-I'm getting confused with the swiss routes.
So many mountains everywhere...
The finish on the Grimselpass stage is really great, just like Martigny's, but i dont know, though, if a start in Sion is appropriate with that amount of consecutive flat.
Later in the stage, like in Martigny, i feel its ok, but here...they come too big too early i feel.
Still, those last 100km are dynamite.
-Liked your tour Andrew, some areas were very well used.
Good idea with Arreau and Ancizan-Aspin at the end (even though the map on the post isnt the right one).
Not sure about the Arreau-Pau transfer, but i'm not the UCI.
STAGE 3 : Horasan - Agri, 271km.
Thats much longer than two days ago, heh ?
Horasan, small town of Eastern Anatolia, or Western Armenia, as i dont want to upset anyone, you name how you like it, will receive the stage start today.
Named after the region in Persia by settlers coming from there, it litterally means "where the sun comes from".
And we'll go to Agri. Agri is a relatively recent city, founded by armenians over 150 years ago under the name Karaköse (Supposedly meaning black church in turkish).
The Ishak Pasha palace, next to the Mount Ararat, close to Dogubayazit.
Agri.
Unfortunately, the armenian population had some problems around WWI, and now turks and kurds are populating the city.
The name changed in 1946, its now named in turkish after the Mount Ararat, which can be translated to "the mountain of fire".
Mount Ararat.
It perfectly fits with whats on the schedule for the day, as we'll have a first marathon through the Armenian Highlands.
270 km, thats very long, and the first goal of the stage is to tire everyone. To make things even better, it will take place over an altitude of 1.500m.
The first part is relatively flat, even though we already have a first climb (3rd cat.) through the town of Sarikamish.
But after we reached Kars, it gets tougher. City contested between Imperial Russia and Ottoman Empire at the end of the 19th century, with a strong armenian presence.
Holy Apostles Church. More than 1000 years old.
This is not Russia, but you can see their remnants.
The Castle of Kars.
Its located right at the bottom of the Hanlar Pass, going eastwards.
Not exactly very difficult, but there will be not much rest after that, as the climb to Yaglica follows. Officially, slightly easier, but much more irregular, on a poor surface, which could cause some trouble after already 160km of racing.
After that, we're right on the road to Agri, with the climb to Akçay on the menu.
By far the hardest of the day. Its almost 20km long and horribly irregular. The road is clearly not as good as in France or Italy.
Even though the finish line is still far from here, it will cause trouble as the peloton should already be tired (we're over 200km in the stage) and the steepness, even it is brief, is bound to create gaps.
The short climb to Saribulak will be the last of the day, 45km from the finish line.
The stage is not very different from a classical Pescheux stage to Pau out of the Pyrenees, with a similar distance between the last ascent (Aubisque or Marie-Blanque) and the finish.
The 1992 stage Saint-Sebastien-Pau can be a good reference. We can expect a breakaway to win the stage and to be a serious threat to the leader, with a small fight among favourites if someone is struggling, with a big group of 30 to 40 riders in Agri.
(Akçay gradients, km by km : 3 - 2.5 - 8 - 7 - 9.5 - 12 - 14 - 6.5 - 5.5 - 0 - 3 - 8 - 8.5 - 4.5 - 8 - 9 - 4 - 7 - 1.5)