Re:
Hot design - actually, just skip the rest of the climbs, do 70 km flat or a long brenner style drag and then the last three climbs. BOOM. Bertie incoming.
jsem94 said:
Hot design - actually, just skip the rest of the climbs, do 70 km flat or a long brenner style drag and then the last three climbs. BOOM. Bertie incoming.
- Apr 15, 2016
- 4,212
- 637
- 17,680
Great stage Gigs. Also nice to see Grenchenberg being used as well.
I also used Weissenstein in my first TDF as the first climb of stage 16, in order to form a good breakaway.
I also used Weissenstein in my first TDF as the first climb of stage 16, in order to form a good breakaway.
- Apr 15, 2016
- 4,212
- 637
- 17,680
Re: Re:
It was a weirdly designed stage with 2 2C climbs after Weissenstein, then 120 km of flat then Croix des Moinats-Grosse Pierre- finish at Observatoire de Merelle. That was also the first GT I posted here (I started posting a 21-day Tour of Turkey here but didn't finish it bacuse I didn't like it) so I may have wasted Weissenstein at the beginning of a stage.fauniera said:That's maybe overdoing it?Forever The Best said:
- Apr 15, 2016
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- 17,680
- Feb 20, 2010
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Really not sure how that double use of El Violeo in that TT is going to work, it appears you're doing a loop-de-loop up the first side of it so using the same short stretch of road at the base of the first climb twice early in the TT, then a second short stretch at the summit of El Violeo twice, once after the first climb and once after the penultimate climb. Seems perhaps technically achievable but a logistical nightmare that is perhaps unnecessary given there are a few other climbs around Oviedo you could use, although that would result in a lengthier flat period before the final double-climb.
Back in the Benelux... time trials too.
Stage 5: Zonhoven - Circuit Park Zolder, 20,2km (CRI)
After four stages in the Netherlands we make our first trip across the border in to neighbouring Belgium, which frequently hosts the decisive stages of the race given its comparative glut of options for selective racing compared to the mostly pan-flat Netherlands. However, our first port of call is a flat stage - but this one is against the clock.
When the Eneco Tour of the Benelux was first created from the ashes of its predecessor, a TT of reasonable length was a regular feature, along with a prologue. As a result, it was not uncommon for the TT to be a decisive factor in the overall GC - for example, in the inaugural edition, Bobby Julich climbed from 12th to 1st overall on the final day in a 26km test and the top 3 on the stage made up the top 3 on GC (though Erik Dekker and Leif Hoste's positions on the stage and GC alternated). It was actually not until 2010 that the winner of the TT won the GC (Edvald Boasson Hagen, for the record), and in 2011 Tony Martin won the TT and the GC but had already been leading the GC anyway. However, the 2006 race would have been settled by the TT but for a controversial move in the sprint that saw 2nd placed Stefan Schumacher collide with race leader George Hincapie in the bid to pick up the sprint bonus seconds to overcome the American; it was adjudged that the Mekon had not deliberately impeded the Discovery rider, however, and he duly took the race on the final day. Both years that José Iván Gutiérrez won the GC, he did so by manoeuvring himself in to position and then taking the GC with 2nd place on the final TT. Over time, the inclusion of a prologue in the race has become rarer as time trial mileage reflects the trends in current cycling and reduces, and has typically settled on a length of a little inside 15km, unless there is also a TTT, in which case the distance typically is around 9km.
I, however, am looking to produce a race which is somewhat more difficult than the average Benelux Tour, so my race has a slightly longer ITT to compensate for this, and also for two distinct reasons:
1) take advantage of tired legs from yesterday's AGR-alike stage
2) give the more punchy riders a disadvantage ahead of the stages best suited to them.
The stage is a pretty pan-flat TT route to the west of the city of Genk, that links two cities well known to cycling fans - at least those who follow the sport through the cold, dank winter months.
The start is at the venue of the Zonhoven Superprestige Cyclocross round, a popular race with fans owing to the race's sandy pit of a venue producing a natural amphitheatre that enables the assembled throng to see more of the race than at many other venues; the race is also highly popular for its terrifying steep climbs and terrifying sandy descents. It's typically one of the earliest events of the season, around Halloween, and can adequately be described as no fun for riders with deep, deep sand and technical challenges. You can watch last year's race, where Mathieu van der Poel became only the second overseas winner of the race (after Zdeněk Štybar in 2010) here.
The course then heads from the cyclocross venue across the town of Zonhoven itself, a town of 20.000 inhabitants before heading for Heusden-Zolder. Before getting there, however, we take a left and head for the reason most people (who aren't cycling buffs) know of the town, and that's the local motor racing circuit.
The venue has a rather chequered history and is not the most popular venue in any sport that it has touched, unfortunately it has a touch of notoriety in both. The course took over as the host of the Belgian F1 Grand Prix after the original Spa-Francorchamps circuit - the 15km version including the banked Stavelot corner and the Masta Kink - was deemed not to meet the new compulsory safety requirements, since it was mostly public roads and although Armco barriers had been installed at the most dangerous corners after the 1969 boycott of the race, the high speed nature of the course and that very little could be done in large swathes of road to prevent cars from flying into ditches, houses or forestry at high speed. Zolder, as a purpose-built facility, was much safer, although proved far less exciting for drivers and fans alike. It hosted 10 GPs in the 1970s and 80s, but is most famous for the qualifying accident that killed one of Grand Prix racing's most celebrated talents, Gilles Villeneuve, a spectacularly aggressive and naturally gifted racer from Quebec widely regarded as one of the, if not the, greatest driver to never win a Formula 1 World Championship. Although due to the idiosyncrasies of the F1 numbering system of the time he only drove it for the last year and a half of his career, the Canadian has become synonymous with car #27, especially if a Ferrari; the final F1 GP at Zolder was won by Michele Alboreto in Ferrari #27 to great fanfare, only surpassed in 1995 when Jean Alesi took Ferrari #27 to an unexpected victory at the Montreal circuit that now bears Villeneuve's name at the height of Ferrari's pre-Schumacher doldrums. The conflation lives to this day, and it was in tribute to Gilles that when F1 adopted the MotoGP system of free numbering last year, Nico Hülkenberg adopted the number.
Come to think of it, I should have made the TT 27km long.
Despite the accident that killed him not being an issue that was specific to the Zolder circuit, there has been a level of resentment for the course built up because of that. But its notoriety is not restricted to its presence on the F1 calendar or the motorsport history that also takes in Champ Cars, WTCC and various open wheel feeder competitions. No, it has a long established cycling history too.
Circuit Zolder has hosted cycling World Championships on six occasions. The first was the Road World Championships, which rolled into town in 1969. It was an unusual year, with the amateur Worlds being held on the infinitely more interesting Brno motor racing circuit but the pros stuck with a featureless flat course around Zolder on a short 8,8km circuit. Despite the relatively benign course, however, a surprise duo of Harm Ottenbros (NED) and Julien Stevens (BEL) managed to come to the line with over 2 minutes of advantage, with the Dutchman prevailing to become one of the most left-field World Champions of all time. The following year it was the turn of cyclocross to hold its Worlds at the circuit, with Eric de Vlaeminck, older brother of Roger, taking the third of six consecutive titles during his reign of terror.
The forsaken circuit then went without top level cycling for many years, surfacing only for a Tour de France stage in 1981, when Eddy Planckaert won the second half of a split stage after Freddy Maertens had won a sprint in Brussels in the morning. Then came 2002, the year of reckoning for Zolder's cycling heritage. Hosting both the CX and Road World Championships the same year, the owners of the course were keen to get some return on their investment with F1 having bedded in at the new, reprofiled Spa-Francorchamps and, with the course proving extremely popular with fans and drivers alike, the chances of the most glamorous racing series returning to Zolder were non-existent. There was nothing wrong with the Cyclocross; fans were treated to a multi-way duel that ran until late on and ended with an all-Belgian podium of Mario de Clercq, Tom Vannoppen and Sven Nys. But the Road Worlds? Ugh. The 2002 Worlds are the reason 12-man teams were abolished. The 2002 Worlds are the gold standard of crappy World Championship Road Races. They make 2011 Copenhagen look like 2009 Mendrisio. And they gave us the polarizing figure of Mario Cipollini as World Champion.
Its tail firmly between its legs, Circuit Zolder thankfully recognized its crappiness for World Championship road races and has not bid for them since. They focused on what they could do right, which was put on great cyclocross shows. The annual Zolder cyclocross race has been on the World Cup since 2009, taking advantage of the small rises and woodland areas along with sand and gravel traps along the circuit's edge to produce a technically challenging course that has become a fixture of holiday season cyclocross. In 2015 they branched out to bring in the BMX World Championships, the fifth World Championships to take place at the circuit, but frankly that Olympic BMX lottery carnival nonsense isn't really worth our time, so I'll jump forward to 2016, when Cyclocross returned to stage its World Championships at the racetrack.
But notoriety was not done with Circuit Zolder yet. For the first time possibly in recorded history, the result of the elite championships were relegated to an afterthought in comparison to a DNF in the women's U23 category, due to the first - and to date only - confirmed case of using a motor in a cycling race, given the rather inelegant name "mechanical doping" by the media, after Belgian prospect Femke van den Driessche's bike was inspected (supposedly from investigation from the UCI's new iPad detection software, although we also know they received at least one tip-off) and a concealed motor was found. The teenager was slapped with a six year ban for the deceit, and the intense debate that raged in the aftermath overshadowed some strong racing along with Belgium's greater success at the championships with Wout van Aert taking his maiden World Championship win.
