Race Design Thread

[Progsprach]

Tour of China Stage 18

Kalapani - Raku Bagawathi(139km)

Remember what we did to that 33km road in the last stage. Well ,it was fun, so we're gonna do the same thing today for the final high mountains stage only for 44km of road. The riders start in Kalapani at 2500m of altitude and will descend down to 900m altitude. On the way they will pass the int. sprint before any difficulties so any remaining sprinters could have a go. The descent also includes a short but steep 4th cat. climb in Khibang(1,5km@15%). When we're finally all the way down, we will immediately go back up to Raku Bagawathi. It's only 5,5km long, but a rather consistent 12,5% all the way up, so 1st category. After the turnaround and descent on the other lane, we will go up the mountain we descend earlier today it's an HC giant (25km@5,5%), including the other side of the small hill from earlier, which is a 3rd cat. in it's own right(1,5km@21,5%). Of course we, will also turn around here and go down again cross that climb in Kibang from the other side again and finally summit on that steep climb in Raku Bagawathi.
These climbs do look somewhat like Mortirolo and Stelvio don't they?

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[Progsprach]

Are you really trying to kill the riders? I mean, that stage seems like manslaughter, not a bike race...could you imagine if they divided Alpe d'Huez like that?

Yeah, I did think about that, I just hoped the mountains where I do this would be difficult enough to make really small groups who can pass through without crashing, but it would be difficult. All the other road that would lead down those summits are either not paved, do not quite connect or are not built in Google Earth. Were this race to actually be held I would recommend just going down on one of those roads, but since they're not in the program I can't use them for the profile.

 

[SetonHallPirate]

Yeah, I did think about that, I just hoped the mountains where I do this would be difficult enough to make really small groups who can pass through without crashing, but it would be difficult. All the other road that would lead down those summits are either not paved, do not quite connect or are not built in Google Earth. Were this race to actually be held I would recommend just going down on one of those roads, but since they're not in the program I can't use them for the profile.

Gotcha, but there's a reason they don't do that for road stages, at all, except for on dual-carriageway roads. (they do it all the time for time trials)

 

[Progsprach]

Tour of China Stage 19

Yadong - Giangze(214km)

After that three stages of pure shenanigans, we're finally back in more realistic terrain and we're gonna play one of the ASO's favorite games: ruining a moutain.
The ascent to Duoda is an HC mountain (26km@5,5%), but its only purpose is rewarding those breakaway men, who are going for the White or Black as it's roughly 190km away from the finish(beat that Proudhomme) and the only other difficulty is a 4th category climb to Reba with 5,5km at 3,5% and even that one is 150km from the line. So the riders will probably ride over that sprint in Gange together and the breakaway is likely to take this. If there's any sprinters left they could try to stop them, but I think nobody has the legs for this after five consecutive stages over 2000m.

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[Progsprach]

Tour of China Stage 20

Yaijangzhen - Jiuwuji (201km)

Well, this the last stage with classified climbs so anyone eying that white or black jersey will be at the front. So will the GC men and green jersey contenders since today is quite difficult. The riders will do 3 complete laps including a 2nd category climb to Tangwan (5km@10%) and a 1st category climb to Sanshulin (12,5km@9,5%). After the first lap, the intermediate sprint will be held. After passing the start for the third time the riders will summit on top of that second category climb again only a little further along it in Jiuwuji. This is kind of a cross between a classic and a high mountain stage. As it is the final real GC opportunity, everyone who still fancies his chances and has the legs will try attacking and with this much climbing, some attacks will stick. That transfer and the next one are only possible because an airport is right next door by the way.

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[Progsprach]

Tour of China Stage 21

Macau - Macau (112km)

Since we started in one of China's two SARs, where else should we finish other than in the second one just a short distance (for China anyway) away from the starting point. It's just two laps on a panflat city circuit with one special consideration, there is a giant number of twists, turns and roundabouts on the parcours past pretty much everything Macau has to offer, so a master of bikehandling might be able to gain some seconds or at least steal the stage at the start/finish/int. sprint at the Western Harbor Bridge (remind you of something). The peloton will probably only reach full speed on the long bridges and some sections along the coast as it will have to constantly slow down otherwise. If there is nobody who can press an attack on account of his bike handling, the sprinters (if any) will take this one and decide the fate of the Red Jersey.

