Race Design Thread

[railxmig]

railxmig, c'mon man! There's some really good stuff there. Go all the way! Post the whole thing!

I thought i wrote that i am planning to do this tour but i don't have it ready as of now, i need to still draw a couple of stages and do the profiles for them. I hope it will be like a month of work, not more. Now, because i posted this preview i cannot abandon the project like i did it countless times before. I also need to get rid of that awful flat bit between Madeleine and Croix de Fer. It's a leftover from the earlier times when i was going with the realism. Now i don't care that ASO has an allergy on that particular stretch of road.

 

[Tonton]

railxmig, c'mon man! There's some really good stuff there. Go all the way! Post the whole thing!

I thought i wrote that i am planning to do this tour but i don't have it ready as of now, i need to still draw a couple of stages and do the profiles for them. I hope it will be like a month of work, not more. Now, because i posted this preview i cannot abandon the project like i did it countless times before. I also need to get rid of that awful flat bit between Madeleine and Croix de Fer. It's a leftover from the earlier times when i was going with the realism. Now i don't care that ASO has an allergy on that particular stretch of road.

Great news then!

 

[lemon cheese cake]

I was going to post the first proper stage of my Cape Town and West Cape International Cycle Stage Race (CTWCICSR) however I lost what I was writing and decided not to rewrite it immediately. However I have redone the route and profile images of the Prologue as they haven't been working for the past couple of days.

 

[Forever The Best]

My 3rd Vuelta.And I think this is my best ever!

https://www.la-flamme-rouge.eu/maps/tours/view/4759
Total length : 3374.78 km
6 ESP climbs : Calar Alto por Tijola, Venta Luisa por Gergal, Haza del Lino, Fonte da Cova, Llano de las Ovejas, Puerto de Vegarada

13 1C climbs:Velefique, Alto del Marechal Lopez, Venta del Chaleco, Puerto de Maravio, Cruz de Linares, Collada Llomena, Puerto del Ponton, Portillo de la Sia, Alto de Estranguada, Collao Espina, Puerto del Escudo, Puerto de Navacerrada, Puerto de la Morcuera

97.5 km of ITT
12.8 km of TTT

Categorized uphill finishes:
Stage 8 Velefique 1C
Stage 19 La Pinilla 3C

Uncategorized uphill finishes:
Stage 7 Valdepenas de Jaen
Stage 14 Riopinos
Stage 20 Los Angeles de San Rafael

A longer overview of the stages will come later!

 

[lemon cheese cake]

Re:

My 3rd Vuelta.And I think this is my best ever!

https://www.la-flamme-rouge.eu/maps/tours/view/4759
Total length : 3374.78 km
6 ESP climbs : Calar Alto por Tijola, Venta Luisa por Gergal, Haza del Lino, Fonte da Cova, Llano de las Ovejas, Puerto de Vegarada

13 1C climbs:Velefique, Alto del Marechal Lopez, Venta del Chaleco, Puerto de Maravio, Cruz de Linares, Puerto del Ponton, Portillo de la Sia, Alto de Estranguada, Collao Espina, Puerto del Escudo, Puerto de Navacerrada, Puerto de la Morcuera

97.5 km of ITT
12.8 km of TTT

Categorized uphill finishes:
Stage 8 Velefique 1C
Stage 19 La Pinilla 3C

Uncategorized uphill finishes:
Stage 7 Valdepenas de Jaen
Stage 14 Riopinos
Stage 20 Los Angeles de San Rafael

A longer overview of the stages will come later!

A nice balanced race in my opnion. However you have 7 stages that exceed 200kms and 12 that exceed 170kms, which the riders probably won't want. Especially as some of the +200km stages are high mountains!