On my TT, riders arrive as most teams will into the paddock area and will enter into the pit lane, thus enabling them to finish the TT with a lap of the circuit before finishing, as we often see with races at Grand Prix circuits such as the Vuelta time trials at Assen and Valencia in 2009, the road stage to Motorland Aragón in 2012, the Imola circuit which held the World Championships in 1968 and was resurrected for the 2015 Giro, Rad am Ring or the Barber Motorsports Park TTT in the Tour of Utah, on the finishing line of the racing circuit (as they do in the cyclocross).
This should set the race up well for a final weekend showdown.
Back in the Benelux... time trials too.
Stage 5: Zonhoven - Circuit Park Zolder, 20,2km (CRI)
After four stages in the Netherlands we make our first trip across the border in to neighbouring Belgium, which frequently hosts the decisive stages of the race given its comparative glut of options for selective racing compared to the mostly pan-flat Netherlands. However, our first port of call is a flat stage - but this one is against the clock.
When the Eneco Tour of the Benelux was first created from the ashes of its predecessor, a TT of reasonable length was a regular feature, along with a prologue. As a result, it was not uncommon for the TT to be a decisive factor in the overall GC - for example, in the inaugural edition, Bobby Julich climbed from 12th to 1st overall on the final day in a 26km test and the top 3 on the stage made up the top 3 on GC (though Erik Dekker and Leif Hoste's positions on the stage and GC alternated). It was actually not until 2010 that the winner of the TT won the GC (Edvald Boasson Hagen, for the record), and in 2011 Tony Martin won the TT and the GC but had already been leading the GC anyway. However, the 2006 race would have been settled by the TT but for a controversial move in the sprint that saw 2nd placed Stefan Schumacher collide with race leader George Hincapie in the bid to pick up the sprint bonus seconds to overcome the American; it was adjudged that the Mekon had not deliberately impeded the Discovery rider, however, and he duly took the race on the final day. Both years that José Iván Gutiérrez won the GC, he did so by manoeuvring himself in to position and then taking the GC with 2nd place on the final TT. Over time, the inclusion of a prologue in the race has become rarer as time trial mileage reflects the trends in current cycling and reduces, and has typically settled on a length of a little inside 15km, unless there is also a TTT, in which case the distance typically is around 9km.
I, however, am looking to produce a race which is somewhat more difficult than the average Benelux Tour, so my race has a slightly longer ITT to compensate for this, and also for two distinct reasons:
1) take advantage of tired legs from yesterday's AGR-alike stage
2) give the more punchy riders a disadvantage ahead of the stages best suited to them.
The stage is a pretty pan-flat TT route to the west of the city of Genk, that links two cities well known to cycling fans - at least those who follow the sport through the cold, dank winter months.
The start is at the venue of the Zonhoven Superprestige Cyclocross round, a popular race with fans owing to the race's sandy pit of a venue producing a natural amphitheatre that enables the assembled throng to see more of the race than at many other venues; the race is also highly popular for its terrifying steep climbs and terrifying sandy descents. It's typically one of the earliest events of the season, around Halloween, and can adequately be described as no fun for riders with deep, deep sand and technical challenges. You can watch last year's race, where Mathieu van der Poel became only the second overseas winner of the race (after Zdeněk Štybar in 2010) here.
The course then heads from the cyclocross venue across the town of Zonhoven itself, a town of 20.000 inhabitants before heading for Heusden-Zolder. Before getting there, however, we take a left and head for the reason most people (who aren't cycling buffs) know of the town, and that's the local motor racing circuit.
The venue has a rather chequered history and is not the most popular venue in any sport that it has touched, unfortunately it has a touch of notoriety in both. The course took over as the host of the Belgian F1 Grand Prix after the original Spa-Francorchamps circuit - the 15km version including the banked Stavelot corner and the Masta Kink - was deemed not to meet the new compulsory safety requirements, since it was mostly public roads and although Armco barriers had been installed at the most dangerous corners after the 1969 boycott of the race, the high speed nature of the course and that very little could be done in large swathes of road to prevent cars from flying into ditches, houses or forestry at high speed. Zolder, as a purpose-built facility, was much safer, although proved far less exciting for drivers and fans alike. It hosted 10 GPs in the 1970s and 80s, but is most famous for the qualifying accident that killed one of Grand Prix racing's most celebrated talents, Gilles Villeneuve, a spectacularly aggressive and naturally gifted racer from Quebec widely regarded as one of the, if not the, greatest driver to never win a Formula 1 World Championship. Although due to the idiosyncrasies of the F1 numbering system of the time he only drove it for the last year and a half of his career, the Canadian has become synonymous with car #27, especially if a Ferrari; the final F1 GP at Zolder was won by Michele Alboreto in Ferrari #27 to great fanfare, only surpassed in 1995 when Jean Alesi took Ferrari #27 to an unexpected victory at the Montreal circuit that now bears Villeneuve's name at the height of Ferrari's pre-Schumacher doldrums. The conflation lives to this day, and it was in tribute to Gilles that when F1 adopted the MotoGP system of free numbering last year, Nico Hülkenberg adopted the number.
Come to think of it, I should have made the TT 27km long.
Despite the accident that killed him not being an issue that was specific to the Zolder circuit, there has been a level of resentment for the course built up because of that. But its notoriety is not restricted to its presence on the F1 calendar or the motorsport history that also takes in Champ Cars, WTCC and various open wheel feeder competitions. No, it has a long established cycling history too.
Circuit Zolder has hosted cycling World Championships on six occasions. The first was the Road World Championships, which rolled into town in 1969. It was an unusual year, with the amateur Worlds being held on the infinitely more interesting Brno motor racing circuit but the pros stuck with a featureless flat course around Zolder on a short 8,8km circuit. Despite the relatively benign course, however, a surprise duo of Harm Ottenbros (NED) and Julien Stevens (BEL) managed to come to the line with over 2 minutes of advantage, with the Dutchman prevailing to become one of the most left-field World Champions of all time. The following year it was the turn of cyclocross to hold its Worlds at the circuit, with Eric de Vlaeminck, older brother of Roger, taking the third of six consecutive titles during his reign of terror.
The forsaken circuit then went without top level cycling for many years, surfacing only for a Tour de France stage in 1981, when Eddy Planckaert won the second half of a split stage after Freddy Maertens had won a sprint in Brussels in the morning. Then came 2002, the year of reckoning for Zolder's cycling heritage. Hosting both the CX and Road World Championships the same year, the owners of the course were keen to get some return on their investment with F1 having bedded in at the new, reprofiled Spa-Francorchamps and, with the course proving extremely popular with fans and drivers alike, the chances of the most glamorous racing series returning to Zolder were non-existent. There was nothing wrong with the Cyclocross; fans were treated to a multi-way duel that ran until late on and ended with an all-Belgian podium of Mario de Clercq, Tom Vannoppen and Sven Nys. But the Road Worlds? Ugh. The 2002 Worlds are the reason 12-man teams were abolished. The 2002 Worlds are the gold standard of crappy World Championship Road Races. They make 2011 Copenhagen look like 2009 Mendrisio. And they gave us the polarizing figure of Mario Cipollini as World Champion.
Its tail firmly between its legs, Circuit Zolder thankfully recognized its crappiness for World Championship road races and has not bid for them since. They focused on what they could do right, which was put on great cyclocross shows. The annual Zolder cyclocross race has been on the World Cup since 2009, taking advantage of the small rises and woodland areas along with sand and gravel traps along the circuit's edge to produce a technically challenging course that has become a fixture of holiday season cyclocross. In 2015 they branched out to bring in the BMX World Championships, the fifth World Championships to take place at the circuit, but frankly that Olympic BMX lottery carnival nonsense isn't really worth our time, so I'll jump forward to 2016, when Cyclocross returned to stage its World Championships at the racetrack.
But notoriety was not done with Circuit Zolder yet. For the first time possibly in recorded history, the result of the elite championships were relegated to an afterthought in comparison to a DNF in the women's U23 category, due to the first - and to date only - confirmed case of using a motor in a cycling race, given the rather inelegant name "mechanical doping" by the media, after Belgian prospect Femke van den Driessche's bike was inspected (supposedly from investigation from the UCI's new iPad detection software, although we also know they received at least one tip-off) and a concealed motor was found. The teenager was slapped with a six year ban for the deceit, and the intense debate that raged in the aftermath overshadowed some strong racing along with Belgium's greater success at the championships with Wout van Aert taking his maiden World Championship win.
On my TT, riders arrive as most teams will into the paddock area and will enter into the pit lane, thus enabling them to finish the TT with a lap of the circuit before finishing, as we often see with races at Grand Prix circuits such as the Vuelta time trials at Assen and Valencia in 2009, the road stage to Motorland Aragón in 2012, the Imola circuit which held the World Championships in 1968 and was resurrected for the 2015 Giro, Rad am Ring or the Barber Motorsports Park TTT in the Tour of Utah, on the finishing line of the racing circuit (as they do in the cyclocross).
This should set the race up well for a final weekend showdown.
