Rate the 2019 Tour de France route
- Thread starter Red Rick
- Start date
6.
One point up because of good Vosges and Massif Central stages and less sprinter's stages. The mountain stages in the Pyreneed and Alps are just mediocre.
One point up because of good Vosges and Massif Central stages and less sprinter's stages. The mountain stages in the Pyreneed and Alps are just mediocre.
- Jul 25, 2012
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Can't give more than a 6 because despite the topography at their disposal they still managed to include 8(!) sprinters stages, as I feared. Okay, 7 pure sprinters stages, but still. The rest is okay - maybe better than usual, even.
Re:
Descent by Tour standards? What, except from less pure sprinters stages and reasonably good Vosges and Massif Central stages, makes this a better route than normal?
Squire said:
Descent by Tour standards? What, except from less pure sprinters stages and reasonably good Vosges and Massif Central stages, makes this a better route than normal?
- Apr 12, 2015
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I love the idea of a very high mountain like Tourmalet being a MTF but it should be longer. Another plus, is the lack of muritos which I think belongs to the Vuelta.
But it's likely to be a predictable race like the last editions. Especially with the unnecessary TTT.
So: 5. Not good nor bad.
But it's likely to be a predictable race like the last editions. Especially with the unnecessary TTT.
So: 5. Not good nor bad.
In terms of little details this Tour is really interesting:
+ finish on a random hilltop plain just below Prat d'Ablis makes some very faaaar hopes for a Basque MTF (even Arnostegi?). Possibly the most memorable thing this Tour will have (not in terms of racing though),
+ they're descending Col du Tra??? Carnage in making,
+ Val Thorens with a harder bottom on D96 and a higher finish than i've expected. I'm not sure, where they want to finish though if it's above 2360m,
+ Iseran south is nothing exceptional but last time it was seen when my grands were still babies,
+ Tignes via the D878 sideroad,
+ interesting to see a proper murito in possibly the least impactful place of the entire race
Now however to the race design:
+ at least there's a time trial and finally a Pau stage will have some weight in terms of overall racing,
+ the hilly/light medium mountain Colmar stage is ok i guess,
+ nice to see Iseran back even if only for its landscape,
+ Prat d'Ablis makes hope for some good obscure MTFs in the future,
+ potentially some Camargue wind action on the Nîmes stage,
+ good to see Vars on the Valloire stage,
+ the descent from Galibier is not too hard but it's nice to have a proper descent finish,
- why is ASO insisting that descent stages should be before (often generally harder) MTFs?
- horrendous Belgian stages,
- those hilly stages (Épernay, Brioude, Saint-Étienne) are kind of sluggish but maybe there'll be some Voeckler in making,
- once again horrible stage placement,
- historic 200m PdBF extension to please their shareholders,
- let 2011 not fool you, Galibier from Briançon is just awful,
- the last two stages and the Tourmalet one are too short for what they are,
- once again horrible stage placement, once again horrible stage placement, once again horrible stage placement, once again...
- ASO and their PdBF needs to die.
I know i've forgotten about many things and i also know it's the dudes on bikes that make the race. I wonder if Prat d'Ablis will have HC besides being barely 1.
+ finish on a random hilltop plain just below Prat d'Ablis makes some very faaaar hopes for a Basque MTF (even Arnostegi?). Possibly the most memorable thing this Tour will have (not in terms of racing though),
+ they're descending Col du Tra??? Carnage in making,
+ Val Thorens with a harder bottom on D96 and a higher finish than i've expected. I'm not sure, where they want to finish though if it's above 2360m,
+ Iseran south is nothing exceptional but last time it was seen when my grands were still babies,
+ Tignes via the D878 sideroad,
+ interesting to see a proper murito in possibly the least impactful place of the entire race
Now however to the race design:
+ at least there's a time trial and finally a Pau stage will have some weight in terms of overall racing,
+ the hilly/light medium mountain Colmar stage is ok i guess,
+ nice to see Iseran back even if only for its landscape,
+ Prat d'Ablis makes hope for some good obscure MTFs in the future,
+ potentially some Camargue wind action on the Nîmes stage,
+ good to see Vars on the Valloire stage,
+ the descent from Galibier is not too hard but it's nice to have a proper descent finish,
- why is ASO insisting that descent stages should be before (often generally harder) MTFs?
- horrendous Belgian stages,
- those hilly stages (Épernay, Brioude, Saint-Étienne) are kind of sluggish but maybe there'll be some Voeckler in making,
- once again horrible stage placement,
- historic 200m PdBF extension to please their shareholders,
- let 2011 not fool you, Galibier from Briançon is just awful,
- the last two stages and the Tourmalet one are too short for what they are,
- once again horrible stage placement, once again horrible stage placement, once again horrible stage placement, once again...
- ASO and their PdBF needs to die.
I know i've forgotten about many things and i also know it's the dudes on bikes that make the race. I wonder if Prat d'Ablis will have HC besides being barely 1.
- Feb 18, 2015
- 13,830
- 9,831
- 28,180
Wait a second, this is not complete rubbish. 
I genuinely like the first week which is great as the first week of the tour has been the biggest problem of the last few routes. That said, I'm not a big fan of the mountain stages in the Pyrenees and especially the alps. The Galibier stage probably doesn't have hard enough climbs and the following two days are too short and easy for my liking. Also I fear that many of those climbs have way too low gradients to challange the sky train. All in all decent route and imo clearly better than in previous years
I genuinely like the first week which is great as the first week of the tour has been the biggest problem of the last few routes. That said, I'm not a big fan of the mountain stages in the Pyrenees and especially the alps. The Galibier stage probably doesn't have hard enough climbs and the following two days are too short and easy for my liking. Also I fear that many of those climbs have way too low gradients to challange the sky train. All in all decent route and imo clearly better than in previous years
- Jun 19, 2009
- 4,078
- 1,411
- 18,680
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