 

[lemon cheese cake]

Cape Town and West Cape International Cycle Stage Race Stage 2: V&A Waterfront - Worcester (152.5km)

Climbs:
Camps Bay Drive @ 11.8km (2.6km @ 8%)
Bain's Kloof Pass @ 106.3km (11.8 Km @ 3.7%)

Sprints:
Windmeul @ 81.1km
Wellington @ 93.1km

Feedzone:
Paarl Farms @ 63.6km

The race starts again from the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town. They then head out towards Camps Bay, via Green Point and Sea Point. The riders next head up Camps Bay Drive via the back roads to join the road the climb is named after. This is rather short at 2.6km @ 8% but it will sort out the breakaway for the day if it hasn't already formed. Next the peloton head back to the centre of Cape Town before heading out along the coast, past the Port/Docks before turning inland towards Durbanville. Racing continues over lumpy ground towards the feed zone at Paarl Farms. Then come the Intermedia sprints in Windmeul, near Paarl itself. Then the next one comes at Wellington. Following on from the sprints comes the second and final categorised climb of the day. This is up the Bains Kloof Pass. It is relatively gentle compared to the first at only 3.7% for 11.8km. After the descending the climb, the riders have a much flatter time of it as they head for the finish town of Worcester.

Start:

Finish:

 

[Hugo Koblet]

I enjoy reading this thread. Has anyone ever done a Tour of Scandinavia?

 

[Forever The Best]

Re: Re:

My 3rd Vuelta.And I think this is my best ever!

https://www.la-flamme-rouge.eu/maps/tours/view/4759
Total length : 3374.78 km
6 ESP climbs : Calar Alto por Tijola, Venta Luisa por Gergal, Haza del Lino, Fonte da Cova, Llano de las Ovejas, Puerto de Vegarada

13 1C climbs:Velefique, Alto del Marechal Lopez, Venta del Chaleco, Puerto de Maravio, Cruz de Linares, Puerto del Ponton, Portillo de la Sia, Alto de Estranguada, Collao Espina, Puerto del Escudo, Puerto de Navacerrada, Puerto de la Morcuera

97.5 km of ITT
12.8 km of TTT

Categorized uphill finishes:
Stage 8 Velefique 1C
Stage 19 La Pinilla 3C

Uncategorized uphill finishes:
Stage 7 Valdepenas de Jaen
Stage 14 Riopinos
Stage 20 Los Angeles de San Rafael

A longer overview of the stages will come later!

A nice balanced race in my opnion. However you have 7 stages that exceed 200kms and 12 that exceed 170kms, which the riders probably won't want. Especially as some of the +200km stages are high mountains!

Thanks a lot for the comment
Yeah, some of my stages are pretty long but the total length is not that much at less than 3400 km.
And I love the high mountain stages that are +200 km :razz:

 

[Forever The Best]

Stage 1 Coimbra TTT 12.8 km
A short TTT to open the race.

Stage 2 Coimbra Hilly 179.5 km
A very hard stage with 7 categorized climbs and 1 or 2 more that should be categorized but I was too lazy to categorized them.

Misarela is the main climb of the day which is crested 8.5 km form the line.With 2.2 km to go there is an uncategorized climb of the day which is 1.3 km at %5.In the last km there is also an uncategorized rise whih is 400m at %8.5.The last 600 m are slightly downhill.

The categorized climbs of the day:
Vale de Machos (2nd Category, 289 m, 3.1 Km at 8.2%, Km 9.4)
null (2nd Category, 772 m, 16.8 Km at 3.8%, Km 43.4)
null (2nd Category, 741 m, 5.5 Km at 6.5%, Km 71.3)
null (2nd Category, 698 m, 3.2 Km at 7.6%, Km 99.4)
Serra da Lousa (2nd Category, 981 m, 9.7 Km at 5.2%, Km 114.4)
null (3rd Category, 437 m, 4.1 Km at 6.4%, Km 153.1)
Misarela (2nd Category, 276 m, 2.4 Km at 9.7%, Km 171.0)

Stage 3 Viseu-Coria 203.2 km Flat
There are some hills in the first 80 km that should be categorized (one of them should even be 2C) but the rest of the stage is flat so there should be a mass sprint.

 

[Forever The Best]

Stage 4 Plasencia-Badajoz 213.5 km Flat
A long flat stage with no climbs which should end in a mass sprint.

