept) wanted to create a team that would develop Bréton cycling and fulfil the same function that Euskaltel-Euskadi did for País Vasco, however changes to the UCI's points system put paid to such squads' functionality and the team has developed into a regular regional-based ProConti lineup. Our last port of call before entering the official territory of Brittany, however, is to pass through Pontchâteau, known for the Circuit de Coët Roz, a well-known cyclocross course that has hosted the World Cup and the national championships on several occasions.

Our first 70km or so of Bréton land is typical rouleur's terrain, rolling, a few false flats up and down, some digs but no real climbs. The first real climb comes after 126km, and is a classic climb known well to the sport, the Côte du Cadoudal, which takes us into the small town of Plumelec. For my GPM figures above I have used ASO's official stats for the climb, but Strava records it as 1,8km @ 5,8%. It's a decent little punchy climb that has been seen a few times in Le Tour, as despite its small size - a population of only 3000 - the town is chocked full of cycling history, once even - remarkably - hosting the Grand Départ (in 1985). Plumelec has held the French national championships three times, the first being its introduction as a stage town in any cycle race - Bernard Thévenet won in 1973, Roland Berland in 1979 and then most recently Didier Rous in 2003. After the success of the 1973 race with its tricky, hilly circuit, a one-day race on the circuit was introduced in 1974, with experienced former Tour and Vuelta winner Roger Pingeon winning the first edition of the race, which has had some tinkering done with the route but with its closing stages intact and runs to this day - as it doesn't finish at the top of the Côte it balances the durable sprinters with the climbier riders - this year's winner was Samuel Dumoulin, from a reduced group, however in 2015 Alexis Vuillermoz put out a huge show of strength on the climb and proved that it could be used to create some decent gaps if the riders are strong enough and time their attacks right.

Although the town's most recent appearance on the Tour route was for the 2015 Team Time Trial which was won by the BMC team, Vuillermoz's victory recalled the last time we saw a road stage in Plumelec in the Tour de France. That was the 2008 edition of the race, when the climb wasn't even categorized which led to some of the international field not familiar with the GP Plumelec-Morbihan underestimating it. It was the end of the very first stage of the race with no prologue or team time trial preceding it, so with the yellow jersey up for grabs, all the puncheurs, durable sprinters and several GC men were in the running. Despite a vain effort from Stefan Schumacher, and aggression from Kim Kirchen and Alessandro Ballan, none of them stood a chance after Alejandro Valverde launched one of the most blistering uphill sprints you'll ever see with 350m to go. It was a far cry from the previous Tour stage in the town, won by Erik Zabel in 1997.

We shouldn't expect the Côte de Cadoudal to make the difference in this stage, however, as we continue on past the historic town and on to more traditional Bréton rolling terrain ahead of the intermediate sprint in Pontivy, the hometown of the pre-war cyclists the Le Drogo brothers, and then we go to Mûr-de-Brétagne, now the most well-known puncheur finish in the region.

This short, sharp ascent overlooking the Lac de Guerlédan shown there has only recently been added to the repertoire of the Tour de France, as owing to the lack of space at the summit, until recent improvements in telecommunications meant less space was needed they had been unable to finish at the top, and with a lack of sizable towns nearby there were few options for putting the climb in an important position in the stage, instead leaving it in a supporting role, such as in the typically Bréton bumpy second stage of the 2008 Tour which was won by Thor Hushovd. You see, there's precious little actual flat in Brétagne, so the hardman sprinters are preferred over the pure power guys. Anyway: until recently its most important contribution to the Tour de France was as a checkpoint in the absurdly difficult 139 (!!!!!!!!!!!) kilometre ITT in the 1947 Tour, deep into week 3, from Vannes to Saint-Brieuc, which Raymond Impanis won and which allowed the then-king of the mountains Pierre Brambilla to take the yellow jersey from René Vietto just three days from the end (Robic of course took the jersey on the final day). That all changed in 2011, when it was introduced as a hilltop finish on stage 4, won by eventual Tour victor Cadel Evans. The climb was repeated in the 2015 stage, in a similarly rolling stage with the climb at the end, when despite his own origins being in the Jura, Alexis Vuillermoz showed that despite another hilarious seated eggbeater attack from Chris Froome he's the man when it comes to punchy Bréton finishes right now, taking the stage with a clear gap ahead of Dan Martin and Alejandro Valverde.

Much like that day, I am finishing in Mûr-de-Brétagne on stage 8, however unlike the 2015 Tour (or the 2011 Tour for that matter) it comes long after the GC should have started to take shape (although the 2015 Tour did have the Neeltje Jans stage that meant the group wasn't as nervy as in the painfully backloaded 2011 race), so we won't have as nervous a bunch as we did in 2011. We also try something new, which is to do something very unusual for the Tour de France, and have a finishing circuit. The reason for this is that the Mûr on its own may only cause a handful of seconds' difference, and this is a weekend stage, so I'd rather try to encourage more than 2km of action even if the important parts of the climb are all in the first half. The Tour has historically shied away from circuit racing outside of the classic Champs Elysées sprint, but we see these finishes all over the place in minor races of course, and the Giro and Vuelta are both happy to incorporate them to allow stage towns to get a bit more bang for their buck as well as to toughen up a stage occasionally (as well as for Worlds preparation in the Vuelta's case). The Alpe d'Huez stage in 2013 showed that Prudhomme isn't averse to a double-climb if the stage is right, and I think here the stage is right - the final circuit is 17,9km long and far from flat - so the first time over the climb is less than 20km to go, there's a descent and then another short rise to the Côte de Saint-Mayeux - this was a cat.4 climb in the 2008 Tour so it's not inconsiderable. We then have a gradual descent, a short 4% ramp up into the town of Mûr-de-Brétagne itself and then the final climb, so with the French national teams so keen to show and on familiar roads to them we should at least see some action from those looking for the stage win on the closing circuits (with no time bonuses, the stage may be gifted to the break as well with the big guns potentially looking to offload the maillot jaune to prevent having to defend for over two weeks, which may mean the group chasing being smaller and/or weaker, so easier to get away from earlier). The Gilberts of this world will want to show here, while this may also be a chance if 2015 is anything to go by for Sagan to pick up some points over the Coquards and Matthewses of this world in the maillot vert competition. And of course, some GC contenders are punchier than others, so some explosive climbers may seek to gain a bit on more diesel types if possible too.

So yes, it's the weekend and we have a hilly stage up in the northwest of France, about as far from the high mountains as it's possible to get on French territory without being in Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon. But there is method to the madness, don't worry.

 

[Broken_Leg]

Stage 14 [Saturday]: Toulon – Marseille
140 km – Hilly
Climbing : 2128 m


Côte de Bandol 2.9 km @ 5.3%
Côte de La Ciotat 4.6 km @ 6.9 %
Côte de Carnoux 4.5 km @ 5.1%
Col de l’Espigoulier 10.5 km @ 5.5 %
Côte de Cadolive 4.2 km @ 4.4 %
Côte du Roucas Blanc 1.6 km @ 6.8%

Today’s stage between Toulon and Marseille will be quite similar to what the riders experienced yesterday : a hilly stage between the Mediterranean coast and the hinterland which will provide a lot of scenic views. From a racing perspective, the main difference is that this stage is far more likely to end in a sprint than yesterday’s.
The peloton will start where it ended yesterday, in Toulon, and head west not far from the sea until Bandol, where the first climb of the day will start. With 2.9 km at 5.3%, it’s definitely not a monster. A straightforward descent will bring the bunch back to the coastal road which they will follow until La Ciotat.

Here the hills arrive right into the sea with very nice cliffs. Since there is a road on the ridge of those cliffs, the riders will have to go there. This is a 4.5 km climb at an average of almost 7%.

After a few km on the ridge, with very scenic point of views on the coast, the descent will bring the riders to Cassis and the beginning of the Calanques which extend all the way to Marseille.

But here the riders will head inland, first through the côte de Carnoux which will bring them to Aubagne and then Gemenos, where the most difficult climb of the day starts. At 10.5 km @ 5.5%, it is not very difficult, but in July the heat can be a problem, as it is oriented to the South and without wind.

At the top, in clear weather there is a very nice panoramic view which extends all the way to Marseille. But now, the riders must have something else to do, as this should be the point where the sprinters’ teams will start bringing the break back, as the côte de Cadolive should not be an insurmountable problem for them.
Thereafter we have a long descent to the center of Marseille through Allauch (intermediate sprint location).

In Marseille lies a last difficulty for the bunch and especially the sprint trains : the côte du Roucas Blanc, (1.6km @ 6.8%) which crests at 8 km to go could perhaps enable a strong man to try to escape. And it will in any case derail the sprint trains. Sprinters will most probably survive it, but not all their domestiques.
After a fast descent back to the Vieux Port, the riders will turn right for the last two km. It’s a straight but not flat one : the average is below 5%, and it flattens on the last 400m. Without being a murito-kind of finish, it is still for the more versatile kind of sprinters.

