Rate The 2021 Tour De France Parcours!

[Mayomaniac]

I'll give it my usual 8, and this time I (kinda) mean it. Just like gregowlerson, the more I look at it, the more I like it. I really like stages 1 and 2, with the nasty little climbs, then MdB twice: great appetizer and weekend entertainment. Two flat stages don't bother me before the chrono. The two ITTs are well placed, 58 km total is just about right considering the route.

After stage 5, you would think that some riders will lose time on the Rog-Pog duo will go on the offensive. Stage 6 is flat, stage 7 is long with a nasty climb close to the finish. Fine. Then we get into the weekend with a great stage 8 (I like the combo) and a meh stage 9...although back to back tough days would have doomed GC action on stage 8. OK.

Stage 10 easy after the rest day, I'm cool with that, I like stage 11 but why not as a MTF? Isn't that what the double calls for? Weird. Stage 12 with echelons potential, 13 is a liaison stage, and I like stage 14 with its punchy course. Stage 15 is good but not great, I would have expected it to be much tougher before the rest day.

Stage 16 easy, and we get to stage 17 and a tough MTF, although the route leading to the Portet isn't that hard. Yet, maybe it will help riders to still have gas in the tank comes stage 19. Then easy, final chrono, and Paris.

All-in-all, we can criticize many aspects of this route, but as a whole, it's "balanced" and quite good actually.

I wonder why...

 

[Kainabru]

Gave it 5.

• love 2 ITT's, Ventoux stage and its placement.
• first week looks really well apart from the fact that LGB stage lacks some climbing earlier on.
• posibility of nice battle for yellow at the start is a plus.
• finaly all weekends looks promising.
• we also have a nice balance between mountains and time trails, however it could be achieved with the element of endurance.

Just add 20km to the first ITT, some climbing to the LGB stage, change Andorra a little bit (something like random first climb to form a breakaway-Pailheres-harder side of Envalira-Comella-Beixalis) and add Bales to Portet stage, maybe even Mente.

This way we would have hard stage 8 with action guaranteed by gaps from ITT and easy Tignes mtf the next day, where you can't do anyting interesting anyway. Then you have perfectly placed hard descent finishes on stage 11 and 15 in the second week. Queen stage is on stage 17, not hindered by the next stage, as it is not too hard but you can still go on Tourmalet if needed or wait for Luz-Ardiden to gain time before the last ITT.

Another thing that we don't know yet are the profiles of some hilly/sprint stages. I really hope for some not too hard climbs, earlier on stage 10 to spice up the battle for the green, as well as some climbs in the end of Carcassonne stage to give some initiative to attackers or allow the teams of riders like Matthews to try to drop pure sprinters.

 

[18-Valve. (pithy)]

Another thing that we don't know yet are the profiles of some hilly/sprint stages. I really hope for some not too hard climbs, earlier on stage 10 to spice up the battle for the green, as well as some climbs in the end of Carcassonne stage to give some initiative to attackers or allow the teams of riders like Matthews to try to drop pure sprinters.

We don't have the official profiles, but the video on letour.fr is pretty clear:

Dailymotion Video Player

The Carcassonne stage is 'French flat' ...no meaningful hills at all. Pure sprinters stage.

via La Flamme Rouge

 

[Krzysztof_O]

The Ventoux stage HAS to be semi-decisive, although I'm a bit surprised it's not an MTF.

Many would like to see a huge MTF on Ventoux (and it would be fitting in the middle of the race considering there's only one moderate MTF in the Alps) but hopefully adding a fast descent will make the interesting action last longer (instead of discouraging it).

 

[Gigs_98]

We don't have the official profiles, but the video on letour.fr is pretty clear:

Dailymotion Video Player

The Carcassonne stage is 'French flat' ...no meaningful hills at all. Pure sprinters stage.

via La Flamme Rouge

Which is great btw. This should be all about crosswinds

 

[zlev11]

3, only because of two flat ITT and the Ventoux descent stage. it's not just a bad route, it's a completely blown opportunity. why not do Iseran again before Tignes? why is the Luz Ardiden stage so short? there's potentially only 3 GC mountain stages and one of them will only be raced for the last 3k (Portet, like last time they did it).

 

[richwallone]

4 from me...

Leaving the discussion about mountain and hilly stages asides, the 2021 edition has 8 (!!!) flat stages for sprinters... All I say is that ASO really wants Demare to go for a green jersey next year... It might be an interesting aspect of the race, if Bennett, Ewan and WVA and hopefully reinvigorated Sagan decide to go for it... Although I’m not even sure if Bora will support Sagan or Ackerman who was promised the TdF 2021 start...

 

[Devil's Elbow]

8 sprints (although at least a few of them have crosswind potential, though absolutely not 5 of them). Also, twice we get three sprints in four days, and the final time we get two out of three.
Weak mountains. 6/7 mountain stages (depending on whether you count Saint Gaudens) is slightly low, and then they aren't even that hard. The Alps will only produce GC gaps if Romme and Colombière somehow see proper racing, the Andorra stage is extremely prone to softpedalling and then there's only the Ventoux stage and the two big MTFs (why are they on the two last mountain stages?) left - and those aren't suitable to take/lose minutes either. It's essentially the quantity-over-quality mountains of this year, without the quantity.
Two extremely similar time trials, although with these mountains not having the rumoured 80k of time trialling is probably a plus.
Two extremely similar opening stages which are essentially also sprints, just not for the sprinters. Especially annoying because Landerneau is ideally placed for a ribinou stage.
The two decent hilly/mid-mountain stages (ok, the Le Creusot stage is actually better than decent) placed directly ahead of mountain stages.