Stage 5 Zafra-Cordoba 209.3 km Hilly
Alto de San Jeronimo which is 5 km at %6.5 is the main climb of the day which is crested 10.7 km to go.It should be a decimated field sprint in Cordoba.

Stage 6 Cordoba ITT 43.6 km
A hard TT in Cordoba with Alto del Catorce por Ciento which is faced after almost 10 kms of flat.The climb is 9.2 km at %5.3 as the main difficulty which is crested more than 25 km from the line.The last 13 km are either slight downhill or flat.There should be some good gaps and climbers should have an incentive to attack now.

 

[Forever The Best]

Stage 7 Lucena-Valdepenas de Jaen 203.4 km Hilly
A very hard hilly stage with multiple climbs and a short but very steep uphill finish on the ramps of Valdepenas de Jaen.
We crest Puerto Viejo with more than 100 km to go.We crest another 2C climb with less than 60 km to go.
With just more than 20 km to go we start Portillo de Alhucema which is 2.2 km at %12.2 with a max of %21.Then after just a km of descent we start Hoya de Charilla which is 2.5km at %7.8 which is crested with 14 km to go.
Then we climb Valdepenas de Jaen which is 1.5 km at %6 but the second half of it is very steep.

We climb it till Hoya de Charilla

Important climbs of the day:
Puerto Viejo (2nd Category, 1188 m, 11.4 Km at 5.2%, Km 101.0)
null (2nd Category, 991 m, 8.7 Km at 5.1%, Km 144.3)
Portillo de Alhucema (2nd Category, 1159 m, 2.2 Km at 12.2%, Km 185.1)
Hoya de Charilla (3rd Category, 1269 m, 2.5 Km at 7.8%, Km 188.7)
Valdepenas de Jaen(no puntable, 968 m,1.5 Km at %6, Arrive)

Stage 8 Guadix-Alto de Velefique 201.6 km High Mountain
The first and hardest MTF of the race.
After 85 kms we start the first ESP climb of this years Vuelta, Calar Alto por Tijola which is 33.3 km at %4.5
The climb is very irregular.It has downhill and flat parts to mix with the steep parts.The max gradient is %17.

With less than 50 kms to go we start Venta Luisa from Gergal.It is just Calar Alto minus the last 3.3 kms from that side.It is 19.4 km at %6.4.It is another ESP climb.If the climbers want to win this Vuelta they need to go from this climb.

With 13 km to go we start the final climb of the day, Alto de Velefique which is 11.5 km at %5.5 and I gave it a 1C though it can also be 2C.This should hopefully increase the gap.When we arive to the top of Velefique we have 1.7km to go which is slightly downhill.

Calar Alto por Tijola (Hors Catégorie, 2155 m, 32.8 Km at 4.5%, Km 119.6)
Collado de Venta Luisa (Hors Catégorie, 1970 m, 19.4 Km at 6.4%, Km 173.5)
Alto de Velefique (1st Category, 1822 m, 11.5 Km at 5.5%, Km 199.9)

 

[lemon cheese cake]

Re: Re:

My 3rd Vuelta.And I think this is my best ever!

https://www.la-flamme-rouge.eu/maps/tours/view/4759
Total length : 3374.78 km
6 ESP climbs : Calar Alto por Tijola, Venta Luisa por Gergal, Haza del Lino, Fonte da Cova, Llano de las Ovejas, Puerto de Vegarada

13 1C climbs:Velefique, Alto del Marechal Lopez, Venta del Chaleco, Puerto de Maravio, Cruz de Linares, Puerto del Ponton, Portillo de la Sia, Alto de Estranguada, Collao Espina, Puerto del Escudo, Puerto de Navacerrada, Puerto de la Morcuera

97.5 km of ITT
12.8 km of TTT

Categorized uphill finishes:
Stage 8 Velefique 1C
Stage 19 La Pinilla 3C

Uncategorized uphill finishes:
Stage 7 Valdepenas de Jaen
Stage 14 Riopinos
Stage 20 Los Angeles de San Rafael

A longer overview of the stages will come later!