Wine of the Day :
Along today’s route lies the vineyards of Cassis, a small and unique wine-producing area in Provence in that it produces almost exclusively white wines (grapes are a variety of Marsanne, Clairette, Ugni Blanc and sauvignon). Those whites are dry, with often heavy floral aromas. They go very well with fish-based meals, or simply for an ‘apéro’ in the sun.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Stage 9: Hennebont - Ploudalmézeau, 192km

GPM:
Côte de Restalgon (cat.4) 2,3km @ 4,6%
Côte de Toullaëron (cat.3) 3,4km @ 4,0%
Côte de Saint-Rivoal (cat.4) 1,8km @ 4,8%
Côte de Kerhorré (cat.4) 2,7km @ 3,2%

The second Sunday of the race features arguably the toughest day in the saddle of the race for the featherweights, a proper rouleur's paradise. Ironic, then, that we should start from the hometown of one of France's better climbing talents, Warren Barguil. The riders will mostly overnight in Lorient, for Hennebont is an attractive walled city of around 11.000 inhabitants just outside that large urban centre.

The stage moves northwestwards once more, as with the last two stages, only now there's really not much further you can go northwestwards since we're already in Morbihan; this of course means we're going into Finistère, the westernmost part of contiguous mainland France, and the area from which you could see Anatole France's fictional, satirical Penguin Island.

Getting there entails going over some bumpy, undulating terrain somewhat hillier than the previous Bréton terrain, and indeed in the first two thirds of the stage there may only be a handful of smaller categorized climbs, but there is precious little actual flat, and controlling the racing here will be pretty energy sapping. The very first point of interest on the route is passing through the town of Plouay, which annually holds the GP Ouest-France, one of the less major World Tour races for the men but one of the more major World Tour races for the women, one of the few times they get to race the same course. It's often known as the GP Plouay, and for a time informally the GP Pooley due to Emma's affinity for the route of the race, which centres around the short but steep Côte de Ty Marrec. The race has been held since the 1930s, and has served as a Worlds tune-up for many years (including some strange circumstances like in 2008, when Pierrick Fédrigo beat Alessandro Ballan in a two-up sprint, was selected for the Worlds but elected not to ride as he'd not expected to be picked and booked a family holiday - Ballan then of course winning the World Championships in Varese) but perhaps no edition was more important than the 2000 edition which served as an immediate precursor to the ensuing World Championships on the same circuit, which were won by outsider Romāns Vainšteins ahead of Zbigniew Spruch and defending champion Óscar Freire.

While we don't use Ty Marrec in this stage, there's plenty of rolling up-and-down in the area around Plouay otherwise, and we do use the first part of that circuit before continuing our route northwards over our first categorized climb, the Côte de Restalgon. From here until Landeleau, there are 40km of relentlessly not-flat roads, before 20km or so of respite. After this it kicks up again as we head into the Monts d'Arrée, with several kilometres of uphill false flat giving way to a 2km climb as we reach over 250m above sea level again; shortly after this one there's another non-categorized climb that, if this was one of the first couple of stages, inevitably would have been. Now, however, plenty of points have been given out and these are likely to go to the break plus also less than likely to be significant in the long run given the current Tour distribution of KOM points, so not really necessary. The most important thing about this double-climb, I guess, is that it takes us past the decommissioned nuclear power plant at Brennilis - the only nuclear power plant to ever have been stopped by terrorists in fact, when the Talbenn Dieubiñ Breizh / Fronte de Libération de la Brétagne successfully destroyed electrical lines to the centre in 1979. Although closed since 1985, a period much longer than its actual period of operation, the site remains there and in the process of decommissioning.

A lengthy downhill false flat descent takes us to the banks of the Élorn river close to Landerneau, where it opens out into the estuary that the port of Brest is settled on. Crossing the river also symbolically takes us from Morbihan into Finistère, where the rest of the stage will take place. Landerneau is a scenic town of 15.000, whose most famous son at present is probably Gonzalo Higüaín, the Argentine footballer, but for cycling it's the birthplace of Direct Énergie's Perrig Quéméneur, a long-term domestique for the squad. It also is where the suffering begins.

The final categorized climb of the day begins on the outskirts of Landerneau, the Côte de Kerhorré. At 2,7km averaging just 3,2% you'd be forgiven for wondering why the hell it deserves categorizing, after all, that's just false flat! It is however a two-stepped ascent featuring a steeper first ramp; but more importantly, it includes the first of 13 sectors of ribin on the menu today. That's because after a touch of the Tour de Vendée and the GP Plumelec, today it's time for a touch of everybody's favourite small French race, the mighty, mighty Tro Bro Léon.

This glorious one-day race around the westernmost coast of France is a 1.1 race, a disgustingly low profile for a race as great as it is. Featuring nearly 30 sectors of ribin, the name given to these compacted dirt roads similar in function to the sterrato often seen in Italy, it is a veritable carnival of craziness. While we're not taking on some of the most ridiculous parts of the race (the racing on grass out of château gates to link a ribin sector with the road at the front, for example), nor are we granting the victor a piglet as a prize (unless the organizers deign to do so), I think this would be a great way to spend a weekend stage at Le Tour. Much like the 2010 Tour's cobbled stage I have elected to reduce the number of actual sectors in order to make it more achievable for a Tour de France péloton, and not use some of the toughest ones that would be more logistically difficult to make viable, but we should be seeing some serious trouble for the less technically-skilled riders out there as it will become important to be able to put down some power. A stage like this will also mean that a couple of rouleur helpers will be necessary, reducing the amount of mountain aid available to the leaders. Plus of course, if they want to soft-pedal it, the classics men will have already lost time on Luz Ardiden, so there's a dramatic battle for the win as well, plus the considerations of who races for their own goals and who races for the team.

After this opening sector there's about 15km of tarmac, but after passing through Le Folgoët with its scenic basilica it's time for things to get nasty, as with 12 sectors in the final 51km it's going to become pretty chaotic out there, and that's why I've not included this stage until after I've already opened up some significant GC gaps, so we don't have literally every team trying to get near the front.

Here's the 2015 Tro Bro Léon map. We go out of Le Folgoët through sectors 10 and 9 from that course, as carnage ensues. Then it's sectors 6 and 7 from the 2010 route. We then loop round to take sectors 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18 from the 2015 route... but finishing one sector before making the riders come through the gate of the Manoir de Kérouatz-Lannilis, which is one of the most iconic shots of Tro Bro Léon. We then cross the finishing line of that particular race in Lannilis town centre, also known from the 2013 French nationals won by Arthur Vichot. This will be the day's intermediate sprint, so with the points being given out so late, riders wanting that points jersey will need to be durable. Yes, the Degenkolbs and Kristoffs of this world will be fine and obviously so will Sagan, but the question is, will their teams let them if they have GC candidates involved that they may need to pilot across the ribin? A lot will depend on the results of transfer silly season.

Oh, who am I kidding, the people just want to see Tro Bro Léon carnage. OK, here you go. Enjoy.

We then head over the notorious short final sector of ribin used several times in the closing stages of Tro Bro Léon, but here there still remain nearly 20km until the line. The remaining sectors, therefore, are new, because they are close to the départ when Tro Bro sets off, and even the insane dirt road pig-gifting race organizers baulk at sending the riders straight out of km0 onto dirt roads. The first sector is very short and then leads to a stretch on tarmac as we head to the coast and the gorgeous small town of Saint-Pabu. Both of the last sectors are in good condition but consist of two compact sterrato lines with a grass crown. The penultimate sector lasts 900m and ends just over 6km from the line, and the final sector is about 1km in length and ends at 3,5km from home. The ribin sectors in and of themselves are not as decisive as cobbles, so it is their number which causes the difficulties (much like comparing Amstel Gold's 30-something climbs against Liège-Bastogne-Liège's 10 or so), hence why we have more than we have in cobbled Tour stages, but still around half the number we see in the dedicated one-day race.

The finish town of Ploudalmézeau has around 6000 inhabitants and is in touching distance of the west Atlantic; it's a popular holiday destination among people in this part of the country and also enables us to not trample too heavily on the toes of Tro Bro Léon by using the smaller Lannilis as a stage town. It is also a short drive from Brest, which is good as I am giving the riders no excuses for not going for it today - plenty of chance to go hard because tomorrow is a rest day, which will be held in Brest, the city which hosted the Grand Départ in 2008, so the teams can regroup and also, because this kind of rouleur stage can take its toll, allow any riders who may have suffered misfortune a day to recuperate.

