18-Valve. (pithy) said:
Agreed. Also, they should pave that thing above Les Deux Alpes already. The Tour is ready for on or two > 3000m finishes. The publicity for that ski resort would be huge.
But back to reality, if that's not going to happen at least have the normal high altitude stages back. Izoard is barely scratching the surface in terms of altitude and is not terribly hard and long, either.
It will happen eventually I think. Probably in a long term plan and the reason they are avoiding L2A. Normally you would say they rely on being able to market anything rather than need gimmicks like this, yet they did do 2x Huez or Tourmalet/Galibier MTF. Might need a few more Stelvio MTFs bragging about the highest finish in a GT. Problem is there are already plenty of suitable MTFs which are avoided anyway.
Structually though it's very hard to get them to use a good MTF in the Alps, if you look at the recent history:
Alps after Pyrenees:
2013: Alpe d'Huez, Semnoz (borderline HC)
2011: Alpe d'Huez, Galibier (HC)
2009: erm... Ventoux (funny the lack of a true Alps MTF resulted in perfectly designed descent stage)
2008: Alpe d'Huez, Prato Nevoso (1)
2006: Alpe d'Huez, La Toussuire (1)
2004: Alpe d'Huez (ITT)
2002: La Plagne (HC), Les Deux Alpes (1)
Alps before Pyrenees:
2014: Chamrousse (HC), Risoul (1)
2012: La Toussuire (1)
2010: Avoriaz (1)
2007: Tignes (1)
2005: Courchevel (HC)
2003: Alpe d'Huez
2001: Alpe d'Huez, Chamrousse (ITT) (HC)
On recent form, every two years when they finish with the Alps you're going to have Alpe d'Huez and it's most likely that it will be pitted against a "weaker" climb (Prato Nevoso, Semnoz, La Toussuire) with the only exception being Galibier under special circumstances (importantly it was still the day before Alpe d'Huez). So before you even consider the chances of a special MTF, you need them to stay the **** away from Bourg d'Oisans.
When they start in the Alps it's just as bad, there's likely to be only one MTF, and the chance of it being a big one is less than 50% (and let's be honest, Chamrousse isn't the biggest HC). The chance of them bringing a big new/forgotten MTF every other year is as equally slim as it is when finishing in the Alps.
Assume say they go their 2/3 or 3/4 of the time with an Alps finish and never when they start there, you've got a window of one year in every six or eight.
Since 2001 their Alps profile looks like this:
Alpe d'Huez x 7
La Toussuire x 2
Chamrousse x 2
La Plagne
Semnoz
Galibier
Courchevel
Risoul
Prato Nevoso
Avoriaz
Tignes
Les Deux Alpes
(Ventoux)
That's 14 years without much adventure, even if you ignore the difficulty, that's less than one unique MTF a year (over the cycle) ! The Pyrenees may even be better than that despite there being far fewer viable options.