A nice balanced race in my opnion. However you have 7 stages that exceed 200kms and 12 that exceed 170kms, which the riders probably won't want. Especially as some of the +200km stages are high mountains!

Thanks a lot for the comment
Yeah, some of my stages are pretty long but the total length is not that much at less than 3400 km.
And I love the high mountain stages that are +200 km :razz:

A bit sadistic there, but the rules say tours have to be under 3500km which it is!

 

[Forever The Best]

Stage 9 Almeria-Motril 237.7 km High Mountain.
The queen stage of the race.

The first climb of the day is Alto del Marechal Lopez which is 20.4 km at %4.9.It is 1C.

Then we have a 2C climb that I don't know its name.It is 13.2 km at %4.1 with descent parts as in it as well though.

Then we start Venta del Chaleco por Turon.I couldn't find any profile about that side but the climb is 22.5 km at %4.25 and it has a few descent parts as well.It is a long irregular climb and it is 1C.

With 65 kms to go we start Haza del Lino via Polopos and it is 18.8 km at %6.9.It is definitely a ESP climb.The big moves should start here if the climbers want to win this race.

After the long descent from the Rubite side where the good descenders can close or increase the gap we start the final climb of the day, Conjuros which is 9.8 km at %5.5.It should increase the gaps even more.

After the 10 km of descent where the good descenders can close or increase the gap there is just 3-4 kms of flat to finish in Motril.This is the queen stage of the race, and riders should use it.

 

[Forever The Best]

Re: Re:

My 3rd Vuelta.And I think this is my best ever!

https://www.la-flamme-rouge.eu/maps/tours/view/4759
Total length : 3374.78 km
6 ESP climbs : Calar Alto por Tijola, Venta Luisa por Gergal, Haza del Lino, Fonte da Cova, Llano de las Ovejas, Puerto de Vegarada

13 1C climbs:Velefique, Alto del Marechal Lopez, Venta del Chaleco, Puerto de Maravio, Cruz de Linares, Puerto del Ponton, Portillo de la Sia, Alto de Estranguada, Collao Espina, Puerto del Escudo, Puerto de Navacerrada, Puerto de la Morcuera

97.5 km of ITT
12.8 km of TTT

Categorized uphill finishes:
Stage 8 Velefique 1C
Stage 19 La Pinilla 3C

Uncategorized uphill finishes:
Stage 7 Valdepenas de Jaen
Stage 14 Riopinos
Stage 20 Los Angeles de San Rafael

A longer overview of the stages will come later!

A nice balanced race in my opnion. However you have 7 stages that exceed 200kms and 12 that exceed 170kms, which the riders probably won't want. Especially as some of the +200km stages are high mountains!

Thanks a lot for the comment
Yeah, some of my stages are pretty long but the total length is not that much at less than 3400 km.
And I love the high mountain stages that are +200 km :razz:

A bit sadistic there, but the rules say tours have to be under 3500km which it is!

Indeed
By the way, Imgur is blocked on Turkey so I can't see any of your profiles and before you changed it to imgur I saw you were having La Flamme Rouge profiles so can you
put the link of your Cape Town Tour please? ( This is a general message to everyone who use imgur btw )

 

[lemon cheese cake]

Re: Re:

My 3rd Vuelta.And I think this is my best ever!

https://www.la-flamme-rouge.eu/maps/tours/view/4759
Total length : 3374.78 km
6 ESP climbs : Calar Alto por Tijola, Venta Luisa por Gergal, Haza del Lino, Fonte da Cova, Llano de las Ovejas, Puerto de Vegarada

13 1C climbs:Velefique, Alto del Marechal Lopez, Venta del Chaleco, Puerto de Maravio, Cruz de Linares, Puerto del Ponton, Portillo de la Sia, Alto de Estranguada, Collao Espina, Puerto del Escudo, Puerto de Navacerrada, Puerto de la Morcuera

97.5 km of ITT
12.8 km of TTT

Categorized uphill finishes:
Stage 8 Velefique 1C
Stage 19 La Pinilla 3C

Uncategorized uphill finishes:
Stage 7 Valdepenas de Jaen
Stage 14 Riopinos
Stage 20 Los Angeles de San Rafael

A longer overview of the stages will come later!