Because this should be crazy. And you may say it's too much to use the dirt roads of Tro Bro Léon, but I've shied away from the most narrow and most bizarre sectors with the small cylinder tunnels and the grass sectors to ensure the support vehicles can follow; and if they can do cobbled stages like in 2010 and 2014 using some of the nastier sections from Roubaix, I don't understand why they can't use the best that Brittany has to offer too. And it's a region that adores cycling as mentioned before, why wouldn't we want to give the fans some proper spectacle if they want to bring the Tour in?

So there you have it: week 1 is over. It started with a hilly ITT, then a reduced bunch sprint stage on the opening weekend, before an intermediate stage with a HTF on Monday, and a big mountain stage on the first Tuesday of the race, however not a multi-mountain odyssey so the gaps shouldn't be quite as insane as they could be. Nevertheless, it's also far from a Montevergine di Mercogliano type stage and there should be some GC damage done. Then after a sprint stage, there's a tricky banana-skin of a stage that could suit a break, a puncheur or a reduced bunch sprint, then a slightly uphill sprint in tribute to a French one-day race. On the second weekend we have a puncheur's stage with an uphill finish (the third of six in the race) on a cat.3 climb followed by a brutal rouleur's stage including dirt roads. The pacing might be unusual but the balance is starting to show as, after all, the actual mix of stages isn't too unusual for a first week - just the order of them is.

 

[Gigs_98]

Giro d'Italia stage 9: Bolzano - Aprica (214 km)

If you want to make a giro which starts in the Alps you should probably think about where you want to put your mountain stages. The Alps are a huge area, but since I want to make the 2nd and 3rd week completely outside the Alps I couldnt use the majority of it, so I decided to mainly use the area where the climbs aren't on a very high altitude since snow is probably more likely in the first than in the 3rd week. So I made one stage in the relatively low eastern Alps, a stage in the south of the dolomites, where the passes aren't quite as high as more northern, and now a stage in the area around one of the most famous passes in the country, the Passo del Mortirolo...which I wont use in this stage
Instead I made a queen stage with 5757 meters of climbing, with (using tdf measurements) two HC and three 1st category climbs.

The start is still a little bit more eastern than the majority of the stage, in Bolzano, the capital of South Tyrol. The beginning of the day is already very hard with the Passo della Mendola. I really only rated this climb 2nd category because it was also rated like this in the giro this year but it absolutely isn't. 14.6 kilometers at 6.5% is really hard and if you still aren't convinced, just watch stage 16 of the giro this year and you will see, Mendola at the start of a stage can cause carnage.

After the descent there is the only relatively flat part of the stage with an intermediate sprint in Dimaro as the only little highlight. This section is still slightly ascending though, so the domestiques will have to work very hard. And their job wont become easier when the Passo del Tonale starts, another climb which surely isn't 2nd category, but is always rated like that in the giro so I did so as well. The climb isnt very steep but quite long and will just hurt the legs of the teammates of the leaders, because no way that something interesting will already happen hear considering the rest of the stage.

After a long descent the first 1st category climb of the stage starts and it's a brutal one. The Monte Padrio has never been used in the giro and that absolutely is a pity. The first kilometers aren't very difficult, because the first 6 kilometers are on the same streets as the climb to Aprica, but as soon as the riders leave this street the climb gets extremely steep. First of all 7 kilometers at over 10% with one kilometer which is 13.5% (!!!) steep and then the last 3 k's which get a little bit flatter again (although I'd rather say it gets irregular than flat considering that there is still a 14% ramp left).

This is the point where the racing should really start. I wouldnt really expect big attacks already, but maybe a few domestiques attack so they can help later or someone tries to catch the break with a solo move. The most likely scenarios are however that either it gets soft-pedaled, or a team puts the hammer down and makes the peloton an elite group of 20-30 riders. However even the "soft-pedal" option shouldnt be too bad, because the gradients of this ascent should cause problems for most riders anyway and if it is ridden fastly a gc contender who has a bad shape will probably already have big problems. After the top of the climb there is a very long descent followed by the 2nd intermediate sprint in Tirano. This is also the point where the 2nd and last 1st category climb of the day starts, the Passo di Trivigno.

14.2 kilometers at 8.1% already sounds pretty hard and is similar to climbs like Alp d'Huez, but in reality it's probably way harder. The last 2 kilometers are rather false flat than still a climb, so the climb is actually way steeper and especially the first half is just brutal with a gradient of over 10%. Though as far as I know this pass isnt used very often in the giro (2010 the only time I know, and that year from an easier side) which is probably mainly due to the Passo del Mortirolo which is a parallel pass and slightly harder so usually that one gets used. However the final of this stage can't be done with the Mortirolo, so Trivigno gets it's chance to shine.

Considering that the last climb wont be quite as hard as this one and that there is a rest day coming, attacks on this climb don't seem that unlikely and I also have to say once again, although this is still the 1st week there aren't many high mountains left and pure climbers already have a lot of pressure to gain a lot of time. There is definitely the possibility that there would be a big spectacle on this climb which wont end before the finish. Because the riders don't get any chance to rest after the descent and the final ascent of the day starts immediately.

This final ascent is the Passo di Santa Cristina, another super steep climb in this area:

Don't be surprised by the profile because this would surely be a 1st category climb, however only the last 7 kilometers of it get ridden. These 7 kilometers are still enough though to cause some serious time gaps, because they are extremely steep (about 9.5%). However its just easy enough to make attacks earlier reasonable and considering how hard the stage is I don't think anyone will still have many teammates after an attack on Trivigno anyway so the steep gradients at the end don't automatically condemn any earlier solo move.

After the top of the climb there is only a very short descent left, before the riders reach the finish in Aprica, one of the most mythical towns for cycling, mainly because most stages with the Mortirolo finish there and it's generally one of the most common climbs in the giro. The last 2 stages that finished there, are known as two of the best ones in the last decade, firstly Scarponi's win in the giro 2010 with all the drama around David Arroyo and in 2015 Landa's stage win after Alberto Contador's epic chase after he was distanced earlier in the stage due to a mechanical.

As I have already written, this is the queen stage and a day which should cause extremely big time gaps. If the climbers don't attack it's their own fault because they surely wont get another chance like this to gain minutes on everyone who is weaker.

 

[Broken_Leg]

Stage 15 [Sunday] : Aix en Provence – Malaucène
182 km – Mountain
Climbing : 3574m



Côte de Vauvenargues 3.5 km @ 4.9%
Côte de Montfuron 7.1 km @ 4%
Côte de Viens 4.4 km @ 5.7 %
Côte de Lagarde d’Apt 11.1 @ 7%
Mont Ventoux 23.9 km @ 5%

After two day close to the Mediterranean, we head back inland today, and the hills of the previous days will turn into mountains. It’s Ventoux time. I know, I said I wanted to avoid the climbs overused by ASO, and Ventoux is definitely one of them. But I tried to change things a bit from the usual “flat then climb Ventoux from Bedoin, finish line at the top”.
Today the bunch will start from Aix en Provence, and at first head generally northeast, first through the Sainte Victoire mountain, celebrated in many paintings by Paul Cézanne :

From a cyclist perspective, however, it’s not much of a mountain (no road going high up the slopes), but it’ll still be our first categorized climb of the day, even though only a cat. 4.
Thereafter, the riders will descend to the Durance valley, which they will follow until Manosque where the intermediate sprint will take place. Here they will climb the second categorized climb of the day, still a simple cat. 4, and enter the pretty Luberon area.

After another not-too-difficult climb, the peloton will arrive in Rustrel. The place is known for its ocher soils :

But what will be of more concern for the riders is that it’s the start of the first significant climb of the day to Lagarde d’Apt. At 7% over 11 km, it’s a very steady climb (max 8.5%), and while it’s probably too far from the finish line to see any crazy GC attack, it may be used by a strong team to set a high tempo to test the field, and it will weigh in the legs of the riders for what’s to come.

After a descent to Sault, we will then tackle the last climb of the day, the mighty Ventoux. But we will do it from its easiest side (it’s deliberate, as it would not have been too difficult to go down from Sault to Bedoin before the climb).

The climb is in three part : a first part of around 10 km at 5%, followed by a flattish second part (2 or 3%) for 8 km to the Chalet Reynard, where we join the ASO-usual route to the top, on what is the most difficult part. Contrary to ASO practice, we won’t finish at the top, but the riders will have to descend the Malaucène side, and the arrival will be judged right at the foot of the descent.

With a climb from the ‘easy’ side, and a descent at the end, it might seem a bit underwhelming compared to the usual route, and it’s not certain we will get huge action. But that’s why I added the climb to Lagarde d’Apt, as it can put some riders in difficulty, which will incite attacks later on.
And if a GC group comes together atop the Ventoux, some could want to attack in the descent.