- Apr 15, 2016
- 4,212
- 637
- 17,680
Yup, it may be a logistical problem. Also I didn't want this one to be too flat because there was a 60 km pan-flat ITT in Soria and there was also a hilly 25 km or so ITT with a finish in Sant Pere de Rodes.
The only problem I think is the right turn to the short stretch of the road that is both before and after first ascent of El Violeo.
Also Zonhoven is a great CX circuit. Nys-Albert duel in 2012 was incredible!
The only problem I think is the right turn to the short stretch of the road that is both before and after first ascent of El Violeo.
Also Zonhoven is a great CX circuit. Nys-Albert duel in 2012 was incredible!
- Apr 15, 2016
- 4,212
- 637
- 17,680
La Vuelta a Espana Stage 14 Pola de Laviana-Cangas de Onis 222,25 Km Mountain
https://www.la-flamme-rouge.eu/maps/viewtrack/hd/145416
KOM SPRINTS: Puerto de Tarna (1st Category, 1489 m, 15.2 Km at 5.3%, Km 46.8)
Puerto de Pandetrave (3rd Category, 1561 m, 9.6 Km at 3.2%, Km 104.4)
Puerto de Panderrueda (2nd Category, 1466 m, 9.7 Km at 5.6%, Km 124.5)
Alto de Los Bedules/Collada Llomena (1st Category, 1003 m, 7.9 Km at 8.7%, Km 161.8)
Collada Moandi (2nd Category, 661 m, 6.1 Km at 7.1%, Km 184.6)
Fresnidello (2nd Category, 555 m, 6.2 Km at 7.5%, Km 203.3)
Alto de Bada (3rd Category, 265 m, 3.1 Km at 7.4%, Km 217.8)
A very tough rollercoaster mountain stage of 220+ km with 2 1C, 3 2C, and 2 3C climbs are on the menu for this stage.
First climb of the day is Puerto de Tarna. 15,2 km at %5,3 with max gradient of %11,7 it is a 1st category climb:
Puerto de Tarna (all of it climbed, only last 15,2 km categorized) :
Then come Puerto de Pandetrave, 9,6 km at %3,2 it is a 3rd category climb.
The next climb, Puerto de Panderrueda, is 2nd category with 9,7 km at %5,6. The max gradient is %10.
https://www.cyclingcols.com/profiles/PanderruedasE.gif
After a long descent, the 4th climb of the day is the hardet climb of the day. Alto de Los Bedules/Collada Llomena is 7,8 km at %9 and a hard 1C climb with max gradient of %13,6.
After descent and false flat, the next climb comes. Collada Moandi (known in cyclingcols as Alto de Cazo) is a 2nd category climb with 5,6 km at %7,5 with max gradient of %10,7.
After a long descent with false flats, the next climb comes. Fresnidello is 6,2 km at %7,5 and a 2nd category climb. I couldn't find any profile for it. Road is good enough by the way, asphalted in both ascent and descent.
After the descent and a short flat part, the final climb of the day, Alto de Bada starts. 3rd category with 2,67 km at %8,7 average and %15 maximum it is the shortest climb of the day.
http://www.carlosvega.net/imagenes/pueblos/bada_o.png
After the climb, a short descent of 4,5 kms will take the riders to the finish at Cangas de Onis.
This is the type of stage that can be epic or a stage with only GC action on the last short climb.
Pola de Laviana:
Cangas de Onis:
https://www.la-flamme-rouge.eu/maps/viewtrack/hd/145416
KOM SPRINTS: Puerto de Tarna (1st Category, 1489 m, 15.2 Km at 5.3%, Km 46.8)
Puerto de Pandetrave (3rd Category, 1561 m, 9.6 Km at 3.2%, Km 104.4)
Puerto de Panderrueda (2nd Category, 1466 m, 9.7 Km at 5.6%, Km 124.5)
Alto de Los Bedules/Collada Llomena (1st Category, 1003 m, 7.9 Km at 8.7%, Km 161.8)
Collada Moandi (2nd Category, 661 m, 6.1 Km at 7.1%, Km 184.6)
Fresnidello (2nd Category, 555 m, 6.2 Km at 7.5%, Km 203.3)
Alto de Bada (3rd Category, 265 m, 3.1 Km at 7.4%, Km 217.8)
A very tough rollercoaster mountain stage of 220+ km with 2 1C, 3 2C, and 2 3C climbs are on the menu for this stage.
First climb of the day is Puerto de Tarna. 15,2 km at %5,3 with max gradient of %11,7 it is a 1st category climb:
Puerto de Tarna (all of it climbed, only last 15,2 km categorized) :
Then come Puerto de Pandetrave, 9,6 km at %3,2 it is a 3rd category climb.
The next climb, Puerto de Panderrueda, is 2nd category with 9,7 km at %5,6. The max gradient is %10.
https://www.cyclingcols.com/profiles/PanderruedasE.gif
After a long descent, the 4th climb of the day is the hardet climb of the day. Alto de Los Bedules/Collada Llomena is 7,8 km at %9 and a hard 1C climb with max gradient of %13,6.
After descent and false flat, the next climb comes. Collada Moandi (known in cyclingcols as Alto de Cazo) is a 2nd category climb with 5,6 km at %7,5 with max gradient of %10,7.
After a long descent with false flats, the next climb comes. Fresnidello is 6,2 km at %7,5 and a 2nd category climb. I couldn't find any profile for it. Road is good enough by the way, asphalted in both ascent and descent.
After the descent and a short flat part, the final climb of the day, Alto de Bada starts. 3rd category with 2,67 km at %8,7 average and %15 maximum it is the shortest climb of the day.
http://www.carlosvega.net/imagenes/pueblos/bada_o.png
After the climb, a short descent of 4,5 kms will take the riders to the finish at Cangas de Onis.
This is the type of stage that can be epic or a stage with only GC action on the last short climb.
Pola de Laviana:
Cangas de Onis:
- Aug 15, 2016
- 444
- 935
- 11,480
I'd like to make a WC Mens Elite RR and full WC set of route
I was hoping to get a response to this PM by a respected member but the member may well have no time or interest so I am posting my PM here with hopes someone can give advice by PMing me or posting a response here in the Race Design Thread.
I would like to make a WC Mens Elite RR and complete WC set of routes. It would be based (the Mens Elite RR) on my Route design for a Tour of California Stage, at MapMyRIde set to public under my name Donald Homen with the route name "PETALUMA THRU OCCIDENTAL BODEGA BAY TO SEBASTOPOL" (ridiculous name I know) But I really need feedback as to whether the last 7 to 8 miles can have a selection for differing outcomes of a race. I don't think you have to signup to see the routes but your mileage may vary.
The section I am concerned with starts near the end where the race turns off from River Road and goes onto Mirabel RD then turns very soon on Trenton rd connector past the small Speer's Market and onto Covey RD where there is a 15% short wall maybe a 25 to 30 meter elevation with a small dip about a third to half the wall height then a run into the small town then around the corner to where it dips down and then there are two climbs the first is about a 1.5 KM climb with about a 177 foot rise followed by a slightly smaller but similar climb followed by an even smaller climb with an about 4 1/2 mile run until the last 4% or 5% downslope into Sebastopol CA where I end it just past the intersection with Bodega Road as they have added some dangerous road furniture after which narrows the road too much.
AT this point I'm most interested if you could map that last section on one of the sites with more robust details in regard to the profile and let me know if you can provide greater detail like actual percentages and elevations for those last climbs and whether they might make for an interesting finish where maybe solo wins are possible or small groups or even reduced pelotons sprints could happen.
P.S. If you could also, but not most importantly, check out Men's Elite ITT I have mapped out there also and check it out on say google maps satellite view of the finish area, quite scenic.
P.S. At the small Mirabel RV Park near the River road-Mirabel Rd intersection I have many times as a young child and as an adult stayed there with either a trailer or Motor-home with my parents and our history goes back to when my Mom's Father took his family there and my mother told me when she was a baby, they had what is called a teardrop trailer and they laid her as a infant on a shelf inside the small trailer. I was born in 57 and she was early 20's when she had me so there are fond memories of that place.
P.S. There are several ways which if you would be interested in advising me that would lengthen the TOC route for the WC Elite Mens route. I have in mind and have a couple of ways to do that one is starting in Bodega (maped at MapMyRide) to Petaluma (half of the needed lengthening) and the other (both legs mapped at MapMyRide) from one end of Forrestville on 116 the flatter leg twice and the lumpier leg once (up hill) which with a different start town would add about 45 miles to the original TOC route.
I was hoping to get a response to this PM by a respected member but the member may well have no time or interest so I am posting my PM here with hopes someone can give advice by PMing me or posting a response here in the Race Design Thread.
I would like to make a WC Mens Elite RR and complete WC set of routes. It would be based (the Mens Elite RR) on my Route design for a Tour of California Stage, at MapMyRIde set to public under my name Donald Homen with the route name "PETALUMA THRU OCCIDENTAL BODEGA BAY TO SEBASTOPOL" (ridiculous name I know) But I really need feedback as to whether the last 7 to 8 miles can have a selection for differing outcomes of a race. I don't think you have to signup to see the routes but your mileage may vary.