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[Libertine Seguros]

Library post

Fictional Stage Races (Middle East)

Tour of Israel (Libertine Seguros): Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5 Stage 6 Stage 7

Tour of Lebanon (nobilis): Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3

Tour of the UAE (Libertine Seguros) Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5 Stage 6

Tour of Yemen (togo95): Prologue Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5 Stage 6 Stage 7 Stage 8 Stage 9 Stage 10 Stage 11 Stage 12 Stage 13 Stage 14

More will be added here as they are posted. All library posts are linked from the original post in the thread.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Library post

Fictional Stage Races (Australasia)

Grand Tour Down Under (karlboss) Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5 Stage 6 Stage 7 Stage 8 Stage 9 Stage 10 Stage 11 Stage 12 Stage 13 Stage 14 Stage 15 Stage 16 Stage 17 Stage 18 Stage 19 Stage 20 Stage 21

Tour of Australia (TheBigT): Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5 Stage 6 Stage 7 Stage 8 Stage 9 Stage 10 Stage 11 Stage 12 Stage 13 Stage 14 Stage 15 Stage 16 Stage 17 Stage 18

Tour of Christchurch (Another_Dutch_Guy): First Version Second Version

Tour of Eastern Victoria (TheBigT) Entire parcours

Tour of Tasmania (karlboss) Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5

Tour of Tasmania (TheBigT) Entire parcours

Tour of the Gold Coast (craig1985) Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3

Tour of the Victorian Alps (rgmerk) Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5 Stage 6 Stage 7

More will be added here as they are posted. All library posts are linked from the original post in the thread.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Library post

Fictional Stage Races (Africa)

Tour d'Algérie (craig1985): Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5 Stage 6 Stage 7 Stages 8 & 9 Stages 10 & 11

Tour of Eritrea: Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5 Stage 6 Stages 7a & 7b (togo95)

More will be added here as they are posted. All library posts are linked from the original post in the thread.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Yeah, I did think about that, I just hoped the mountains where I do this would be difficult enough to make really small groups who can pass through without crashing, but it would be difficult. All the other road that would lead down those summits are either not paved, do not quite connect or are not built in Google Earth. Were this race to actually be held I would recommend just going down on one of those roads, but since they're not in the program I can't use them for the profile.

Gotcha, but there's a reason they don't do that for road stages, at all, except for on dual-carriageway roads. (they do it all the time for time trials)

Do bear in mind that by this time there's probably only about 30 riders in the péloton thanks to fatigue and altitude sickness

 

[SetonHallPirate]

Do bear in mind that by this time there's probably only about 30 riders in the péloton thanks to fatigue and altitude sickness

Good point...and I thought my Tour of the United States was difficult! (unfortunately, my max gradients aren't very good, but that is unavoidable in the United States)

I'm actually watching the Mount Washington stage as we speak on Google Earth, unfortunately it's basically a bunch of rollers, and then one Angliru-esque climb at the end. It does visit Mitt Romney's summer home on Lake Winnepausaukee (or however it's spelled), however!

 

[Progsprach]

Tour of China Review

After roughly 3300km the riders will have done the great travel round China. The alternative title for this race Hongkong-Macau would mischaracterize it however. There have been 24 intermediate sprints, 3 ITTs, 1 TTT, 6 Flat stages, 5 hilly stages and 6 mountain stages (and 3 changes of the logistics team because they couldn't handle it ). A single rider could therefore have gotten up to 832 points for the red jersey out of a total 4700 sprint points. Also we had 10 cat. 4 hills and 1 cat. 4 summit, 6 cat. 3 hills, but no summits of that category, 10 cat.2 climbs and 2 cat. 2 summits, 8 cat. 1 ascents and 2 cat. 1 finishes, 4 hors category monsters (only one ruined: see stage 19) and 2 HC summits (one of them the MTT) for a total of 5420 mountain points and a maximum of 1012 points for the Black mountains jersey.
A prize for the highest point wouldn't make any sense since it's some cat.3 lump on gravel. That's what you get for riding on random dirt roads in the middle of nowhere. This race has probably every type of difficulty except for cobble(hard to find in China)
Anyway, here's an overview of the route(I hope the blue routes can be seen on that screenshot)

And now it's back to the drawing board for me for the next crazy, sadistic, unfair, transfer-ridden logistic nightmare.