Wine of the Day :
We left a few days ago the northern Côtes du Rhône at Tain, but today we’re back in the southern part of the appellation. Even if the name is the same, the wines here are quite different from those in the North. It comes mainly from the grapes : while in the North it’s mainly Syrah, here we have wines based mainly on Grenache grapes, with Syrah and Mourvèdre as secondary and tertiary choices.
The area produces a very large majority of reds, which are powerful and can be kept for a long time for aging.
For today, I thus chose a Gigondas :

 

[Broken_Leg]

Rest Day [Monday]
Sage 16 [Tuesday]: Avignon – Agde
173 km – Flat
Climbing : 599 m



Les Baux de Provence 2.7 km @ 3.6%
Mont Saint Clair 1.6 km @ 10.8%

After a rest day spent in Avignon (almost no transfer from Sunday afternoon’s arrival in Malaucène), the peloton will once again head back to the Mediterranean coast. But this time it will be on the west side of the Rhône, with a coastline far more flat than in Provence/Riviera.
Thus the sprinters will welcome today’s stage (highest ‘pass’ being 230m above sea level).
Starting from Avignon, the peloton will head South towards the first climb of the day at Les Baux de Provence – a superb village atop a ridge :

Thereafter, the riders will go on to Arles, where they will cross the Rhône and enter the Camargue– one of the flattest area in France, consisting of many ponds.

The intermediate sprint today will take place at Aigues Morte (‘Dead Waters’), a well preserved medieval city which used to be a harbor but is now inland. A few km later the riders will reach the coastal road where they will remain until the finish line.
It should be a straightforward bunch sprint but for two elements : the first one is the wind : for the last 75 km the riders will be along the coast, and more often than not between the sea and large ponds, meaning they are completely exposed to the wind. If there is some wind blowing, there is a large chance of echelon.
The second difficulty is that with 25 km to go, when the riders reach Sète, instead of following the coastal road, I send them up the Mont St Clair.

At A.6 km it’s short, but steep enough to wreak havoc on the pursuit of the break of the day. With more than 20 km remaining, there is still time to catch the escaped riders and bring it to a sprint, with perhaps one or two names missing (on a very similar stage in TdF 2012, Greipel was the winner).


Wine of the Day :
The start of the stage in Avignon gives me a second opportunity to choose another Southern Côte du Rhône. This time I’ll go with the most well known name in the area : Chateauneuf du Pape. These are made of a multiplicity of grape varieties, but all keep a Grenache base.
They are very tough and powerful wines, with gamy and leather flavors, and require many years in cellar before opening.
Today we’ll go with one of the most well known names in the area : Clos des Papes :

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Phew, Broken_Leg has finally left the mountains, so my more rouleur-oriented middle third of the race doesn't look so tame being posted among it!

Stage 10: Yffiniac - Cap Fréhel, 38,0km (ITT)

The first week of my Tour may have started favouring the climbers, with a stern test for them on stage 3 with Jaizkibel close to the finish and the punchy finish on Monte Igueldo, and the Pyrenean MTF on stage 4, but since then the route has moved back into the direction of the rouleurs, culminating in the odyssey of dirt roads that closed week 1 as we're now in the flatter north/west parts of the country. After all, the strong climbers don't want to have to control the race for two and a half weeks after the Luz Ardiden stage, but they don't want to give away time unnecessarily too, or allow somebody distanced who is planning to peak in week 3 back into the GC mix in their attempts to ship the jersey either. So we need the rouleur challenges to keep the GC men alert. That's a large part of the reason for placing the ribin after the Mûr-de-Brétagne stage, and also after a rest day in Brittany, another stage that will favour the stronger men out there, because it's the first full length chrono of the race. It's not a super long time trial, but then we started the race with a longer-than-your-average-prologue ITT and we have rouleur challenges other than chronos in the race, so I don't think this should be a problem for the balance of the race. After all, in total we have 48,7km of ITT so far after today, which isn't unreasonable at all. Especially as this one's up against the coast and so the riders may have to grit their teeth and blast through the crosswinds as well.

After a rest day in the city of Brest, we travel back eastward towards where we finished on stage 8, as the stage will take place entirely in the Côtes d'Armor département. The nearest city we pass through will be Saint-Brieuc, but instead we pass beyond; the contre-le-montre will instead commence in the nearby small town of Yffiniac, which has a population of just 5000. It is, however, a town indelibly linked with cycling history of course; with the sole exception of 2010 it has hosted a stage of the Tour de Brétagne Féminin every year in the last decade, with its most illustrious winners being Anna van der Breggen in the 2012 ITT and Elisa Longo Borghini in a road race ahead of her teammate Audrey Cordon (who is from nearby Pontivy, which we passed through in the Mûr-de-Brétagne stage); due to similarities in appearance, build and interests the two are dubbed "the twins" by the Wiggle staff.

Oh, and there's also some guy called Bernard Hinault who comes from the town.

Obviously normally when I make references to the people whose names, lives and careers are being honoured by their hometowns being visited in the route, I do a bit of veneration to draw attention to their achievements and how they made it. To be honest, I don't really feel that that's necessary on this occasion; if you're a regular poster on a cycling website and you don't know about a guy who won ten Grand Tours, five Monuments, the World Championships, and is almost universally heralded as one of the top five cyclists of all time - indeed many convincing arguments can be put forward that he should be considered second only to Merckx - then really, you need to brush up on your history. Hinault is, like, one of the guys you should learn about in lesson one of cycling 101. Le Blaireau was a classic patron, ruling the péloton with an iron fist, and occasionally the fans with a literal fist. He's still there on the Tour every year to this day, as a true French legend really ought to be, so there's no excuse.

Anyway, once we're done with honouring the Badger, the riders will set off on a 38km chrono which starts off on some wide major roads, then turns towards the coast and mirrors the final 30km of the 2011 flat stage to Cap Fréhel, which was well-received due to an exciting finale, but since this was the horrifically backloaded 2011 Tour, presenting such a parcours to a nervous péloton where everybody still had something to protect and apart from a couple of riders like Evans and Gilbert everybody was still on their TTT times bar the time lost to crashes, as a demolition derby was almost inevitable. The 2011 Tour may be well received in retrospect, but like the recent 2016 Giro, the largest part of that is due to an epic finale; this often colours our judgement as much of the first two weeks of the race was utter dreck with injuries providing the only tension. The biggest victims of the attrition of violence from Carhaix to Cap Fréhel were Tom Boonen and Janez Brajkovič (warning: could be interpreted as graphic), while the péloton moved through otherwise pretty coastal areas like Pléneuf-Val-André.

That said, while the stage became ultimately irrelevant other than through crashes, the actual chasedown for the stage win in that particular stage was one of the only good things to happen in the first 15 stages of the 2011 race. Here's the footage. At 2'52'38 of that video, with 29,2km remaining, the riders (sans Jérémy Roy and Thomas Voeckler, who are up the road because it's the 2011 Tour) take a left turn which is where they join the road my time trial takes from Yffiniac to Planguenoual; from that point on, the time trial follows the route of the 2011 stage, so while it's announced as being a stage to Cap Fréhel itself the finish is in the Fréhel urban area just before reaching the cape itself, just as five years ago. This is not a super long time trial but it should open up some reasonable gaps given the stages that have been and gone and that it's the first day after the rest day means it should be a purer than ever pure test of strength that sets us up for the travails of week 2.

 

[Brullnux]

Tour of Britain

Welcome to my Tour of Britain. A quick intro: it is slightly different to what the current one is like. There is still a focus on short-to-mid length climbs that can be find throughout the country, but it has the inclusion of cobbles and also in the sense of the parts of the country used it is different. The route is very much based in the West of the UK, and completely avoids the south-east of England, as well as East Anglia. It goes to all the three countries of the mainland, and only goes as far east as Sheffield. The GC important stages are peppered throughout, culminating in the Hardknott Pass of the Lake District, and a potential echelon stage on the last day. Unfortunately, as I wanted to keep the number of days down to 8 (I also included a split stage), the beautiful climbs of the Highlands were left unused.

Tour of Britain Stage 1: Plymouth - Exeter 134km

The first stage is a fairly easy sprint stage that traverses Devon, possibly one of the more overlooked areas of the UK if you are not from the South-West originally. There are not any important climbs, but it is still undulating throughout.

Plymouth is the start town, a famous harbour city. From there, the riders head straight north, towards Tavistock. Then, they enter the very pretty Dartmoor national park, famous for being where Conan Doyle's Hound of the Baskervilles was set. It is a stunning, eerie area.

Here the only climb of the day is encountered, the Pork Hill. It is pretty easy, not very steep and quote short.