A nice balanced race in my opnion. However you have 7 stages that exceed 200kms and 12 that exceed 170kms, which the riders probably won't want. Especially as some of the +200km stages are high mountains!

Thanks a lot for the comment
Yeah, some of my stages are pretty long but the total length is not that much at less than 3400 km.
And I love the high mountain stages that are +200 km :razz:

A bit sadistic there, but the rules say tours have to be under 3500km which it is!

Indeed
By the way, Imgur is blocked on Turkey so I can't see any of your profiles and before you changed it to imgur I saw you were having La Flamme Rouge profiles so can you
put the link of your Cape Town Tour please? ( This is a general message to everyone who use imgur btw )

Done.

Also for those that are wondering, the profiles are meant to say V&A Waterfront not V&A Waterfront. It is obviously a problem with typing the and symbol and having it on the profile on La Flamme Rouge.

 

[Forever The Best]

Thanks a lot, very nice tour so far

By the way I made an edit on my beginning post about my 3rd Vuelta as I forgot to put one of the 1C climbs to the list which I added now.

 

[Forever The Best]

There is a rest day betwwen stage 9 and 10

Stage 10 A Coruna-Lugo 130.8 km Flat
Mostly flat stage with a climb(it should be 3C) in the beginning. A mass sprint is expected

Stage 11 Sarria-Ponferrada 216 km Mountain
Alto do Poio should establish a strong breakaway. Then with 103 km to go we start Fonte da Cova, an ESP climb which is 23.2 km at %6.4.

After the descent and the flat part with 53 km to go we start the last climb of the day which is Llano de las Ovejas, which is 18.1 km at %6.3.It is another ESP climb.

This is the profile of the descent.

The first 16 km of it is not even %3 percent which means a big group can catch a solo rider if they work good.The next 12 km of it is more suited to the technical descenders.The last 6-7 km are almost flat to Ponferrada.

May be a good stage, but it may be a disappointment too.A breakaway will probably take the win, unless the favourites go full berserk in Fonte da Cova.

Alto do Poio (2nd Category, 1334 m, 19.2 Km at 3.8%, Km 36.8)
Fonte da Cova (Hors Catégorie, 1840 m, 23.2 Km at 6.4%, Km 136.3)
Llano de las Ovejas (Hors Catégorie, 1952 m, 18.1 Km at 6.3%, Km 181.3)

 

[Libertine Seguros]

You could always stick the Alto de Lombillo near the end of the descent, that's often a traceur favourite, as per this stage from PRC:

It would create something akin to the 2009 Giro Pinerolo stage with the frenetic descent from Pramartino.

 

[Forever The Best]

@Libertine I tried to find the climb in the map when I was making the stage but couldn't find it. So went directly to Ponferrada. And yes your option is better. But there are still some serious stages to come.
And yeah I look to PRC sometimes. It is a very good site

 

[Forever The Best]

Stage 12 Villablino-Pola de Lena 174.7 km Mountain
A very hard stage with 2 1C, 3 2C,1 3C and some uncategorized climbs which should have been categorized.

The first climb of the day is Puerto de Ventana via San Emiliano:

After the descent we have Puerto del Maravio via Entrago:

The breakaway should be formed in those 2 climbs.After some uncategorized climbs which should sap the riders' legs even more, we have the hardest climb of the day, Cruz de Linares via San Andres where the attacks should hopefully start:

After the descent and a very short flat part we have Campa Dosango via Las Xanas and Tenebredo:

Then we have Alto de Viapara(only from Las Vegas de Cardeo):

The last climb of the day is Alto del Cordal via La Vega:

Then we descent to Pola de Lena for the finish.Hopefully a day of great action and big gaps.The climbers have to attack if the want to win this.

