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Rate the 2014 Tour De France!

Page 5 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.

Rate the 2014 Tour De France!

  • 1 (Crap)

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    0
No Prologue/TTT -1
Skirting the borders of France -1
& avoiding the coastlines -1
only one ITT -1
full stages outside of France -1
long transfer while abroad -1
Stage 18 -1
two plane transfers -1
---------
I think a 2 is a fair rating.
 
Jun 28, 2012
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Somewhat surprised the stage to Risoul didn't go Saint-Jean-du-Maurienne-Telegraph-Galibier-Izoard-Risoul, especially as the Galibier now hasn't been used since its double-use in 2011? Last time le Tour went so long without using Galibier, the winners in the four years in-between were Miguel Indurain (twice), Bjarne Riis, and Jan Ullrich!

Edit to add: And during that stretch, it was scheduled to go over the Galibier in 1996. Last time the Galibier was not raced as scheduled for at least three straight years was the 1975-1978 spell, and to put that in perspective, I wasn't born yet!
 
Apr 15, 2013
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Tigerion said:
Lack of 'proper' mountain stages may be a blessing in disguise. We may get people willing to attack much more readily given that they aren't going to have the sky train setting tempo up really steep climbs.

They can have a crack and if it doesn't work out slot back into the group rather than being spat straight out the back by the sky doms.

Depending on what happens in the first week and cobbles you could have some teams with a do or die attitude on the hilly stages.

I tend to agree. "Queen stages" in a GT tend to block the race : All the main riders are saving themselves for that big stage finishing at the Alpe, etc.. This year the tour has chosen mountain stages that all look a bit tame, which opens up the race.

For me, I like to have once in a GT a "tappone", a big hard long stage, but I think it should be one of the first mountain stages, so that riders don't play it safe till that big stage at the end of the 3rd week.

But for example here, if we had a very hard Risoul stage (Croix de fer, Galibier, Izoard and Risoul from Bourg d'Oisans, 213ks) than no one would have moved an ear on the Chamrousse climb, everybody would save themselves for the next day. It wouldn't have been that bad because you then had the Pyrenees, but imagine such a stage in the Pyrenees and you could have Alps where noone moves until the last 2 ks...
 
veji11 said:
But for example here, if we had a very hard Risoul stage (Croix de fer, Galibier, Izoard and Risoul from Bourg d'Oisans, 213ks) than no one would have moved an ear on the Chamrousse climb, everybody would save themselves for the next day. It wouldn't have been that bad because you then had the Pyrenees, but imagine such a stage in the Pyrenees and you could have Alps where noone moves until the last 2 ks...
everybody will save themselves anyway. The only stage where a GC guy could attack from before the last climb would be Pla D'Adet, but it's only 125 km long so he will fail.
edit: and don't forget it's between two mountain stages. It will go to waste.
 
It is great to see how they commemorate the first world war with the Ypres stage, the Reims stage and the Nancy stage.
All those follow the frontlines of the battles.
The Ypres stage will for sure be a batlle in the 'hell of the north'. This stage cannot go without cobbles.
The Reims stage can be very interesting if there is some sidewind, and it will be windy and open anyway. The Nancy stage will probably be a sprinter's stage, unless they have something in the end.

So even the stages that some would say are rather flat and boring, can be some of the most interesting.
 
Parrulo said:
The lack of altitude has been seriously bothering me for the last 3 years.:eek:

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.
 
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.
 
Oct 21, 2013
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Yes. Bonette would be perfect if it was used right in the beginning of a stage. Something like Bonette via Jausires, then Lombarde (visting Italy), Colle della Fauniera, Climb to Serre/Elva and finally Col Agnel with descent finish to Ville Vieille. That would gives us 4 HC climbs, 7800m of elevation gain over 250km.
 
Netserk said:
The route reminds me of 2005 and 2010.

Positives:
Good hilly 2nd stage
Cobbles
Vosges
Long ITT on stage 20
It's not that back-loaded

Negatives:
1st stage
Only one ITT
Not a single proper mountain stage

...

On par with 2005.
Worse than 2006.
Worse than 2007.
Worse than 2008.
Better than 2009.
Slightly worse than 2010.
On par with 2011.
Better than 2012.
Slightly better than 2013.

So it gets a 5 from me.


Agree with your Pro's and Cons, though In like that there's only one ITT. would have preferred it be between stages 10-14 though.
I'll give it a 6. Hautacam stage is a big let down.
 
Mar 31, 2010
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Ferminal said:
The lack of altitude is pretty tedious though. Ok no Galibier, but where are Agnel, Lombarde, Bonette, Iseran, Val Thorens?

At least this year we have Izoard.

this I agree with. tour in recent years really thre away altitude sages and climbs. it really gives a sifferent demention as many riders can go 1500, or even 2000. but many suffer after that
 
Oct 21, 2013
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Ryo Hazuki said:
this I agree with. tour in recent years really thre away altitude sages and climbs. it really gives a sifferent demention as many riders can go 1500, or even 2000. but many suffer after that

High climbs are Colombian paradise. I agree it is great to let altitude do its selections.
 
Apr 8, 2010
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hfer07 said:
I'm going to phrase it this way: The fact that ASO has to recur to the cobbles to create an element of "surprise" It only indicates how predictable, boring & lacking in innovation they have become. Why not explore the middle of the country for instance?

What's wrong with exploring the north-east?
 
Jun 25, 2013
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I gave it a 7.

Obviously I'm looking forward to the giro more with Cadel there but getting back to the TdF the route is probably a 5 or maybe a 6 but the fact that it is easier will perhaps make the competition for the overall more fierce which dragged up my rating to a 7. :)
 
I'm late to the party, but glad to see this forum rated this TdF route higher than the Giro route. It really is clearly better.

Despite the major letdown of the Hautacam stage (seriously, somebody needs to be hung by their balls because of what they did to that stage), and even though we still don't know the Vuelta route (lol), once again the Tour delivers the best and most balanced route of all GTs.

Gave the Giro a 3, will probably end up giving the Vuelta a -1, so I gave this route a 7.
 

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