The rolling terrain continues until the riders leave the national park, and then there is a flat run in to Exeter. the sprint could be quite sketchy, but nothing compared to Suisse, more like Giro-2016-Torino-on-a-bend sketchy.

Short write up today, but I'm saving myself for Stage 2 where I plan to do a an in-depth analysis of every single climb. And there are a lot.

 

[lemon cheese cake]

@Brullnux: I presume Porlock Hill will feature in this stage 2, considering the area you starting in (Cornwall and Devon)?

 

[Brullnux]

Re:

@Brullnux: I presume Porlock Hill will feature in this stage 2, considering the area you starting in (Cornwall and Devon)?

No, I take quite a jump north, and the stage will be based in Somerset mainly.

 

[lemon cheese cake]

Re: Re:

@Brullnux: I presume Porlock Hill will feature in this stage 2, considering the area you starting in (Cornwall and Devon)?

No, I take quite a jump north, and the stage will be based in Somerset mainly.

 

[Gigs_98]

Giro d'Italia stage 10: Milano - Genova (155 km)

The 2nd week starts and the riders leave the Alps with a stage that starts in one of Italy's most famous city and the most important city in Italy for cycling, Milano.

The route crosses the Po-Valley from north to south and passes lots of big cities like Pavia and Tortona where the two intermediate sprints of the stage will take place. After about 100 kilometers however the riders leave the flattest area of the country end enter one of the most beautiful ones: Liguria. Well actually not just yet, but I don't know what the mountain range on the northern border of Liguria is called, anyway the region here is very very scenic. This is also the part where the first climb of the day starts, the Passo della Bocchetta. This pass is quite known for usually being part of the route of the Giro dell'Appenninio. In this stage however the riders ride the easier side of the pass, so although this pass isnt that much away from the finish, I doubt this climb could prevent a bunch sprint.

As you can see on the profile the climb is 10 kilometers long, but not even 5% steep and although the climb gets steeper at then end even the steepest kilometer is only 8% steep. The maybe even more interesting thing about this pass will be the descent, which is quite steep and narrow, which is why a small group which maybe attacked earlier has a small advantage over the big peloton here.

After the end of the descent there are still about 20 kilometers left before the riders reach the finish in Genova. This is also a very scenic city located at the sea, and a town which has hosted giro stages very often already, the last time 2015 when Elia Viviani won his first ever gt stage.

I know that it's actually a shame to make such a flat stage to Genova, but there were 2 sprint stages in the first week and to attract at least a few good sprinters this giro just needs a few flat stages in this and the next week. Moreover for everyone who already fears that I won't use any serious climbs in Liguria, just wait for stage 11

 

[Brullnux]

Re: Re:

@Brullnux: I presume Porlock Hill will feature in this stage 2, considering the area you starting in (Cornwall and Devon)?

No, I take quite a jump north, and the stage will be based in Somerset mainly.

Sorry

Another time

 

[52520Andrew]

With everyone else posting flat stages for the most part, I might as well get mine out of the way. The sprinters better relish this one though as it is their last chance until the final stage.

Tour of California Stage 9: Crescent City - Eureka 161.3 kms

After a rest day and a transfer up to Crescent City, we begin the second half of the race with one for the sprinters with the last climb being a cat 4 topping out almost 50 kms from the finish. To account for what should be a typical flat stage, we will spend a good amount of time along the coast and we will pass through Del Norte Coast Redwoods Park and Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park so the scenery should being entertaining.

The run in to Eureka is not too technical with a right hand turn about 1 km out before a couple very gentle sweeping bends and a long straight for the sprinters to go at it. One possible obstacle to mess with any lead out trains is the road becoming a bit exposed along the coast for the last 10 or so km before turning inland and this could disrupt the usual sprint.

What makes this stage unrealistic?
This shouldn't be too unrealistic

We stay in Eureka tonight before things get a bit more interesting tomorrow.

 

[Broken_Leg]

Stage 17 [Wednesday] : Lezignan-Corbières – Foix
200 km – Mountain
Climbing : 3223 m


Col de St Benoit 6.3km @ 4.8%
Col du Bac 2.6 km @ 6%
Col de Montségur 6.3 km @ 6.8%
Col de Port 14.9km @ 4.8%
Col de Péguère 3.3 km @ 12.5%

After a relatively long transfer (80km, but on highways) from Agde, the riders will start today in Lezignan-Corbières and head for the Pyrénées, for what is a not-too-difficult mountain stage.
The first 70km will be rather uneventful, the peloton heading West to the medieval city of Carcassonne, then South towards Limoux, where the first couple of easy climbs await the riders and mark the arrival in the foothills of the Pyrénées.

After those, long false flat will bring the bunch to Belesta for the intermediate sprint and later to the first significant climb of the day : the col de Montségur. It’s not a monster, but the last two km average 8%. It’s also a very scenic place, with a medieval castle on a rock overlooking the road

The descent will bring the riders to the Ariège valley, and at Tarascon sur Ariège, they will start the last couple of difficulties of the day : the first one is the 15 km col de port, which averages 4.8% but features 2 km at 7.5% and one at 9% (in the central section). It’s not really good attacking terrain, but it’s a relatively long climb which is a prelude to the next one.

After a short descent, the riders will reach the col des Cagnous where they turn right to tackle the col de Péguère.

This is a short climb, but very steep and demanding (the riders will only climb the red section in the profile above), with an average above 12% and ramps up to 18%

This could be a good attacking terrain for someone who wants to claim the stage, or a GC rider who can descend and wants to gain time (although tomorrow’s stage may result in conserving energy today, the climb is hopefully short enough to help them being aggressive).
From the top there remain 25km to the finish line in Foix, first on a rapid descent and then 5 km or so of descending false flat.

Wine of the day :
We start today in Lezignan Corbières, center of the Corbières appellation. While not as renowned as other wine-producing areas in France, it still produces some notable wines, but quality varies greatly from one sub-area (“terroir”) to another.
Reds constitute the very large majority of the production, the grapes being mainly of Carignan, Grenache, Syrah, Lledoner Pelut and Mourvèdre. They are quite strong wines, with often a high alcohol degree, but the best bottles still keep a good balance.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Stage 11: Le Mont-Saint-Michel - Lisieux, 215km

GPM:
Côte de Menil-Hermei (cat.4) 1,2km @ 5,8%
Côte de l'Hotellerie (cat.4) 3,0km @ 4,2%
Côte de Crouttes (cat.4) 1,5km @ 6,6%
Côte de la Roussière (cat.4) 2,2km @ 5,2%
Côte de la Croix-Rouge (cat.4) 1,5km @ 7,0%
Côte de la Brevière (cat.4) 1,9km @ 4,6%
Côte de Saint-Michel-de-Livet (cat.4) 1,9km @ 6,1%
Côte de Coupesarte (cat.4) 1,1km @ 5,9%
Côte de Saint-Hyppolite (cat.4) 1,0km @ 7,9%

No rest for the wicked in MY Tour de France, I'm afraid, as after a 40km test against the clock being pounded by the wind, it's time to take another dip into the world of one-day racing in our second consecutive stage to a 2011 stage host; albeit a stage that shows what the sixth stage of that race could have been. And also what the local one-day race - which is actually often a very good race - could be with the right field.

Before we get to that, however, we start off in one of France's most iconic tourist spots, the UNESCO World Heritage Site that is the fortified island of Le Mont-Saint-Michel. Twinned with a much smaller British island fortress by the name of St. Michael's Mount, the island has been a popular pilgrimage spot for centuries and has evolved into one of France's most iconic spots outside of Paris, appearing as early as the Tapisserie de Bayeux, but despite its historic nature and popularity as a tourist destination its Tour de France history is surprisingly light, perhaps being best known until recently for a 1990 flat stage won by Johan Museeuw. Nevertheless, after hosting a mid-length ITT in the 2013 Tour, which was won by Tony Martin a few seconds ahead of the eventual race winner Chris Froome, the island returns to the race as the host of the Grand Départ in 2016's race, at the start of a road stage to Utah Beach which has been selected for historical significance; unfortunately it will not, I'm afraid, yield too much of great excitement from a racing point of view.

I'm trying to do something else however, as I move the stage inland through Normandie, to take on some surprisingly racing-conducive hilly terrain that is sadly underutilized at the pro level (the 2.2 Tour de Normandie does often include some interesting hilly stages). There are nine categorized climbs in the stage - all category 4 - but there is precious little you would call pure flat on the day; there's a lot of rumbling up and down rolling terrain, short ramps you can't really categorize, and so on. Really, this is intended as something of a miniature Amstel Gold Race, of the kind we often see in the Eneco Tour, Ster ZLM-Toer and other such races that incorporate the Limburg area's côtes. In fact, there are at least three climbs that could feasibly have got cat.4 status earlier in the race or if I hadn't had such a difficult first few stages before we get to our first categorized climb, around the halfway point in the stage, a short ramp up to Ménil-Hermei, a small but picturesque village at the summit of the Orne valley. After this we cross into the Calvados département, which gives its name to a well-known variety of brandy made from apples, where the main bulk of the decisive parts of the stage will happen, before passing through the picturesque town of Falaise, whose flag bears a Scandinavian cross as a nod to the city's founding heritage. It has a pretty major claim to fame, however, as the birthplace and hometown of Guillaume le Conquérant, better known by his Anglophone appellation William the Conqueror, the first Norman King of England; the castle in the town is referred to as his.