Puerto de Ventana (3rd Category, 1582 m, 12.1 Km at 3.3%, Km 42.2)
Puerto del Maravio (1st Category, 996 m, 7.5 Km at 7.5%, Km 70.8)
Cruz de Linares (1st Category, 838 m, 8.3 Km at 8.6%, Km 123.6)
Campo Dosango (2nd Category, 639 m, 6.4 Km at 7.2%, Km 140.9)
Alto de Viapara (2nd Category, 664 m, 6.4 Km at 5.8%, Km 154.9)
Alto del Cordal (2nd Category, 786 m, 8.0 Km at 5.9%, Km 167.6)

 

[fauniera]

VUELTA A ESPANA

(Sun) stage 14: Santa Cruz de La Palma - Roque de los Muchachos, 116 km

The Canarian week culminates in this short but very hard mountain stage. It takes place on La Palma and starts in the capital of the island, Santa Cruz de La Palma.

The stage begins with a 34 km climb at 6,7%, climbing from sea level to 2.290 m. For comparison: Envalira from Andorra is 28 km at 5%, from Ax 35 km at 4,8%. After the descent, there is a 53 km loop on the northwestern part of the island, quite close to the ocean. Since 17 km of the loop are uphill, we shouldn't have any problems tackling the same climb again, this time from the northwestern side.

The climb to Roque de los Muchachos (2.400 meters) is 27 km long and has an average gradient of 7,4%. The altitude gain is 2.000 meters. In other words: this is a real monster. Last Sunday we had Alto de la Marta with its super steep sections, today the challenge is very different: the length of the climb and the altitude.

pine wood (central part of the climb)

close to the top

Roque de los Muchachos Observatory

Week 2:

 

[Forever The Best]

Roque de los Muchachos <3

 

[Forever The Best]

Stage 13 Mieres-Gijon 161.1 km Flat
Mostly a flat stage with some hills that should have been categorized
Key points of the stage:
Alto del Padrun(3.76 Km at 4.6%) to form a strong breakaway at the beginning of the stage and a climb which is 2.9 km at %6 and it gets crested with 28 km to go.
A day for the breakaway or the sprint if the sprinter teams are strong enough.

 

[Forever The Best]

Stage 14 Ribadesella-Riopinos (Estacion Invernal de San Isidro) Mountain 196.8 km
The first climb of the day is Collada Llomena which should establish the breakaway. It is a very hard climb with several points above %10. It is a 1C climb.

The second climb is Puerto del Ponton. Another 1C but this is known by its longness.

Then we have two shallow climbs because they are climbed from their easier sides. First up: Puerto de Tarna

Then we have Puerto de San IsidroThe first km in the profile may not be on the stgae becuase we start the climb without passing from the town of Puebla de Lillo)

And the big one of the day, and the last ESP climb of the Vuelta, Puerto de Vegarada with multiple parts more than %20:

We arrive to the top of Vegarada with 6.5 km to the finish and the last 2.5 kms of the stage to Riopinos are uphill in %3.4 average, escpecially the last 700-800 metres look like it is %5-6 percent.

Collada Llomena (1st Category, 1002 m, 8.5 Km at 7.0%, Km 58.3)
Puerto del Ponton (1st Category, 1299 m, 18.6 Km at 4.6%, Km 90.7)
Puerto de Tarna (3rd Category, 1624 m, 13.4 Km at 3.5%, Km 126.7)
Puerto de San Isidro (3rd Category, 1520 m, 12.3 Km at 2.8%, Km 152.8)
Puerto de Vegarada (Hors Catégorie, 1567 m, 12.4 Km at 7.7%, Km 190.2)

 

[Forever The Best]

Stage 15 Infiesto-Cabezon de la Sal 150.2 km Hilly
A transitional hilly stage for the breakaway with Hoz-Ozalba-Carmona combo with the finish in Cabezon de la Sal.

Hoz:

Ozalba:

Carmona:

Collado de Hoz (2nd Category, 654 m, 11.3 Km at 4.9%, Km 103.2)
Collado de Ozalba (2nd Category, 554 m, 5.9 Km at 5.5%, Km 116.9)
Collado de Carmona (2nd Category, 594 m, 10.5 Km at 4.2%, Km 133.4)