The section I am concerned with starts near the end where the race turns off from River Road and goes onto Mirabel RD then turns very soon on Trenton rd connector past the small Speer's Market and onto Covey RD where there is a 15% short wall maybe a 25 to 30 meter elevation with a small dip about a third to half the wall height then a run into the small town then around the corner to where it dips down and then there are two climbs the first is about a 1.5 KM climb with about a 177 foot rise followed by a slightly smaller but similar climb followed by an even smaller climb with an about 4 1/2 mile run until the last 4% or 5% downslope into Sebastopol CA where I end it just past the intersection with Bodega Road as they have added some dangerous road furniture after which narrows the road too much.
AT this point I'm most interested if you could map that last section on one of the sites with more robust details in regard to the profile and let me know if you can provide greater detail like actual percentages and elevations for those last climbs and whether they might make for an interesting finish where maybe solo wins are possible or small groups or even reduced pelotons sprints could happen.
P.S. If you could also, but not most importantly, check out Men's Elite ITT I have mapped out there also and check it out on say google maps satellite view of the finish area, quite scenic.
P.S. At the small Mirabel RV Park near the River road-Mirabel Rd intersection I have many times as a young child and as an adult stayed there with either a trailer or Motor-home with my parents and our history goes back to when my Mom's Father took his family there and my mother told me when she was a baby, they had what is called a teardrop trailer and they laid her as a infant on a shelf inside the small trailer. I was born in 57 and she was early 20's when she had me so there are fond memories of that place.
P.S. There are several ways which if you would be interested in advising me that would lengthen the TOC route for the WC Elite Mens route. I have in mind and have a couple of ways to do that one is starting in Bodega (maped at MapMyRide) to Petaluma (half of the needed lengthening) and the other (both legs mapped at MapMyRide) from one end of Forrestville on 116 the flatter leg twice and the lumpier leg once (up hill) which with a different start town would add about 45 miles to the original TOC route.
- Oct 5, 2010
- 4,278
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One way is to use Google Maps and map a part using their directions thing, gives you length and altitude. Also, use the website altitude.nu. Also, mapmyride is inferior to cronoescalada or la-flamme-rouge in my opinion. La-Flamme-Rouge is incredibly user-friendly too, I can recommend it.
- Oct 5, 2010
- 4,278
- 314
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This will be a crazy one. The United States hit us up in 2015 with a World Championship course in Richmond. It ended the way a lot of us thought it would, with Sagan taking the scalp. The route was less demanding than what a lot of us had hoped for though. This post will try to remedy that slightly, at least for our fantasies. There are many places where you could plan really challenging circuits, and this is just one of them. San Fransisco is another obvious candidate with its plethora of steep hills, but this right here I feel is untapped territory at least in this thread (as far as I can remember).
UCI Road World Championships: Pittsburgh (USA)
The Steel City has long been a symbol of the American industry. Located at the confluence of the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio Rivers, this town is famous for its manufacturing history and has long been an important hub in the Ohio Valley and the Appalachians. Because of its location near these rivers it's also home to a whole host of bridges (446 of them) connecting parts of the city and suburbs. Industry in the US has gone through a sea change in the last few decades though with new developing nations being able to offer cheaper production costs and lower wages for manual laborers which has caused a paradigm shift in many of these towns in the Midwest and the Appalachians. Detroit for instance has been hard hit, but Pittsburgh is doing remarkably well, with white-collar jobs having taken over and the city has turned more into a commercial and cultural center.
This town caught my attention recently due to a race called the Dirty Dozen, a one-day amateur road race which feature, as the name alludes to, twelve brutally steep hills in and around the city of Pittsburgh. This sparked my race design interest, especially seeing that a few of these hills were also cobbled. Many of these hills are so steep and with poor road condition that amateur riders struggle to get over them. Etiquette among Dirty Dozerners are that you must complete all climbs without having to put your feet on the ground meaning that plenty of riders ride back down the hill and attempt it again until they manage to get over it. What's difficult about this is that the roads are also very narrow and lots of riders are trying to break their way up the climbs at the same time forcing riders to take a straight path instead of zig-zagging to ease the gradient.
Downtown Pittsburgh and a lot of bridges:
The main difficulties with making routes in this town is trying to not use the highways in and around town to ease the strain on the traffic that a week of closed roads would lead to. Much of Downtown will be closed off because the bridge systems require it to make the route doable. At the very least, the interstates 376 and 279 will be unaffected, but much of the inner city traffic will be severely hampered. The Pittsburgh Light Rail will also be unaffected.
Let's start with the ITT though.
Men's Time Trial: 52.4km
The one issue with creating this ITT was to keep the climbing to a minimum, still I ended up with 519m of climbing. The road is pretty untechnical for the most part though, and the gradients are never that challenging. The small hills would never pose a threat for a true TT workhorse anyway.
The start and finish are right at the State Point Park:
Look, there are even cyclists here:
Let's get to the best part though.
Men's Road Race: 261.3km
Climbs:
Center Ave: 2.1 Km at 6.0%
Sharp Hill: 1.1 Km at 10.7%
Berryhill Rd: 1.1 Km at 6.7%
Seavy Rd: 1.4 Km at 7.4%
Logan St: 0.6 Km at 13.2%
Suffolk St: 0.8 Km at 13.5%
E. Sycamore St: 1.3 Km at 9.8%
Bausman St: 1.9 Km at 4.6%
Arlington Ave: 1.9 Km at 6.2%
Beacon St: 4.0 Km at 3.1%
Circuit:
E. Sycamore St: 1.3 Km at 9.8% (max 15%)
Wenzell Ave: 364 m, 2.9 Km at 3.6%
Canton: 0.7 Km at 7.5% (max 37%)
Buena Vista St: 0.8 Km at 9.6% (max 14%)
Yep. That's what I call a race. We first hit a 90km circuit starting in town and going eastwards to link up with the route of the Dirty Dozen race. We do about 10 of the climbs in the Dirty Dozen race before entering the actual circuit which will be raced 8 times. The circuit looks like this:
The circuit finishes (and starts, obviously) in Downtown at the Boulevard of the Allies. We reach the first climb, East Sycamore Street, after just about a kilometer. The road is also quite narrow:
The Wenzell road is nothing to talk much about, it's a slow steady climb, or almost a false flat, but it's on a fairly wide asphalt road that serves as part of the attrition:
The next thing here is where it gets interesting. You might notice that thing that says max 37%. That's Canton Avenue. That part of 37% is only 6.5 metres long, but it's also cobbled, and extremely narrow. This is the main attraction in the Dirty Dozen, and you have these hilarious youtube videosof people struggling to get over this. The cobbled part is only about 100 metres, and the profile is something like this:
Canton Avenue:
That's Canton Avenue itself, but the climb is longer as this stretch is only part of the uphill struggle.
However after getting over that climb there's a small descent and then a long fairly flat run in on a wide road into the north part of town. As a final hill there's the Buena Vista Street on the North Side, and it's also cobbled. This one much more regular:
But with only 2.9km from the top of the final climb to the finish, which includes pretty much a 1km descent and about three 90-degree and one 150 degree turn it's a very demanding finale and could see a lone attacker last to the finish line from the top of the hill with only a few meters of advantage.
The circuit itself has about 424m of climbing in 21.4km. This is extremely comparable to Firenze (324 in 16.75km). But that didn't include cobbles (though the weather wasn't too kind). I'd say this is an extremely challenging course that is still rather balanced because of that long flat stretch and the circuit being front-loaded rather than back-loaded. All in all we have 4980m of climbing, a race of attrition and hopefully exciting stuff. Mouthwatering even.
The finishing straight:
UCI Road World Championships: Pittsburgh (USA)
The Steel City has long been a symbol of the American industry. Located at the confluence of the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio Rivers, this town is famous for its manufacturing history and has long been an important hub in the Ohio Valley and the Appalachians. Because of its location near these rivers it's also home to a whole host of bridges (446 of them) connecting parts of the city and suburbs. Industry in the US has gone through a sea change in the last few decades though with new developing nations being able to offer cheaper production costs and lower wages for manual laborers which has caused a paradigm shift in many of these towns in the Midwest and the Appalachians. Detroit for instance has been hard hit, but Pittsburgh is doing remarkably well, with white-collar jobs having taken over and the city has turned more into a commercial and cultural center.
This town caught my attention recently due to a race called the Dirty Dozen, a one-day amateur road race which feature, as the name alludes to, twelve brutally steep hills in and around the city of Pittsburgh. This sparked my race design interest, especially seeing that a few of these hills were also cobbled. Many of these hills are so steep and with poor road condition that amateur riders struggle to get over them. Etiquette among Dirty Dozerners are that you must complete all climbs without having to put your feet on the ground meaning that plenty of riders ride back down the hill and attempt it again until they manage to get over it. What's difficult about this is that the roads are also very narrow and lots of riders are trying to break their way up the climbs at the same time forcing riders to take a straight path instead of zig-zagging to ease the gradient.
Downtown Pittsburgh and a lot of bridges:
The main difficulties with making routes in this town is trying to not use the highways in and around town to ease the strain on the traffic that a week of closed roads would lead to. Much of Downtown will be closed off because the bridge systems require it to make the route doable. At the very least, the interstates 376 and 279 will be unaffected, but much of the inner city traffic will be severely hampered. The Pittsburgh Light Rail will also be unaffected.
Let's start with the ITT though.