The town is also famous for the Battle of the Falaise Pocket, the decisive engagement of the Normandy campaign during World War II, which centred around the town and the nearby hills through which we shall be racing later in the stage. From Falaise, there's about 20km of rolling terrain before the hills start to pile up; the last 65km have no fewer than eight categorized climbs, hence the reference to races like Brabantse Pijl and Amstel Gold will likely pile up in the race preview world. The first of these climbs is the longest of the day, but also the most easy, being a more or less consistent 3km at just over 4%. After this there's a descent before one of the steepest ramps we see today, as the Côte des Crouttes gets up to around 15% for a significant period of its early ascent before flattening out. It can often break up the field in smaller races by attrition, as seen here.

The important part here is that we pass the minuscule commune of Camembert, famous for the eponymous world-renowned cheese of course, and then into the town of Vimoutiers before climbing up our next ascent, a more steady climb that is around 1,8km @ 6% before easing up towards the end. This then allows us to loop back down into the town of Vimoutiers, the largest in this range of hills.

Vimoutiers is also well-known to more dedicated cycling fans as the finishing town of the Paris-Camembert one day race, a 1.1 race that takes place in early April over a number of hills in the closing part of the race; although typically a more provincial affair owing to its position as a hilly race clashing with the major northern Classics and being overshadowed for climbier races by País Vasco, however, it has been won by some big names over the years such as Bernard Hinault in 1976, Joop Zoetemelk in 1978, Laurent Fignon in 1988, Andrei Tchmil in 1995, Laurent Brochard in 2001, 2003 and 2005, and Alejandro Valverde in 2008. You can see some clips from the 2015 edition here, won by Julien Loubet in a two-up sprint against Pierrick Fédrigo; around the 18 minute mark you can see the Côte des Crouttes.

When we pass through Vimoutiers for the second time, descending the Côte de la Roussière, we have the intermediate sprint, so as we have seen so many times in my Tour route, the points competition here favours the more durable guys like Matthews, Coquard (who in fact won Paris-Camembert in 2014) or, yes, that guy too. Immediately following the town we have our next climb, which in terms of average is among the steepest climbs of the day, although it gradually turns up the heat until 200m at 12% near the top, which comes around 38km from the line.

The descent from this one is narrow, and takes us straight to the Côte de la Brevière, effectively a fairly consistent kilometre at 7,5% before flattening out and then a short ramp up to a summit, then a few flat kilometres (something that should come as blessed respite) on wide roads take us into Livarot, an attractive hillside small town renowned - like so many in this region - for its eponymous cheese.

The next climb, cresting at 22km from the line, is the 2km at around 6% of the Côte de Saint-Michel-de-Livet. The small hamlet at the summit of this ascent is likely to be where the first moves-in-earnest are made, with the steepest ramps reaching 11 or 12%. Flat terrain is really at a premium now, as we then plunge down the hill into Coupesarte, famous for its riverside (literally) manor. The climb from here to the eponymous côte is one of the easiest of the day, 1,1km at a fairly consistent 6%, maxing out at just 9%, so if riders want to make significant gaps they will have to go earlier. The biggest issue on a stage like this where it's all about breaking from control, is who will have domestiques remaining? It's easier than, but with some nods to, the 2014 Sheffield stage, especially as we're quite deep into the race here, so we may also see a very strong break of riders stagehunting or aiding a plan behind as their own GC ambitions have been rendered redundant, whether it be by Luz Ardiden, the ITT or the dirt roads of the Côtes d'Armor stage.

The Côte de Coupesarte comes with just 14km remaining and I'm hoping the group will be pretty trimmed by now, to enable any moves on the next few rolling kilometres to have the chance to gain traction as other contenders for the stage, for the GC, for whatever, have to consider whether or not to use their energy when there's one final sting in the tail, cresting at 4km from the line; at just 1km in length it's the shortest categorized climb of the day, but averaging just under 8% and with a max of 14% it's far from inconsiderable, offering a final chance for the puncheurs to explode away from the group.

Actually; that's not strictly speaking true; the final kilometre is slightly uphill on a little repecho which is the same finish as was used in the sixth stage in 2011 which followed a similar route (Pontorson is the town by Le Mont-Saint-Michel) but with fewer interesting ascents and via Livarot by a less interesting route. This slight uphill isn't really enough to open time gaps but it was enough for Boasson Hagen to be favoured over the more pure sprinters. This will also mean that it could be the killer for a small time gap and we should get chases all the way to the line.

 

[52520Andrew]

Stage 9

Tour of California Stage 9: Eureka - Etna 243.2 kms

The longest stage of the race should be a fun one. We start with 2 climbs up Lord Ellis Summit and Berry Summit which should establish the break before things flatten out for a good bit.

Unlike the previous stage however, that will not remain the case as we will eventually get to the Etna Summit. The profile and the average grade will play tricks on you with this climb however as while things start off fine at first with the first half of the climb averaging around 5%, things will get a lot more interesting in the second half. Yeah while the first half of the climb is not too bad, the second half of the climb ramps up to double digit gradients(sound familiar?) and stays there averaging about 11 percent for the next 5 kms. This should be a serious opportunity for someone to attack and gain some time as this is the steepest stretch of road in the entire race and the big diesels could struggle up a climb like this once the gradient kicks up.

The climb tops out with 16.1 kms to go and it should be a fast descent down to the finish in Etna that isn't too technical.

What makes this stage unrealistic?
The length will be the first thing that jumps out at you here since a stage this long is rare for even a grand tour. This is a very sparsely populated area so while a shorter stage would be preferable, there isn't a good place in between these places to cut this stage in 2.

The lack of much development also hurts as Etna is not the biggest town and I am not sure it could host the finish. There just isn't much that is on the way that would make more sense to stop at and I don't see the Tour actually going this way as there just isn't enough development. This area though has some interesting terrain and I wanted to specifically show off the Etna Summit climb with this stage.

More climbing is to come tomorrow

 

[Broken_Leg]

Stage 18 [Thursday] : Tarascon sur Ariège – Luchon Superbagnère
208 km – Mountain
Climbing : 5872 m




Port de Lers 11.4 km @ 7%
Col de la Core 13.4 km @ 6.5 %
Portet d’Aspet 5.7 km @ 6.9%
Col de Menté 9 km @ 7.2 %
Port de Balès 19.8 km @ 5.8 %
Superbagnères 18.5 km @ 6.32 %

Today is the second Pyrenean stage and the last day in the mountains for this Tour. If yesterday’s stage was not very difficult, today we have a monster of a stage, with 5800+ m of ascending – 3 cat. 1 and 2 HC cols on the menu.
It’s really the queen stage of the Tour, and being the last mountain day (with tomorrow’s stage a very easy one and an ITT two days hence), it should compel any climber who is behind or want to get a safety margin to attack.
And unless the teams decide an unofficial ‘neutralization’ of the early part of the stage, chances are that in the final no mountain train will remain, the domestiques having been dropped or being tired. Hopefully it will be the big guns among themselves on the last two tough climbs.

The stage starts in Tarascon sur Ariège, a few km upstream from Foix where we arrived yesterday, and the peloton will immediately face ascending false flats which are indeed the bottom of the first climb of the day : the Port de Lers. The gruppetto will form here, and will hope to be numerous, because if the stage is ridden hard, the time limit will be a problem for more than a few riders, but a large enough gruppetto should be reintegrated in the race even if OTL. 11 km @ 7% is a potential attacking terrain, but here it won’t be – not with 175+ km to go. It will nonetheless establish the breakaway (perhaps with teammates of some leaders who will want to attack later) and start the attrition. This being the last mountain stage, and with a lot of points at stake today, we should also see a battle for the KOM jersey.
The descent will bring the riders to Massat, where they will enjoy the only flat section of the stage, before heading to the second act of the attritional struggle : the regular climb to the col de la Core.

The descent and then a few km of rolling terrain will bring what’s left of the bunch to the next difficulty : the classic Portet d’Aspet – Menté sequence. Both are shortet climbs than the other cols of the day, but both feature steeper ramps (10+%) than in the two previous climbs – this could be an occasion to drop riders riding tempo.


