Ferminal said:Another long day, but there's a small twist at the end of this one, a finish which resembles Tropea in a few ways, so the sprinters will have their work cut out.
Bold prediction: Alberto Contador FTW. Maybe Gatto to outsprint him
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Ferminal said:Another long day, but there's a small twist at the end of this one, a finish which resembles Tropea in a few ways, so the sprinters will have their work cut out.
Ferminal said:These medium stages are the most difficult to make. Especially when you don't know the area at all. Originally I planned for this stage to be an "out" stage with a flat finish to the north. However, as the last elevated terrain for a long time, something decent needed to be done. But at the same time given the difficulties of the race so far, I didn't want it to be excessively difficult. A nice stage in the general direction is the one roundabout created to Saint-Jean-P-d-P.
The final 40km is contested mainly on narrow roads, but I did try and make sure they were good enough to race on, and keep them at the end where things should be splitting up anyway. It would be a nice area for an AGR style classic, mazing all over the place.
There are some reasonable ramps over the final few climbs, so I wouldn't discount some GC action occurring.
15km Cat 3 Col d'Osquich 6.4km @ 4.9%
106km Cat 2 Puerto de Otxondo 10km @ 5%
126km Cat 3 Col d'Izpeguy 8.6km @ 4.3%
145km Cat 1 Col d'Elhorrieta 8.8km @ 7.3%
157km Cat 2 Banca Wall 4.2km @ 7.3%
170km Cat 2 Col d'Urdanzia 7.2km @ 6.4%
Netserk said:Netserk's fantasy Tour de France
Stage 1: ITT 34 km. flat.
Stage 2: Flat stage that ends on Col de Saverne.
Stage 3: Boring flat.
Stage 4: ITT 52 km. flat.
Stage 5: flat
Stage 6: flat
Stage 7: Hard mountain stage ending on Plateau des saix
Stage 8: Middle mountain stage
Stage 9: Long and hard mountain stage ending on Val Thorens
-Rest Day-
Stage 10: Middle mountain stage
Stage 11: Middle mountain stage
Stage 12: flat stage.
Stage 13: ITT 58 km. flat.
Stage 14: MTF on the alpe d'huez
Stage 15: Long hard mountain stage with a descend finish.
-Rest Day-
Stage 16: Middle mountain stage
Stage 17: Middle mountain stage
Stage 18: flat stage.
Stage 19: MTT 47 km!!!
Stage 20: Very long very hard mountain stage ending on Col de Mantet
Stage 21: The usual Paris stage
rghysens said:After all those stage races, it may be time for a 1 day race: a new ronde van vlaanderen.
A flat start with some cobbled sections (Lange Munte, Paddenstraat, Lippenhovestraat, Haaghoek) between km 110 and km 145, followed by first hill: Leberg. Then, in quick succession: Berendries, Muur van Geraardsbergen (km 165), Valkenberg, the cobbles in Mater (3km long), Eikenberg, cobbles of Mariaborrestraat (2km), Taaienberg (km 204), Berg ten Houte, Fortuinberg, Kruisberg, cote de Trieu (km 230), Oude Kwaremont (km 237), Paterberg (km 241) and Koppenberg (km 247)
Libertine Seguros said:Craig - the Coll de Pal is a much underused beauty and it's nice to see it indeed. Personally, I can't see much wrong with how you've used it; I might have climbed into La Molina on the long drag around to the north just to add a bit more to the riders' legs. Now, Boldís Sobirà? This looks very interesting. It's really 5km of false flat followed by "check me out, I'm Peña Cabarga at 2000m of altitude!" - something which can only meet with my approval since that's the good stuff. Shame Catalunya tends to play it safe with its routes more often than not though the lack of financial support obviously plays a major role in that.
Ferminal - I don't see too much wrong with your Mont du Chat stage - it's short, sure, but that climb could be enough on its own. The descent is pretty treacherous. And if you feel too worried about length you could always loop to the south of the lake, go over the Col du Chat (probably about a cat.2) then the fabled mountain, one of the Tour's most tragically underused.
nobilis - I am very interested by this. I noted when doing the Tour of Israel that it looked like there could be some very interesting roads to the north.
Netserk said:the last ITT It climbs four climbs!