Men's Time Trial: 52.4km
The one issue with creating this ITT was to keep the climbing to a minimum, still I ended up with 519m of climbing. The road is pretty untechnical for the most part though, and the gradients are never that challenging. The small hills would never pose a threat for a true TT workhorse anyway.
The start and finish are right at the State Point Park:
Look, there are even cyclists here:
Let's get to the best part though.
Men's Road Race: 261.3km
Climbs:
Center Ave: 2.1 Km at 6.0%
Sharp Hill: 1.1 Km at 10.7%
Berryhill Rd: 1.1 Km at 6.7%
Seavy Rd: 1.4 Km at 7.4%
Logan St: 0.6 Km at 13.2%
Suffolk St: 0.8 Km at 13.5%
E. Sycamore St: 1.3 Km at 9.8%
Bausman St: 1.9 Km at 4.6%
Arlington Ave: 1.9 Km at 6.2%
Beacon St: 4.0 Km at 3.1%
Circuit:
E. Sycamore St: 1.3 Km at 9.8% (max 15%)
Wenzell Ave: 364 m, 2.9 Km at 3.6%
Canton: 0.7 Km at 7.5% (max 37%)
Buena Vista St: 0.8 Km at 9.6% (max 14%)
Yep. That's what I call a race. We first hit a 90km circuit starting in town and going eastwards to link up with the route of the Dirty Dozen race. We do about 10 of the climbs in the Dirty Dozen race before entering the actual circuit which will be raced 8 times. The circuit looks like this:
The circuit finishes (and starts, obviously) in Downtown at the Boulevard of the Allies. We reach the first climb, East Sycamore Street, after just about a kilometer. The road is also quite narrow:
The Wenzell road is nothing to talk much about, it's a slow steady climb, or almost a false flat, but it's on a fairly wide asphalt road that serves as part of the attrition:
The next thing here is where it gets interesting. You might notice that thing that says max 37%. That's Canton Avenue. That part of 37% is only 6.5 metres long, but it's also cobbled, and extremely narrow. This is the main attraction in the Dirty Dozen, and you have these hilarious youtube videosof people struggling to get over this. The cobbled part is only about 100 metres, and the profile is something like this:
Canton Avenue:
That's Canton Avenue itself, but the climb is longer as this stretch is only part of the uphill struggle.
However after getting over that climb there's a small descent and then a long fairly flat run in on a wide road into the north part of town. As a final hill there's the Buena Vista Street on the North Side, and it's also cobbled. This one much more regular:
But with only 2.9km from the top of the final climb to the finish, which includes pretty much a 1km descent and about three 90-degree and one 150 degree turn it's a very demanding finale and could see a lone attacker last to the finish line from the top of the hill with only a few meters of advantage.
The circuit itself has about 424m of climbing in 21.4km. This is extremely comparable to Firenze (324 in 16.75km). But that didn't include cobbles (though the weather wasn't too kind). I'd say this is an extremely challenging course that is still rather balanced because of that long flat stretch and the circuit being front-loaded rather than back-loaded. All in all we have 4980m of climbing, a race of attrition and hopefully exciting stuff. Mouthwatering even.
The finishing straight:
- Feb 20, 2010
- 32,508
- 14,282
- 28,180
I have designed a few circuits around Pittsburgh, but the problem is there's so many such climbs that including everything I want without resulting in some crazy descents on cobbled roads or doubling back crazily makes it difficult.
- Apr 15, 2016
- 4,212
- 637
- 17,680
- Apr 15, 2016
- 4,212
- 637
- 17,680
Made an edit on stage 14 as I forgot to put the profile of Puerto de Panderrueda. Fixed it now.
- Feb 18, 2015
- 13,655
- 9,431
- 28,180
DACH Rundfahrt stage 21: Basel - Basel (96 km)
category: flat stage
A flat parade stage as the finale for the DACH Rundfahrt, where the athletes will ride 10 9.6 km long laps through Basel. The intermediate sprints take place on the finish line after the 5th and the 7th lap and the golden kilometer will be the last kilometer of the 9th lap.
category: flat stage
A flat parade stage as the finale for the DACH Rundfahrt, where the athletes will ride 10 9.6 km long laps through Basel. The intermediate sprints take place on the finish line after the 5th and the 7th lap and the golden kilometer will be the last kilometer of the 9th lap.
- Feb 18, 2015
- 13,655
- 9,431
- 28,180
DACH RUNDFAHRT SUMMARY POST
stage 1: Nürburgring - Nürburgring (166 km)
stage 2: Bonn - Dortmund (163 km)
stage 3: Wuppertal - Schmallenberg (214 km)
stage 4: Marburg - Eisenach (171 km)
stage 5: Erfurt - Meerane (168 km)
stage 6: Dresden - Dresden (27 km)
stage 7: Dresden - Leipzig (124 km)
stage 8: Sangerhausen - Brocken (213 km)
stage 9: Hildesheim - Lüneburg (236 km)
stage 10: Köflach - Koralpe (192 km)
stage 11: Klagenfurt - Turracher Höhe (190 km)
stage 12: Murau - St. Johann Alpendorf (112 km)
stage 13: Zell am See - Landeck (222 km)
stage 14: Telfs - Pfänder (217 km)
stage 15: Dornbirn - Schoppernau (133 km)
stage 16: Lindau - St. Gallen (44 km)
stage 17: Rapperswil-Jona - Grindelwald (198 km)
stage 18: Interlaken - Sarnen (114 km)
stage 19: Luzern - Bern (208 km)
stage 20: Bern - Solothurn (191 km)
stage 21: Basel - Basel (96 km)
stage categories:
-7 high mountain stages
-5 medium mountain stages
-7 flat stages
-2 individual time trials
climbs:
4th category:
0-0-8-2-1-1-0-1-0-0-1-1-0-0-2-0-0-0-3-1-0 --> 21 cat. 4 climbs
3rd category:
8-0-3-1-0-1-0-5-0-0-0-0-1-2-1-1-0-1-1-1-0 --> 26 cat. 3 climbs
2nd category:
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-1-0-2-0-1-0-1-0-0-0-2-0-2-0 --> 9 cat. 2 climbs
1st category:
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-4-0-0-3-4-0-0-0-0-4-0 --> 15 cat. 1 climbs
HC:
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-3-0-0-0-0-0-0-3-1-0-0-0 --> 7 HC climbs
distance:
3.399 km total distance
3.328 km road stages
71 km ITT
-162 km average distance per stage
-175 km average road stage distance
-35.5 km average ITT distance
uphill top finishes
-Brocken - 2nd category - stage 8
-Koralpe - HC - stage 10
-Turracher Höhe - 1st category - stage 11
-St. Johann Alpendorf - 4th category - stage12
-Pfänder - 1st category - stage 14
stage 1: Nürburgring - Nürburgring (166 km)
stage 2: Bonn - Dortmund (163 km)
stage 3: Wuppertal - Schmallenberg (214 km)
stage 4: Marburg - Eisenach (171 km)
stage 5: Erfurt - Meerane (168 km)
stage 6: Dresden - Dresden (27 km)
stage 7: Dresden - Leipzig (124 km)
stage 8: Sangerhausen - Brocken (213 km)
stage 9: Hildesheim - Lüneburg (236 km)
stage 10: Köflach - Koralpe (192 km)
stage 11: Klagenfurt - Turracher Höhe (190 km)
stage 12: Murau - St. Johann Alpendorf (112 km)
stage 13: Zell am See - Landeck (222 km)
stage 14: Telfs - Pfänder (217 km)
stage 15: Dornbirn - Schoppernau (133 km)
stage 16: Lindau - St. Gallen (44 km)
stage 17: Rapperswil-Jona - Grindelwald (198 km)
stage 18: Interlaken - Sarnen (114 km)
stage 19: Luzern - Bern (208 km)
stage 20: Bern - Solothurn (191 km)
stage 21: Basel - Basel (96 km)
stage categories:
-7 high mountain stages
-5 medium mountain stages
-7 flat stages
-2 individual time trials
climbs:
4th category:
0-0-8-2-1-1-0-1-0-0-1-1-0-0-2-0-0-0-3-1-0 --> 21 cat. 4 climbs
3rd category:
8-0-3-1-0-1-0-5-0-0-0-0-1-2-1-1-0-1-1-1-0 --> 26 cat. 3 climbs
2nd category:
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-1-0-2-0-1-0-1-0-0-0-2-0-2-0 --> 9 cat. 2 climbs
1st category:
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-4-0-0-3-4-0-0-0-0-4-0 --> 15 cat. 1 climbs
HC:
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-3-0-0-0-0-0-0-3-1-0-0-0 --> 7 HC climbs
distance:
3.399 km total distance
3.328 km road stages
71 km ITT
-162 km average distance per stage
-175 km average road stage distance
-35.5 km average ITT distance
uphill top finishes
-Brocken - 2nd category - stage 8
-Koralpe - HC - stage 10
-Turracher Höhe - 1st category - stage 11
-St. Johann Alpendorf - 4th category - stage12
-Pfänder - 1st category - stage 14
- Feb 20, 2010
- 32,508
- 14,282
- 28,180
Time for the queen stage in the Lowlands.