A fast descent will bring the riders in the upper Garonne valley, where they will enjoy the second spell of flat terrain for a handful of km. The intermediate sprint will take place here, at Estenos … I guess the points won’t be taken by a Maillot Vert contender.
Thereafter the road will go up again, for a very tough finishing sequence : with 150km and 3 cat. 1 and one cat. 2 in the legs, the riders will now have to tackle the Port de Balès. The average gradient hides the fact that the first 7 km are actually false flat, which makes the second part far more difficult – quite murderous indeed.

The upper slopes of the col could well see long-range attacks. If the domestiques are depleted enough, and with very few flat remaining until the finish line, it’s not as suicidal as it could otherwise be.
The descent will bring the riders to Bagnères de Luchon. After 5 climbs and 190 km, we could perhaps call it a day ?

Well … not exactly. Until now, we’ve only had one MTF, which is not enough by modern standards. Thus we will get a second one today, which will actually be the last categorized climb of the entire Tour.
From Bagnères de Luchon, the riders will thus have to tackle the 18 km to Superbagnères

Last possibility for the climbers – even if some prefer riding defensive, those who have to make up time lost earlier won’t have any choice : they must attack. And given what already occurred today, we could see big time gaps.

Wine of the day :
None.

 

[mikii4567]

Stage 18 [Thursday] : Tarascon sur Ariège – Luchon Superbagnère
208 km – Mountain
Climbing : 5872 m

That is a real monster Pyrenean stage!

My TDF, meanwhile, is coming along nicely, but I will probably postpone posting until August because of the real race and then me being unavailable.

Meanwhile, some facts about it:
- Grand Depart is in the Hauts-de-France department.
- It's clockwise, meaning Alps, then Pyrenees.
- Other than this, we pay a visit to the Vosges, Jura and Massif Central.
- There are six stages ending in climbs cat. 2 or higher. None have been used before.
- Three other stages end atop cat. 3/4 climbs.

 

[52520Andrew]

Would love to see Port de Bales and Superbagneres in the same stage of a TDF, would be a very nice combo.

Tour of California Stage 11: Forks of Salmon - Mt. Shasta 178.1 kms

While the stage yesterday featured the steepest stretch of road in the race, the stage today is going to be a stage for the diesel engines of the peloton as we have nearly 5000 m of climbing in store for today. We start in the very tiny area of Forks of Salmon(more on that later) and we slog up 3 long climbs in Callahan Road, Scott Mountain Summit, and Parks Creek Summit. The gradients are nothing to sneeze at being 5.4%, 6.3%, and 5.7% respectively but the lengths at a total of 44.5 kms of climbing are going to wear the riders down quite a bit in time for the final climb.
I see there being too much flat between Parks Creek Summit and Mt. Shasta for there to be action on the pass. I did put the Sprint just before the final climb to give bonus seconds to any potential attacker but it is more than likely just going to someone in the break. As long as the riders don't completely soft pedal the previous climbs however, they should be worn down enough that the final climb should hit home.

Mt. Shasta can be seen from quite a ways out dominating the landscape of Northern California and Southern Oregon. The dormant volcano rises over 14,000 feet and is the second highest peak in the cascades below Mt. Rainier in Washington.

This one should be fun. It is not as hard as Onion Valley as it only averages about 5.6% compared to the 8% of Onion Valley Road but they are of similar length and the altitude of this one will also factor into things finishing at over 2300 meters. Also unlike the Onion Valley stage, there will be climbs before this one and those along with the fatigue that will have started to set in over this 2 week race will ensure the riders are worn down for this one.

The climb itself is regular like all the climbs in this stage meaning it is likely a grind up to the top but this is the last meaningful climb of the race as well since we wrap the race up in 3 days and there is a time trial to come tomorrow. If there is any more meaningful time to be gained from the climbers, this is where it will more than likely have to be done and they will have to make this stage count. Should be a fun one.

What makes this stage unrealistic?

The start is pretty much at an intersection for this stage so there is that. Yeah I would put it somewhere else if there was a better place for it but this region is just not very populated. You could start in Etna where the previous stage finished but that would take out the first climb of the day and going over Etna Summit and looping back up to Callahan Road but that would mean a ton of false flat and a super long stage.

Anyone that looks through the U.S. to find climbs that can be linked together can tell you just how hard it is to do that and this stage is here to show off an area with potential for climbs that can be easily linked together if only it were a little more populated. Maybe if the Tour of California ever gets big enough to be a 2 week event, this area will have grown a bit in population to the point where we can see racing using some of these climbs.

Up next we have the last time trial where the GC should be decided for the most part.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Stage 12: Chartres - Sens, 162km

GPM:
Côte de Jules Ferry (cat.4) 0,6km @ 12,5%

The central area of France has become somewhat neglected by its national Tour in recent years. This is perhaps the legacy of a few factors:
- until fairly recently you would see the final few stages of the Tour transitioning away from the mountains and back towards Paris; improved transport links and chartering of flights and TGV trains has enabled the caravan to be moved much more quickly, enabling the race to stay in more geographically decisive regions until late in the race;
- this has resulted in a trend towards backloading of the race, as it is now possible to have a climactic mountaintop finish on stage 20 (at least in theory, as they haven't always proven particularly decisive or even interesting) - such as 2009 on Mont Ventoux, 2011 and 2015 on Alpe d'Huez and 2013 on Le Semnoz, while even on those editions when the mountains aren't right at the end of the race (typically those where the Pyrenées are in week 3) the race seldom gets further north than Bordeaux or Brive by stage 20. The only exception in recent times has been 2012, where the transfer to the north happened before the penultimate stage, which was a chrono close to Paris, which is more in line with tradition.
- given the increased specialization in the péloton and the improved organization of sprint trains, Centre, Île-de-France and the Val de Loire areas are not especially conducive to racing that will create significant time gaps unless the weather plays ball, so placing stages of week 3 through this area is a recipe for uninteresting racing as a tired péloton takes an unofficial rest day waiting for the decisive time trial.
- Many towns around the central area of France have a cycling link in relation to Classics and one-day racing. Chartres, where I have placed my stage's start, for example, has also periodically hosted the start of Paris-Tours.

As a result of these, the area has only sparingly been used in recent years. We saw some transitional stages in week 2 of the execrable 2009 Tour, as Ag2r were aided by Astana in controlling breaks and the bunch rolled around central France waiting for Verbier, and a sprint in the midst of that horrible section of the 2010 Tour between the cobbled stage and the introduction of the Alps with several consecutive flat stages where Bob Stapleton's HTC minions held the break at 3 minutes for four hours. But since then, there's just the 2012 closing time trial to point to, which finished in our starting town today, and where Bradley Wiggins put the final cherry on the top of the utter domination of that painfully tedious edition of the race with a dominant stage win ahead of his similarly dominant lieutenant, Chris Froome. It was reminiscent of how US Postal had controlled the whole race for two weeks in 2004 before sticking five riders in the top 11 of the final contre-le-montre in how emasculating the performance was for the péloton; they had been reduced to chasing the riders they had hoped to distance around the mountains before they got to the final time trial, as it was expected that Wiggins would take time on them here - instead he came in with a huge lead already instilled and proceeded to stomp them further. Speaking of 2004, that was the last time before 2012 that Chartres had hosted Le Tour, with a flat week 1 stage that was won by Stuart O'Grady from a five-man break that was allowed to gain 12 minutes on the field, and led to the thing that race is most famous for: a youthful Thomas Voeckler, of Brioches-la Boulangère, suffering in the wake of Armstrong for over a week to defend his maillot jaune.

Like so many of the great cities of northern and central France, Chartres is renowned for its spectacular Gothic cathedral, a UNESCO World Heritage site, whose stained-glass windows feature a unique hue that has to date proven impossible to replicate and is known as bleu de Chartres. It has been settled since pre-Roman times, becoming part of the Kingdom of France in 1286, in whose hands it has rested save for brief periods of occupation (by the English during the Hundred Years' War, by the Germans during World War II, during the liberation from which the legendary cathedral was only narrowly spared) ever since. It also has an unusual claim to fame as the only city other than Reims to have crowned a French king, when Henri IV's coronation took place at the cathedral.

For the most part, this is a fairly featureless stage, a straightforward sprinters' stage which heads eastward across the southern edge of the Paris suburbs through the pastoral countryside of the Beauce region. How the stage pans out will definitely be affected by the positions in both the yellow and green jersey competitions. This is one of the few stages that will really give the heads of state group the opportunity to offload the jersey for a couple of days, although given the racing so far, unless they go full on 2006, anybody who remains close enough to the head of the field at this point to pass the maillot jaune to could prove dangerous, à la Voeckler in 2011 - after all we've had a HC mountaintop finish, a long ITT and a dirt roads stage by this point. However, this is also one of the few opportunities remaining for sprinters, so with a slightly more tricky run-in but not an unachievable one for the purer sprinters, if they are close enough to the likes of Coquard, Matthews and Sagan in the maillot vert competition to try to control this one they surely will, as there have been precious few opportunities for the more limited sprinters in this race. Certainly they will at least be able to claw some points back in that competition in the intermediate sprint in the scenic château town of Nemours, unless the break that goes is too large.