 

[Progsprach]

Tour of Hawaii Stage 1

Well, that didn't take very long, but to be honest this race kind of makes itself(especially the Queens Stage ). It's a Tour of Hawaii, 11 stages, a whole bunch of ITT milage, but some nice hills and mountains to balance it out(although if your ITT completely sucks, you're probably not gonna make it). Not many chances for sprinters though, only three really. So now let's dig in(only island hopping instead of giant transfers this time around).

Honolulu - Waipahu ITT (32km)

Who needs prologues, when you can just do a nice ITT in front of such beautiful scenery. Since a parade in Honolulu didn't fit the route, let's just start there instead, right at the airport by the way, so the riders can get out of the plane and step on the bike. Passing time checks at Pearl City and Village Park on the way, the course is mostly flat, except for one hill of about 1,5km@4,5% and its somewhat longer descending equivalent. The parts in Waipahu feature some sharp bends, but otherwise its all out especially on the long highway sections. This is something for the specialists and anyone else can only hope to limit his losses.

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[Progsprach]

Tour of Hawaii Stage 2

Waipahu - Dilingham (172km)

It's the third easiest stage on the program, a transitional sightseeing stage. The first kilometers are rather flat, passing through intermediates in Honolulu and Kaneohe. After that we reach the 3rd Category climb to Windward, which is about 6km@5,5% (hard to see because of that tunnel). After its descent the terrain gets somewhat more lumpy, but still rather easy. At 30km to go the riders climb Kole Kole Pass, a steady 2nd category climb of 5,5km at 7,5%. The not very technical descent from 500m is broken up into two parts. After the first part there is about 8km flat to the second part and after that it's about 10 flat km left to the finish. Someone could test his legs on this one, but with the stages to come, it probably won't be a GC contender.

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[Ferminal]

Tour de France Stage 1: Nice ITT 13.3km

Mont Boron 3.1km @ 5.2%

I'm a big fan of the up/down "prologue" like Monaco in 2009, or Lugano in Suisse. A good test of descending ability.

Tour de France Stage 2: Nice - Embrun 221km

The first road stage and already they are into difficult mountains, as was the plan. Although it's the easy side of Parpaillon it's still a very tough climb by Tour standards, and the descent is long and technical. Once in Embrun there is a short climb to the finish just out of town.

83km Valberg 27.6km @ 4.8%
129km Col de la Cayolle 20.5km @ 6.3%
190km Col du Parpaillon 17.2km @ 7.9%
221km Embrun 2.8km @ 8.2%

Tour de France Stage 3: Gap - Chambery 184km

A flat stage skirting the Alps, a little lumpy heading out of Gap but nothing to deter the first bunch sprint of the race.

Tour de France Stage 4: Annecy - Col du Bise 125km

A short but challenging stage towards Switzerland

70km Col de la Ramaz 10.4km @ 8.4%
110km Col du Corbier 6km @ 8.6%
125km Col du Bise 7.3km @ 9.6%

Tour de France Stage 5: Aigle (SUI) - Montbeliard 210km

Second sprint stage, no significant obstacles.

 

[the asian]

After roughly 3300km the riders will have done the great travel round China. The alternative title for this race Hongkong-Macau would mischaracterize it however. There have been 24 intermediate sprints, 3 ITTs, 1 TTT, 6 Flat stages, 5 hilly stages and 6 mountain stages (and 3 changes of the logistics team because they couldn't handle it ). A single rider could therefore have gotten up to 832 points for the red jersey out of a total 4700 sprint points. Also we had 10 cat. 4 hills and 1 cat. 4 summit, 6 cat. 3 hills, but no summits of that category, 10 cat.2 climbs and 2 cat. 2 summits, 8 cat. 1 ascents and 2 cat. 1 finishes, 4 hors category monsters (only one ruined: see stage 19) and 2 HC summits (one of them the MTT) for a total of 5420 mountain points and a maximum of 1012 points for the Black mountains jersey.
A prize for the highest point wouldn't make any sense since it's some cat.3 lump on gravel. That's what you get for riding on random dirt roads in the middle of nowhere. This race has probably every type of difficulty except for cobble(hard to find in China)
Anyway, here's an overview of the route(I hope the blue routes can be seen on that screenshot)

And now it's back to the drawing board for me for the next crazy, sadistic, unfair, transfer-ridden logistic nightmare.