Stage 6: Eupen - La Roche-en-Ardenne, 176km
GPM:
Col du Maquisard (cat.2) 2,9km @ 5,0%
Côte de la Vecquée (cat.2) 2,4km @ 5,6%
Côte de Xhierfomont (cat.2) 2,9km @ 5,8%
Les Deux Bierleux (cat.3) 1,1km @ 10,6%
Col de Rideux (cat.3) 1,3km @ 9,3%
Côte de Beffe (cat.2) 1,6km @ 9,0%
Côte de Dochamps (cat.2) 4,7km @ 4,6%
Côte de Poteau (cat.1) 9,2km @ 3,2%
Côte de Cielle (cat.3) 1,3km @ 4.3%
Col d'Haussire (cat.1) 3,9km @ 7,0%
Côte de Cielle (cat.3) 1,3km @ 4.3%
Col d'Haussire (cat.1) 3,9km @ 7,0%
Côte de Cielle (cat.3) 1,3km @ 4.3%
Col d'Haussire (cat.1) 3,9km @ 7,0%
Côte de Cielle (cat.3) 1,3km @ 4.3%
Of course, you'll all be aware that Belgium is a pluricentric country, which has multiple linguistic and cultural identities within its borders. The traditional outside view of the country is that it is a straight dichotomy between the Flemings in the north, speaking Flemish/Nederlands and the Walloons in the south, speaking Walloon/French. There are, however, multiple other identities, as in any multi-racial, multi-ethnic 21st society, but we do often overlook the German part of Belgium, which is over to the East, close to the tri-state border with the Netherlands and Germany, and stretches in pockets down to the Luxembourg border too. Anybody who has been to this part of Belgium will have noted the easy and comfortable ties to the bigger, wider German lands to the east, but for much of Belgium the gateway to Germany is to travel eastward, through Liège to the small town of Welkenraedt, from which regular trains through to Aachen run, arranged by the Euregio that connects the whole region around this multinational border - linking Aachen, Maastricht, Hasselt (in Flanders) and Liège (in Wallonie). The de facto of this German-speaking corner of Belgium, much of which was conferred to the Belgians in the Treaty of Versailles after World War I, is the city of Eupen, a city of around 20.000 people 15km from the German border. Officially in the Verviers arrondissement, it therefore lies within Wallonia, but with 90% of the population having German as its first language, signage is duo-lingual, with both French and German noted everywhere you go.
The city periodically hosts racing, with almost all of the notable stage races in the region having paid a visit in recent history. Most recently, Aleksandr Kolobnev won a punchy stage in the Tour de Wallonie in Eupen in 2013, while the Ronde van België has finished in the city twice since 2000 - firstly in 2004 with Björn Leukemans winning, and then again in 2011 where Leukemans was part of the decisive group of four that fought out the win, however was unable to seal the deal because, well, it was 2011, so Philippe Gilbert won because of course he did. For its part, the Eneco Tour, the race that I am aping even if its name has changed, rolled on into town in 2007, when despite it being stage 1, the most decisive road stage of the race took place with Nick Nuyens winning ahead of Thomas Dekker, José Iván Gutiérrez and David Millar, along with the Lotto duo of Jürgen van den Broeck and Leif Hoste just behind (yes, Lotto had two guys in the group and ended with 5th and 6th), setting up the race for the final TT where Guti was able to take the first of his back to back wins in the race.
One of the first things we do in the stage is to ride up towards the Baraque de la Gileppe, near Jalhay. Climbing from the edge of the lake up to the village of Jalhay is a climb that in the earlier stages would have been categorized, with GPM points at a premium, but is not a significant one in this queen stage. It serves as an annual finish in the Ster-Sponsor-Tour (ZLM, Elektro, whatever) and is generally the most selective of the race (previous winners include Zé Gonçalves, Philippe Gilbert (three times), Enrico Gasparotto and Jens Voigt) but often not enough to depose the sprinters from the GC lead.
In fact, the rolling terrain continues with another uncategorized climb leading us into the well-known city of Spa. Named, as you might guess, because it was a town of invigorating baths in ancient times, we are deep into the territory of Liège-Bastogne-Liège, La Doyenne, the old lady of the Ardennes. Sitting between several of the most famous climbs of the region (most notably the Rosier of course), it is an annual presence in the oldest Monument, and was also elevated to Tour infamy after the 2010 stage when Fabian Cancellara neutralized the péloton after his teammates crashed due to oil on the road during one of the most interesting week 1 stages in years. Instead, we had to wait until Sheffield four years later to get an actually interesting road stage in the first three days of the Grande Boucle. It's also an odd town in that two of its most famous international symbols are not actually from Spa - firstly, the motor racing Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, which is actually around the hamlet of Francorchamps and loops around to neighbouring villages Malmedy and Stavelot (and previously Masta on the old version of the course), and secondly, the detective Hercule Poirot, who is from Spa, but who crucially doesn't actually exist.
The one well-known LBL climb that we are going to use in this stage is the Col du Maquisard, which is just under 3km in length and averages 5%. It isn't especially steep or threatening and usually serves as a leg-tenderizer between the longer Col du Rosier, perhaps the most sustained length of any LBL climb at difficulty, and the likes of Mont-Theux and the Côte de La Redoute. This leads almost directly into the second half of the northern (easier) side of the lengthy Côte de la Vecquée, usually used as a substitute for the Rosier when road conditions or repairs make it inaccessible for the péloton in late April. And yes, I've labelled Spa in the wrong place on the profile, that's my error as where Spa is marked should be Stoumont.
By now we are deep into the classic terrain with which we associate the Ardennes; lush green forests, verdant valleys and scenery. The next climb of the day is the Côte de Xhierfomont, which ramps up the difficulty slightly, but also adds a few scenic switchbacks for good measure to add a bit of Alpine flavour to its punchy length of 3km at just under 6%, with some sustained ramps of 10-11%. A very fast descent leads us to a misleadingly lower-categorized climb, Les Deux Bierleux, which is the shortest categorized climb of the day but also has the steepest average gradient, at a punishing 10,6%. It gets up and over 14% at times and riders will surely not enjoy the grind considering we're still early in the stage here.
A short descent leads to a long but uncategorized drag at 3-4% to Werbemont, because in this stage, even the sections without climbs are far from flat; this one is really going to hurt by the end of the day. A descent on nice wide roads should give the péloton a chance to recoup a bit and manage the break's advantage for a bit, but that's why at the end of it comes another short sharp burst of a climb. After all, the Tour of the Benelux likes to have a bit of a mini-Amstel Gold Race, so why shouldn't it have a bit of a mini-Liège-Bastogne-Liège? The organizers certainly think the same, hence the La Redoute and Houffalize stages of recent years, but my stage is harder than them, mainly as I have more ITT mileage to try to balance (ignore the fact that I designed this stage before the TT, and judged the mileage based on the other stages rather than vice versa). The next climb is the punchy Col de Rideux. I am only climbing the last 1300m of that profile, but it does keep all but that first tough ramp intact in terms of the toughest parts of it. And the stats match up to the Mur de Huy - although in fairness Huy is less consistent and with a steeper maximum. So this won't be easy.
After this the péloton gets the longest break they will have all day - 15km of terrain that is only rolling to undulating, with no sustained climbing and only some false flats and widish roads to deal with. This means that they can get through the feed station without trouble, before the second half of the stage ramps up the challenges.
The first such challenge is the Côte de Beffe, an unrelenting 1600m that average 9% including 400m averaging 12% in the first half. But without any false flats, although the gradient slowly eases out, it never reaches a truly manageable level until the very end; the péloton's pain will be compounded by there not being any descent at all, just a brief plateau before they're climbing again on a less steep but significantly longer grind up to the Côte de Dochamps, on a scenic plateau.
The two-stepped ascent amounts to the final 5km of this profile (which climbs onto the first step of the plateau via a much less challenging route than the Côte de Beffe that we took), so you can see it's not a consistent climb, but there's very little that is an unmanageable gradient; this is more about attrition as climbs of sustained length are not always common in the Benelux, shall we say; there's a good reason they're nicknamed the Low Countries. We then pass Parc Chlorophylle, a recreational forest park and theme park, on the descent before taking on the longest climb of the entire race which ends at the highest point reached in the race too; because of that fact I've given it the highest categorization, rather than because of any specific difficulty; the meagre average gradient of just over 3% hides some tougher ramps, but none more than around 8-9%. Again, this is more about attrition than anything else, and consolidating the advantages that may or may not have been fought out on the tougher climbs like Les Deux Bierleux and the Côte de Beffe.
The riders then have a fairly long, sustained descent, which begins with some very straight false downhill flat and gradually gets steeper and tougher. They will get familiar with part of this as they will be facing the last section of this descent more often, as we now join a circuit of which there will be three and a half laps, around the finishing town of La Roche-en-Ardenne.
La Roche-en-Ardenne is one of a series of beautiful towns set at bends in the rivers in this region, on this occasion the Mourthe, and is one of the most popular tourist towns in the Ardennes because of its idyllic beauty and opportunities for walking and outdoor activities in beautiful countryside and fresh air - over half the municipal area belonging to the town is forest. In 2013 the town hosted the national championships on a hilly course with several laps of a 13,8km circuit to the south and east of the town; in a race seemingly set up for Gilbert, the great mayfly Stijn Devolder popped up out of nowhere to solo to victory a minute ahead of the chasing quartet of Meersman, Leukemans and Vanmarcke, with the race favourite tailing in, along with van Avermaet and van den Broeck, a few seconds behind.
