Race Design Thread

[jsem94]

Tour of the Great Lakes | Stage 4: Detroit - Detroit, 17.4km (ITT)

The race needs an ITT, and it needs to hit Detroit. Just an hour up the road from Toledo is the third largest metro area in the megaregion that is the Great Lakes. The urban sprawl is massive, but there is a great historic downtown core that was sadly bulldozed for motor vehicles. Ironically, Detroit had a fantastic tram system up until the 1950's despite being the Motor City (as a caveat: there is a new tram line in Downtown since 2017). Either way, the home of the GM, Ford and Chrysler was of course the first city to build a highway right through the city. This did help initially with congestion, but as we are all too familiar with - the long term effects include induced demand, splitting neighborhoods apart, removing walkability etc. Metro Detroit has been an absolute monstrosity for the past half century, to which the effects of de-industrialization and the financial crisis of 2008 didn't help. The City of Detroit lost hundreds of thousands of residents and even went bankrupt in 2013. Despite all of the setbacks, Metro Detroit has continued to grow.

Downtown Detroit

Because of the enormity of Detroit, the many highways passing through the city, and the recently added tram tracks - deciding where to host the TT was a tougher decision than I would necessarily like to admit. I contemplated having the start on the Canadian side of the border in Windsor, but didn't want to hassle of having to close a bridge for the vanity of a cycling race, which would be wildly impopular - it being the second busiest international crossing in North America. I also wanted to avoid using highways, so I settled on what I think is quite a beautiful and non-disturbing location.

Cullen Plaza & start line

The start and the finish are both a stone's throw away from each other at the Cullen Plaza, one of the many highlights of the Detroit Riverwalk, voted the best riverwalk in the country in 2021. While the Street View images don't do it justice, we will be beginning on what is a very narrow walkable path for about 600m before turning right and eventually ending up on East Jefferson avenue before turning right again onto the MacArthur bridge. After crossing the bridge, we do a counterclockwise lap around most of Belle Isle. This is what we want to highlight the very most.

Belle Isle

The settlement of Detroit was founded as part of New France in 1701, and Belle Isle was colonized sometime the same century. It has gone through periods of being more or less an estate with livestock to eventually becoming a park in the 1880s. It has long been an area for recreation, and hosts an aquarium, a botanical garden, a golf course and fountains among other things. It will make for some great helicopter shots. After finishing the loop, the riders head back nearly where they started, ending with a two 90-degree turns in the last 500 meters to keep the speed down a bit yet finishing near the same park and parking complex as the finish.

Finish line

Is it a particularly challenging ITT in any way? No. Does it need to be? Also no, imho. It's perfectly OK to have a more or less pan flat one, just not an absurdly long one in what is approx. a week-long stage race.

 

[jsem94]

Tour of the Great Lakes | Stage 5: Bay City - Grand Rapids, 206.8km

While we could have begun our next stage in Flint, the town infamous for its decade-long water crisis only recently overcome, we opt to take a bit of a longer drive to our next start town: Bay City. The reason is quite simply - I want the start location to be closer to Lake Huron, and this town is located just upriver on the Saginaw River from the Saginaw Bay, a more than 1000 square-kilometer bay on the southwestern part of the lake .

Bay City, MI

The city, at about 30,000 inhabitants, is not even in the top 50 most populous "cities" of the state - though many fall into Metro Detroit where it just feels ridiculous to consider Dearborn or Southfield its own cities. It is however, no slouch as it, along with the towns of Saginaw and Midland form an acute triangle of settlements with somewhere in the magnitude of 375,000 inhabitants. The site was at first merely a log cabin, but grew to a town in the 1830s. Eventually, it was the site of several sawmills and shipyards - which peaked in the 1950s and 1960s. As is the case with so many of the towns we've passed, the decline has been pretty steep since. Bay City has lost about two fifths of its peak population, and it isn't expected to rebound. It's ticking along with what's remaining of the industry.

Neutral start location & map

Regarding the cityscape, it looks pretty typically North American to me. Wide roads, the stereotypical grid-like pattern. I did however find a pretty nice neutral start point at Wenonah Park, the pretty much only suitable candidate in the town even if Veterans Memorial Park on the other side of the river might have been a decent fit. From here, the riders only have 3km until the proper start and we're in for quite a long stage.

Pretty much the first 95km are pretty smooth sailing, mostly passing through Central Michigan. We do pass the aforementioned town of Midland, though not for a sprint - that has to wait until we have taken a pretty narrow and pretty country road along the Pine River and we head past Saint Louis into Alma, 20km after which we actually reach the first real obstacle: our first gravel sector of the stage. There are a total of six, but I will not be using the French convention of naming them backwards.

Sector 1: N. Dunfield Road, 95.8-97.4km, 1600m **

Nothing too insane, but gets two stars. Some loose gravel. This was merely an appetizer though, as the longest sector is 20km up ahead.

Sector 2: Cedar Lake Road, 117.1-121.9km, 4800m ***

Not as much loose gravel, but the length and the softness of the road make it a drag and worthy of three stars. Once again, there's quite a bit of paved road, among which is through the tiny town of Sheridan (pop. ~700), before we hit the next sector.

Sector 3: Wise/Ferris Road, 137.2-140.9km, 3700m **

Another two star situation. This time, the next sector is less than 3km away.

Sector 4: N. Backus Road, 143.4-145.7km, 2300m **

The gravel is finer, but there are some holes in the road which does mean I will rate it two stars.

I'm not sure these sectors are decisive enough to create gaps. I hope they are, because the final two sectors are shorter and we'll have to ride on paved roads for a while to get there. Before then, we do pass the town of Greenville. With a population of slightly below 9000, it's no heavyweight - but it does have the oddity of being the home of a Danish heritage festival, celebrating the large history of Danish settlers in the area from the mid 19th century. It's a proper fit for the second sprint.

Sector 5: Tiffany Avenue, 171.6-173.3km, 1700m **

Not the longest of affairs, but the significant amount of loose gravel place it at two stars. Less than 9km separate this sector from the next, and final sector - being located right next to a great recreational area in West Michigan, being named after the town we pass right before - Cannonsburg. We will ride along 5 Mile Road, with a State Game Area to our left and a ski resort to our right, and the sector looks a bit like this:

Sector 6: Tiffany Avenue, 172.3-183.5km, 1200m ***

The gravel here is definitely nastier, and is worthy of three stars. It's narrow, bumpy and softer with the mix of rough gravel. It's not the longest sector though, so I'm not sure how much damage it will do.

At this point, we're about 23km from the finish in Grand Rapids, the second largest city in Michigan. The city proper only houses about 200,000 inhabitants, but as is the case with urban sprawl, the metro area houses more than a million. While the town used to be primarily known for its furniture manufacturing, it has since diversified with the healthcare sector being one of the largest employers.

Grand Rapids, MI

Back to the race: If there are gaps here, maybe a sprint team could bring it all back together, but there are still opportunities in town. We do have a short climb starting about 7km from the finish, that being Ball Ave. 540m at 5% isn't all that much, but it's something. The run in afterwards is very straight-forward, not really technical at all sadly. However, finish does ensure it won't be just a flat bunch sprint.

Ball Ave.

The final 1.5km sees us hit the riverfront before turning left at 620m to go for a final kick of 6.4%, with the nastiest bit being above 10%.

Michigan Ave. and the finish line location

What to expect: Maybe an attritional classics-type stage due to the gravel, especially if the weather turns sour. Maybe a nothing-burger and an uphill sprint at the end? It depends.