If you have time, can you do an alternative Tour of Beijing & Tour of Hangzhou.

 

[Progsprach]

I might do one , but I need some rest from the streets of China, that's why I started the Tour of Hawaii. But I'll keep it in mind and one of them should be one of my next projects after this one.

 

[SetonHallPirate]

Well, the Tour of Hangzhou wouldn't quite be an "alternative" considering there isn't an "actual" Tour of Hangzhou, right?

 

[Progsprach]

Well, the Tour of Hangzhou wouldn't quite be an "alternative" considering there isn't an "actual" Tour of Hangzhou, right?

Yeah, I'd probably start with the Tour of Beijing and give the Tour of Hangzhou organizers one chance to do it right themselves. It wouldn't be right to criticize a race before its first edition or at least first route announcement.

 

[Progsprach]

Tour of Hawaii Stage 3

Princeville - Maoli (108km)

Since we arrived at an airfield last time, let's fly to Princeville Airport in the north of Kaua'i, the northernmost island of Hawaii. This stage will be the first to show off the second great aspect of Hawaiian stages in addition to the scenery: Great single climb stages. Since its rather short, it could be seen as a prelude. Thr first part of the stage moves along the coast on a somewhat lumpy road and contain no real difficulties, but it does contain two intermediate sprints in Wailua and Waimea. However, we then turn onto the highway up to Koke'e, a first category climb of 17km at 6% average. A few kilometer before we would reach the summit, however, we take a left turn and descend towards the coast, where the finish is judged. The climbing specialists might feel somewhat frustrated with that, but they shouldn't worry, there's plenty of summit finishes to come. The descenders, however, should find their first real opportunity here after that half one in the last stage.

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[SetonHallPirate]

Here's a cool climb on the island of Maui for you, albeit a grinder's climb, not a Joaquin Rodriguez lung-buster:

http://ridewithgps.com/routes/1441191

 

[Progsprach]

Here's a cool climb on the island of Maui for you, albeit a grinder's climb, not a Joaquin Rodriguez lung-buster:

http://ridewithgps.com/routes/1441191

Yes, I got that one covered, no worries.

 

[Progsprach]

Tour of Hawaii Stage 4

Kane'one - Kane'one (176km)

But before the big climbs, we get a nice circuit race back on Oahu, a transition before going further south. The circuit consists of two ascents of Windward hill one from the H3 road (3rd. cat 8km@4%) and one from the 63 road (4th cat 4,5km@5,5%) and their respective descents, but only about 3km flat km. A few kilometers before the end of the third lap the intermediate sprint is held and on the cat.3 climb of the fifth lap, the finish. So those riders that like repeated ascents, e.g. classics riders can shine on this one and thanks to the hilltop finish, they should be able to get some nice gaps. They will need them, because there aren't that many stages with multiple equally tough ascents in this race.

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[SetonHallPirate]

Keep in mind that:

1. The H-3 (and H-1 and H-2) highways are all controlled-access interstates.
2. The H-3 and 63 run through a tunnel in those areas, rather than over the climbs. I know you're looking for a Classics-like stage, but you're probably going to get a sprinters' finish.

 

[Progsprach]

Tour of Hawaii Stage 5

Halawa - Molokai (130km)

Well, we jumped right further south for the first of three progressively harder mountaintop finishes, interrupted by one transitional stage each. We start in Halawa Bay where the riders immediately have short, but sharp cat. 3 climb to handle(2,5km@8,5%). Then the terrain stays very flat for some time as we move around the coast through the intermediate sprint in Kaunakakaii. After that we will climb in Maunaloa's direction twice, first from the south (cat.4, 3km@5%), then from the north (cat.3, 7km@4%). The final climb up into Mo'lokai Park will have induced the riders to use different tires today, since its mostly dirt roads up there for that cat.1 climb of 21,5km@5%. Even though two more difficult mountain stages loom ahead, the riders can attack here without worries since after an easy transitional stage they get a rest day.

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