My course is 14,7km long and is significantly more difficult than the 2013 nationals course though - so it's probably a good thing that they only have 3 laps of it rather than the 16 or so they did in that race. Firstly, to get to La Roche-en-Ardenne, rather than head directly into town the riders have to turn right off the La Roche road to climb up a fairly benign ascent to the village of Cielle. It's nothing special, but it will have the opportunity to play a role with the inevitably reduced groups, since it comes with just 4km remaining in the circuit (so we see it at 48,1km, 33,4km, 18,7km, and for the final time with just 4km to the line, inevitably). It's 1300m long and averages a little over 4%; the steepest ramps are only around 8% but it is just the sting in the tail on the circuit really; the main course is elsewhere. The descent is quite narrow and technical so chasing down any attacks made on this climb will be difficult. Once the riders have crossed the finish line for the first time and have 3 laps remaining, however, se armó un zapatiesto, because we're taking on what is considered to be the toughest climb in the Ardennes, the Col d'Haussire. But don't take my word for it - there's even a sign.
In fairness, there are a few different ways to get to the Col d'Haussire, and obviously not all of them are the hardest climb in Belgium. The version typically referenced begins in the high street of La Roche and begins with a narrow, cobbled section called the Côte de Gohette on its two-stepped route (à la the Triple Mur de Monty, another favourite of Belgians seeking out their most brutal walls). This is the profile for that side; however, I am tackling the Sainte-Marguerite side of the climb; this has no cobbles, but still features steep and narrow roads with much less respite in the middle, and keeping the super-steep second half of the climb intact.
As you can see, this is a tough, tough climb, and that it accounts for almost 4km of a sub-15km circuit means it's going to be very selective as there's not much flat. In fact, arguably the longest true flat on the circuit is that kilometre in the middle of the climb, since it consists of 1600m at just under 10%, then a brief respite, then ramping back up with 300m @ 12%, before settling in for a final 900m at between 8 and 9%. The steepest ramps are of 19%, and come at the top of the first of the climb's two steps, and at the bottom of the second step, so both of these are good times to make a move. You can watch the ascent here (part 1 of 2). It's not fun.
The Col d'Haussire is tackled three times, at 39,1km, 24,4km and 9,7km remaining respectively. This should be enough to tempt some moves especially if the punchier or climbier riders have lost time in the rouleur stages in the Netherlands, and because this is the best opportunity for any climbing-adept rider to gain time on those less adept at changing tempo on the climbs, so they'll want to not leave it too late.
After cresting the summit, there's a short and narrow section of descent on the same kind of narrow, forested roads as the climb is on once you get out of the houses, before a sharp left rejoins the earlier course onto the N89, so we follow this until the Côte de Cielle and then the twisty descent back onto the Route de Vecpré that takes us to the finish line. This will be a truly horrible stage to try to control.
Stage 6: Eupen - La Roche-en-Ardenne, 176km
GPM:
Col du Maquisard (cat.2) 2,9km @ 5,0%
Côte de la Vecquée (cat.2) 2,4km @ 5,6%
Côte de Xhierfomont (cat.2) 2,9km @ 5,8%
Les Deux Bierleux (cat.3) 1,1km @ 10,6%
Col de Rideux (cat.3) 1,3km @ 9,3%
Côte de Beffe (cat.2) 1,6km @ 9,0%
Côte de Dochamps (cat.2) 4,7km @ 4,6%
Côte de Poteau (cat.1) 9,2km @ 3,2%
Côte de Cielle (cat.3) 1,3km @ 4.3%
Col d'Haussire (cat.1) 3,9km @ 7,0%
Côte de Cielle (cat.3) 1,3km @ 4.3%
Col d'Haussire (cat.1) 3,9km @ 7,0%
Côte de Cielle (cat.3) 1,3km @ 4.3%
Col d'Haussire (cat.1) 3,9km @ 7,0%
Côte de Cielle (cat.3) 1,3km @ 4.3%
Of course, you'll all be aware that Belgium is a pluricentric country, which has multiple linguistic and cultural identities within its borders. The traditional outside view of the country is that it is a straight dichotomy between the Flemings in the north, speaking Flemish/Nederlands and the Walloons in the south, speaking Walloon/French. There are, however, multiple other identities, as in any multi-racial, multi-ethnic 21st society, but we do often overlook the German part of Belgium, which is over to the East, close to the tri-state border with the Netherlands and Germany, and stretches in pockets down to the Luxembourg border too. Anybody who has been to this part of Belgium will have noted the easy and comfortable ties to the bigger, wider German lands to the east, but for much of Belgium the gateway to Germany is to travel eastward, through Liège to the small town of Welkenraedt, from which regular trains through to Aachen run, arranged by the Euregio that connects the whole region around this multinational border - linking Aachen, Maastricht, Hasselt (in Flanders) and Liège (in Wallonie). The de facto of this German-speaking corner of Belgium, much of which was conferred to the Belgians in the Treaty of Versailles after World War I, is the city of Eupen, a city of around 20.000 people 15km from the German border. Officially in the Verviers arrondissement, it therefore lies within Wallonia, but with 90% of the population having German as its first language, signage is duo-lingual, with both French and German noted everywhere you go.
The city periodically hosts racing, with almost all of the notable stage races in the region having paid a visit in recent history. Most recently, Aleksandr Kolobnev won a punchy stage in the Tour de Wallonie in Eupen in 2013, while the Ronde van België has finished in the city twice since 2000 - firstly in 2004 with Björn Leukemans winning, and then again in 2011 where Leukemans was part of the decisive group of four that fought out the win, however was unable to seal the deal because, well, it was 2011, so Philippe Gilbert won because of course he did. For its part, the Eneco Tour, the race that I am aping even if its name has changed, rolled on into town in 2007, when despite it being stage 1, the most decisive road stage of the race took place with Nick Nuyens winning ahead of Thomas Dekker, José Iván Gutiérrez and David Millar, along with the Lotto duo of Jürgen van den Broeck and Leif Hoste just behind (yes, Lotto had two guys in the group and ended with 5th and 6th), setting up the race for the final TT where Guti was able to take the first of his back to back wins in the race.
One of the first things we do in the stage is to ride up towards the Baraque de la Gileppe, near Jalhay. Climbing from the edge of the lake up to the village of Jalhay is a climb that in the earlier stages would have been categorized, with GPM points at a premium, but is not a significant one in this queen stage. It serves as an annual finish in the Ster-Sponsor-Tour (ZLM, Elektro, whatever) and is generally the most selective of the race (previous winners include Zé Gonçalves, Philippe Gilbert (three times), Enrico Gasparotto and Jens Voigt) but often not enough to depose the sprinters from the GC lead.
In fact, the rolling terrain continues with another uncategorized climb leading us into the well-known city of Spa. Named, as you might guess, because it was a town of invigorating baths in ancient times, we are deep into the territory of Liège-Bastogne-Liège, La Doyenne, the old lady of the Ardennes. Sitting between several of the most famous climbs of the region (most notably the Rosier of course), it is an annual presence in the oldest Monument, and was also elevated to Tour infamy after the 2010 stage when Fabian Cancellara neutralized the péloton after his teammates crashed due to oil on the road during one of the most interesting week 1 stages in years. Instead, we had to wait until Sheffield four years later to get an actually interesting road stage in the first three days of the Grande Boucle. It's also an odd town in that two of its most famous international symbols are not actually from Spa - firstly, the motor racing Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, which is actually around the hamlet of Francorchamps and loops around to neighbouring villages Malmedy and Stavelot (and previously Masta on the old version of the course), and secondly, the detective Hercule Poirot, who is from Spa, but who crucially doesn't actually exist.
The one well-known LBL climb that we are going to use in this stage is the Col du Maquisard, which is just under 3km in length and averages 5%. It isn't especially steep or threatening and usually serves as a leg-tenderizer between the longer Col du Rosier, perhaps the most sustained length of any LBL climb at difficulty, and the likes of Mont-Theux and the Côte de La Redoute. This leads almost directly into the second half of the northern (easier) side of the lengthy Côte de la Vecquée, usually used as a substitute for the Rosier when road conditions or repairs make it inaccessible for the péloton in late April. And yes, I've labelled Spa in the wrong place on the profile, that's my error as where Spa is marked should be Stoumont.
By now we are deep into the classic terrain with which we associate the Ardennes; lush green forests, verdant valleys and scenery. The next climb of the day is the Côte de Xhierfomont, which ramps up the difficulty slightly, but also adds a few scenic switchbacks for good measure to add a bit of Alpine flavour to its punchy length of 3km at just under 6%, with some sustained ramps of 10-11%. A very fast descent leads us to a misleadingly lower-categorized climb, Les Deux Bierleux, which is the shortest categorized climb of the day but also has the steepest average gradient, at a punishing 10,6%. It gets up and over 14% at times and riders will surely not enjoy the grind considering we're still early in the stage here.