The only real challenge in this stage is that the run-in to the town of Sens is pretty tricky. There are, in fact, two short climbs in the last 8km which, though short, could mean that this is more suited to a late attacker that could keep the péloton at bay if the sprinters' teams aren't well-organized enough or if their sprinters aren't adept. The first is categorized, the second - though it perhaps ought to be - is not, so it may take riders a little by surprise. The Rue Jules Ferry in Paron, a village which has been swallowed by neighbouring Sens, is as you can see a steep dig of a road, with a max of 17%, but a very short length of just 600m, Classics-style.

Cresting at 8,2km remaining, this is mostly a fine road which starts with a 90º left and then about 50m later going through a narrow bridge, so this will be a pinch point and positioning will be absolutely vital as, though the road after this is perfectly wide - the second half is two lanes in fact - and will be no problem for the péloton, because of its short length the amount of time available to make up the gap if somebody takes advantage and attacks is very little. The descent is on the straight and fast Rue de Saint-Bond, which is very wide and will favour the chasers, before a left turn takes us onto Rue Aristide Briand and the climb up to "l'Univers", a climb which maxes out at 11% in 1100m averaging 7,2% with 500m averaging nearly 10% in the middle (see, I told you it probably ought to be categorized!) before flattening out somewhat to a summit with 4,2km remaining. The remainder of the stage is, however, on wide open roads that circumnavigate the centre of Sens to finish on the Boulevard de Mail, allowing the presentations and teams to set up on the Place Jean Jaurès.

Sens has been off the cycling beaten track for several years, but back in the 90s it hosted Paris-Nice a few times. Its most recent incursion was the start of a stage to Nevers in 2000 won by Jaan Kirsipuu but in 1999 it hosted an interesting stage finish when a group of 10 including a few classics specialists got away from the bunch and contested the win nearly two minutes up, with Andreï Tchmil taking the victory. Eventual race winner Michael Boogerd had this gap to thank for his overall victory, as Santiago Botero clambered up to 3rd overall at +1'38" eventually, with Boogerd's teammate and Sens break companion Markus Zberg in 2nd. Here, it's most likely to see a sprint, but it could give us something a little unexpected if those late hills allow a group to get away as you can be certain at least somebody will dare to dream.

 

[Brullnux]

Tour of Britain Stage 2: Taunton - Bath

As you can see, I have gone for a very Giro-like categorisation technique here. In other words, I have done it at random. There are roughly 13 or 14 cols along the route, and there is one Cat. 2 climb and two Cat. 3 climbs. Many more could have made the grade, but I didn't want the profile looking messy

Here is a quick list:
Buncombe Hill (kilometre 9): 4km @ 3.5; maximum gradient of 13%
Deerlap (kilometre 82.7): 3.4km @ 6.2%; maximum of 9%
Carscliff (kilometre 101.2): 2km @ 9%; maximum of 14% - dirt road for last 1km
Shipham Road (kilometre 111.2): 2km @ 7%; maximum of 12%
The Pound (kilometre 124.3): 2.2km @ 5.3% ; maximum of 8%
Wells Road (kilometre 135.5): 2.9km @ 4.9%; maximum of 8%
Brewery Hill (kilometre 156.9): 2.6km @ 4.2%; maximum of 9%
Ayford Lane (kilometre 168.7): 1.1km @ 9.3%; maximum of 15%
Quarry Hill (kilometre 180.9): 0.9km @ 8.6%; maximum of 13%
Brassknocker Hill (kilometre 203.8): 1.6km @ 8.9%; maximum of 15%
Midford Hill (kilometre 210.9): 1.1km @ 5.6%; maximum of 8%
Bath Hill (kilometre 216): 0.8km @ 8.6%; maximum of 12%
Hodshill (kilometre 221.3): 1.3km @ 8.5%; maximum of 10%
Lansdown Hill (kilometre 230.6): 2.2km @ 7.2% (ignore the profile markings); maximum of 9%
Charlcombe Lane (kilometre 240.3): 1.2km @ 7.6%; maximum of 13%


Overall, more than 3000m of climbing which for a ToB stage is quite a bit, and add in 6 or 7 man teams it has the recipe for chaos.

The day starts in Taunton, home of the County Ground, home of arguably Somerset's second most important sports' team: Somerset County Cricket. The most important for me is Bath Rugby, based where today finishes. For those interested in cricket, you may remember the likes of Sir Vivian Richards and Sir Ian Botham in the 1980's, and more recently the fantastic, but unfortunately troubled, Marcus Trescothick and the imitable character Chris Gayle, perhaps cricket's very own Peter Sagan, all knocking sixes into the adjacent river. On the cycling front, not much of note to report on.

The road heads north towards the first climb of the day, which starts if pretty gentle but has a stiff final 100m or so. Perhaps it will be here where some riders decide that they will be the first to try their legs on this marathon of a stage. Following it, there is little more regarding anything uphill for 35 kilometres, the longest period of flat of the stage. After an uphill intermediate sprint in Glastonbury, famous for its music festival which is the most important in the UK, and one of the more famous in the world, and 15 kilometres of rolling terrain, the hills start proper.

The Festival

The first of the three categorised climbs is the longest of the day at 3.2km, which is why it warrants its 3rd category status. It is a pretty hard climb, and is followed by one of those plateaus so common in Limburg but also most hilly regions of the UK. Then comes a short but steep climb that begins paved but ends up on a rough unpaved road before joining the main road. There is a bit of a descent on the unpaved bit, but it is far enough from the finish for riders to take easy and not be afraid of losing time, and so avoiding injury.

Following the descent, Cheddar is reached. Cheddar Gorge featured in the 6th stage of the 2011 edition, where Lars Boom won the stage. The stage there finished in Wells. The rolling, rough terrain on narrow energy-sapping roads continues until we reach Keynsham, where I suspect the fight for the stage to begin to hotten up. Ayford Lane is a properly steep road, and is narrow, so a situation like you have at Amstel is possible, where the fight for positions is as important as the climbs themselves. The descent too is very narrow here, but also very fast and swooping, interjected by a surprisingly difficult 100m or so at 10%, which I always seem to forget when riding it.

Cheddar Gorge

Upon reaching Box, the riders go up Quarry Hill, a short, sharp climb that ramps up exponentially before reaching a maximum about halfway through, before just becoming irregular to the top, where the riders encounter yet another of these plateaus. No attacks should come here, as it is still pretty far away. And also, the rolling terrain between there and Bradford-on-Avon includes a 1km stretch of false flat at 3% with completely open sides and winds from either direction depending on the day, and usually pretty harsh winds. A powerful rider will chase down any attacks here. Then, comes a very steep 200m section at 17% which will string out the peloton on its narrow roads.

Bradford-on-avon

After Bradford, the action should start for real. Hopefully, we should get 30km of all out action. Brassknocker Hill is actually very difficult, one of the few climbs around the area with hairpins, or a sort of hairpins. We are straight back onto the narrow roads now as we exit Bath and onto rolling terrain, with Midford Hill, Bath Hill and Hodshill all in this section. The first one is shallow and a grind, whereas the other two are very steep. More selection should come here, and until we re-enter Bath.

Royal Crescent, Bath

When that does happen, the road goes to the next hill via all the more famous site of the city, in among the Georgian architecture. Through narrow streets and past the Abbey, along George Street and past the Theatre, then into Royal Victoria Park and the Royal Crescent, a beautiful but ridiculously expensive row of houses and into the Circus, before heading up towards Lansdown. The climb up is probably the msot regular today, barely touching 9% but rarely going under 7% or 6%, until near the end where it does flatten out. Then comes another long plateau, and in what is for sure the coldest and windiest place in Bath, because there are few things as high at the same altitude. It will take the energy out of the riders, if the previous hills didn't.

A technical descent follows, and then the final hill and the final selection up a narrow road, and fairly steep. The steepest bit of the climb comes after we turn of it, unfortunately, but its irregularity and difficulty could cause a selection by itself, let alone with 240km of hills beforehand. A hard twisty descent in residential roads is still to come, before a kilometre of flat to Great Pulteney Street, where the stage ends. This stage I designed partly as a response to the pretty awful stage in the Tour of Britain this year to Bath, which utilises neon of the roads possible. Even here, I haven't used half of them, but I hope that you agree I have made better use of them.