A short descent leads to a long but uncategorized drag at 3-4% to Werbemont, because in this stage, even the sections without climbs are far from flat; this one is really going to hurt by the end of the day. A descent on nice wide roads should give the péloton a chance to recoup a bit and manage the break's advantage for a bit, but that's why at the end of it comes another short sharp burst of a climb. After all, the Tour of the Benelux likes to have a bit of a mini-Amstel Gold Race, so why shouldn't it have a bit of a mini-Liège-Bastogne-Liège? The organizers certainly think the same, hence the La Redoute and Houffalize stages of recent years, but my stage is harder than them, mainly as I have more ITT mileage to try to balance (ignore the fact that I designed this stage before the TT, and judged the mileage based on the other stages rather than vice versa). The next climb is the punchy Col de Rideux. I am only climbing the last 1300m of that profile, but it does keep all but that first tough ramp intact in terms of the toughest parts of it. And the stats match up to the Mur de Huy - although in fairness Huy is less consistent and with a steeper maximum. So this won't be easy.
After this the péloton gets the longest break they will have all day - 15km of terrain that is only rolling to undulating, with no sustained climbing and only some false flats and widish roads to deal with. This means that they can get through the feed station without trouble, before the second half of the stage ramps up the challenges.
The first such challenge is the Côte de Beffe, an unrelenting 1600m that average 9% including 400m averaging 12% in the first half. But without any false flats, although the gradient slowly eases out, it never reaches a truly manageable level until the very end; the péloton's pain will be compounded by there not being any descent at all, just a brief plateau before they're climbing again on a less steep but significantly longer grind up to the Côte de Dochamps, on a scenic plateau.
The two-stepped ascent amounts to the final 5km of this profile (which climbs onto the first step of the plateau via a much less challenging route than the Côte de Beffe that we took), so you can see it's not a consistent climb, but there's very little that is an unmanageable gradient; this is more about attrition as climbs of sustained length are not always common in the Benelux, shall we say; there's a good reason they're nicknamed the Low Countries. We then pass Parc Chlorophylle, a recreational forest park and theme park, on the descent before taking on the longest climb of the entire race which ends at the highest point reached in the race too; because of that fact I've given it the highest categorization, rather than because of any specific difficulty; the meagre average gradient of just over 3% hides some tougher ramps, but none more than around 8-9%. Again, this is more about attrition than anything else, and consolidating the advantages that may or may not have been fought out on the tougher climbs like Les Deux Bierleux and the Côte de Beffe.
The riders then have a fairly long, sustained descent, which begins with some very straight false downhill flat and gradually gets steeper and tougher. They will get familiar with part of this as they will be facing the last section of this descent more often, as we now join a circuit of which there will be three and a half laps, around the finishing town of La Roche-en-Ardenne.
La Roche-en-Ardenne is one of a series of beautiful towns set at bends in the rivers in this region, on this occasion the Mourthe, and is one of the most popular tourist towns in the Ardennes because of its idyllic beauty and opportunities for walking and outdoor activities in beautiful countryside and fresh air - over half the municipal area belonging to the town is forest. In 2013 the town hosted the national championships on a hilly course with several laps of a 13,8km circuit to the south and east of the town; in a race seemingly set up for Gilbert, the great mayfly Stijn Devolder popped up out of nowhere to solo to victory a minute ahead of the chasing quartet of Meersman, Leukemans and Vanmarcke, with the race favourite tailing in, along with van Avermaet and van den Broeck, a few seconds behind.
My course is 14,7km long and is significantly more difficult than the 2013 nationals course though - so it's probably a good thing that they only have 3 laps of it rather than the 16 or so they did in that race. Firstly, to get to La Roche-en-Ardenne, rather than head directly into town the riders have to turn right off the La Roche road to climb up a fairly benign ascent to the village of Cielle. It's nothing special, but it will have the opportunity to play a role with the inevitably reduced groups, since it comes with just 4km remaining in the circuit (so we see it at 48,1km, 33,4km, 18,7km, and for the final time with just 4km to the line, inevitably). It's 1300m long and averages a little over 4%; the steepest ramps are only around 8% but it is just the sting in the tail on the circuit really; the main course is elsewhere. The descent is quite narrow and technical so chasing down any attacks made on this climb will be difficult. Once the riders have crossed the finish line for the first time and have 3 laps remaining, however, se armó un zapatiesto, because we're taking on what is considered to be the toughest climb in the Ardennes, the Col d'Haussire. But don't take my word for it - there's even a sign.
In fairness, there are a few different ways to get to the Col d'Haussire, and obviously not all of them are the hardest climb in Belgium. The version typically referenced begins in the high street of La Roche and begins with a narrow, cobbled section called the Côte de Gohette on its two-stepped route (à la the Triple Mur de Monty, another favourite of Belgians seeking out their most brutal walls). This is the profile for that side; however, I am tackling the Sainte-Marguerite side of the climb; this has no cobbles, but still features steep and narrow roads with much less respite in the middle, and keeping the super-steep second half of the climb intact.
As you can see, this is a tough, tough climb, and that it accounts for almost 4km of a sub-15km circuit means it's going to be very selective as there's not much flat. In fact, arguably the longest true flat on the circuit is that kilometre in the middle of the climb, since it consists of 1600m at just under 10%, then a brief respite, then ramping back up with 300m @ 12%, before settling in for a final 900m at between 8 and 9%. The steepest ramps are of 19%, and come at the top of the first of the climb's two steps, and at the bottom of the second step, so both of these are good times to make a move. You can watch the ascent here (part 1 of 2). It's not fun.
The Col d'Haussire is tackled three times, at 39,1km, 24,4km and 9,7km remaining respectively. This should be enough to tempt some moves especially if the punchier or climbier riders have lost time in the rouleur stages in the Netherlands, and because this is the best opportunity for any climbing-adept rider to gain time on those less adept at changing tempo on the climbs, so they'll want to not leave it too late.
After cresting the summit, there's a short and narrow section of descent on the same kind of narrow, forested roads as the climb is on once you get out of the houses, before a sharp left rejoins the earlier course onto the N89, so we follow this until the Côte de Cielle and then the twisty descent back onto the Route de Vecpré that takes us to the finish line. This will be a truly horrible stage to try to control.
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La Vuelta a Espana Stage 15 San Vicente de la Barquera-Collado de Ason 222,7 Km Mountain
https://www.la-flamme-rouge.eu/maps/viewtrack/hd/145456
I spent almost 1 hour writing this but when I posted submit it logged me out so only the profiles of the climbs.
KOM SPRINTS:
Collada de Bielva (3rd Category, 337 m, 3.9 Km at 5.8%, Km 11.9)
Cueva el Soplao (2nd Category, 519 m, 7.0 Km at 6.2%, Km 24.9)
Collada de Carmona (2nd Category, 594 m, 10.1 Km at 4.3%, Km 43.3)
Puerto de Palombera (1st Category, 1254 m, 16.3 Km at 5.0%, Km 76.0)
Alto del Portillon (2nd Category, 563 m, 5.1 Km at 6.2%, Km 126.4)
Puerto de la Braguia (2nd Category, 723 m, 5.7 Km at 6.6%, Km 156.1)
Alto del Caracol (2nd Category, 832 m, 10.7 Km at 5.5%, Km 175.6)
Portillo de la Lunada (1st Category, 1346 m, 13.8 Km at 6.3%, Km 194.4)
Portillo de la Sia (2nd Category, 1221 m, 7.2 Km at 5.8%, Km 213.0).
Collada de Bielva:
Cueva el Soplao:
Carmona:
Palombera (all of it ridden, only the last 16,3 km categorized) :
Alto del Portillon:
Braguia:
Caracol:
Lunada (only the last 13,8 km are ridden) :
La Sia:
After the last climb there are 9,7 kms to the finish most of which (8-9 km) are downhill.
The great thing about that stage is that it is very long, has many climbs, the hardest climb isn't the last climb and the last 4 climbs are perfectly connected to each other and the stage is a descent finish.
San Vicente de la Barquera:
Collado de Ason:
https://www.la-flamme-rouge.eu/maps/viewtrack/hd/145456
I spent almost 1 hour writing this but when I posted submit it logged me out so only the profiles of the climbs.
KOM SPRINTS:
Collada de Bielva (3rd Category, 337 m, 3.9 Km at 5.8%, Km 11.9)
Cueva el Soplao (2nd Category, 519 m, 7.0 Km at 6.2%, Km 24.9)
Collada de Carmona (2nd Category, 594 m, 10.1 Km at 4.3%, Km 43.3)
Puerto de Palombera (1st Category, 1254 m, 16.3 Km at 5.0%, Km 76.0)
Alto del Portillon (2nd Category, 563 m, 5.1 Km at 6.2%, Km 126.4)
Puerto de la Braguia (2nd Category, 723 m, 5.7 Km at 6.6%, Km 156.1)
Alto del Caracol (2nd Category, 832 m, 10.7 Km at 5.5%, Km 175.6)
Portillo de la Lunada (1st Category, 1346 m, 13.8 Km at 6.3%, Km 194.4)
Portillo de la Sia (2nd Category, 1221 m, 7.2 Km at 5.8%, Km 213.0).
Collada de Bielva:
Cueva el Soplao:
Carmona:
Palombera (all of it ridden, only the last 16,3 km categorized) :
Alto del Portillon:
Braguia:
Caracol:
Lunada (only the last 13,8 km are ridden) :
La Sia:
After the last climb there are 9,7 kms to the finish most of which (8-9 km) are downhill.
The great thing about that stage is that it is very long, has many climbs, the hardest climb isn't the last climb and the last 4 climbs are perfectly connected to each other and the stage is a descent finish.
San Vicente de la Barquera:
Collado de Ason:
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