So it's a bad route even by Tour de France standards. An average year is a 5 or a 6 for me... so this one can't be more than a 4. The decent balancing saves it from dropping even lower.

 

[BlueRoads]

4 from me...

Leaving the discussion about mountain and hilly stages asides, the 2021 edition has 8 (!!!) flat stages for sprinters... All I say is that ASO really wants Demare to go for a green jersey next year... It might be an interesting aspect of the race, if Bennett, Ewan and WVA and hopefully reinvigorated Sagan decide to go for it... Although I’m not even sure if Bora will support Sagan or Ackerman who was promised the TdF 2021 start...

It's a design developed for Bora, so that they can bring both Sagan and Ackermann, who will each go for four of them. They will draw the slips of paper with the sprint stages from a bavarian hat with a feather, so that there won't be any complaints.

 

[Eyeballs Out]

5

This is according to my TDF route scoring system which is 5 pts for a cobbles stage and 5 pts for no TTT

 

[Sandisfan]

10.
Always the best day on this forum. Made me laugh a lot in these bad COVID-19 times.

Hang on a second.

Is that a 10, or a 1(or)0?

Well gregr.... 10 in binary is the same as two in our standard base ten...


P.S. This reminds me of a signature at the bottom of posts on another site i have gone to..... "There are 10 types of people those who understand binary and those who don't"

 

[Koronin]

Gave it a 5 due to 2 ITTs and the double climbing of Ventoux. (without those it's a 4).

 

[Descender]

Feeling generous so I gave it a 1.

 

[Forever The Best]

I gave a 4. Probably because my expectations were low to begin with.

 

[lemon cheese cake]

4. Want more western Pyrenees. For some reason I have a grudge about the town of Pau (I'm sure it's a lovely place). There is a lack of Massif Central and dislike the Mur der Bretagne. Plus the TTs could be longer.

In hindsight, now I've written this, maybe it was less than a 4.

 

[Escarabajo]

5. Not good for me. I am always waiting for at least 2 killer mountain stages independent of the ITT.

The ITT is OK. It is good to mix it up every now and then. Hilly stages are good too. But the lack of hardness in the mountain stages is what bothers me. At least put 2 with a distinctive seal.

 

[gregrowlerson]

Well gregr.... 10 in binary is the same as two in our standard base ten...


P.S. This reminds me of a signature at the bottom of posts on another site i have gone to..... "There are 10 types of people those who understand binary and those who don't"

I have often wondered why you don't comment more on here, and now I know why:

We are beneath your intellect! Or at least I am

 

[gregrowlerson]

4. Want more western Pyrenees. For some reason I have a grudge about the town of Pau (I'm sure it's a lovely place). There is a lack of Massif Central and dislike the Mur der Bretagne. Plus the TTs could be longer.

In hindsight, now I've written this, maybe it was less than a 4.

What do you mean "for some reason"?

Pretty sure that every forum member holds a grudge against Pau.

I've read Libertine Seguros' New Testament. It tells of Pau being a horrifically hot place.

 

[hayneplane]

Feeling generous so I gave it a 1.

Surely that Ventoux descent finish was enough to earn an extra point from you

 

[hayneplane]

4. Want more western Pyrenees. For some reason I have a grudge about the town of Pau (I'm sure it's a lovely place). There is a lack of Massif Central and dislike the Mur der Bretagne. Plus the TTs could be longer.

In hindsight, now I've written this, maybe it was less than a 4.

Feel exactly the same as you about Pau and have previously expressed a similar wish for it to be erased from cycling.

 

[railxmig]

Feel exactly the same as you about Pau and have previously expressed a similar wish for it to be erased from cycling.

I actually find Pau to be perfectly fine. As a depart city it's close enough to the Pyrenees to have demanding mountains stages in the main massif and in the Basque section. it's also a fine finishing city of a flat/hilly stage if it's necessary to come closer to the mountains. I think it may be fine WC course as there are some fine hills just south of the city. I can understand myself the feeling as i have grudges for the likes of Mende and Mur-de-Bretagne.

 

[ice&fire]

I see many posters qualifying the route as balanced and I tend to agree. It is equally dissapointing in the flat as in the hills and the high mountains.

 

[Red Rick]

I see many posters qualifying the route as balanced and I tend to agree. It is equally dissapointing in the flat as in the hills and the high mountains.

Perfectly balanced, as all things should be.

 

[hayneplane]

The main hope has to be that as there is no clear queen stage to wait and have one big effort from the climbers nor enough ITT km for the powerhouses to sit back and wait that it will open up the racing to win through team strategy and hilly stage ambushes rather than pure strength or watts per kilo climbing.

A long shot but still could happen.

 

[BlueRoads]

The main hope has to be that as there is no clear queen stage to wait and have one big effort from the climbers nor enough ITT km for the powerhouses to sit back and wait that it will open up the racing to win through team strategy and hilly stage ambushes rather than pure strength or watts per kilo climbing.

A long shot but still could happen.

I think that must be the reasoning behind the concept. I mean many posts here sound like the ASO just likes to p** off cycling fans, or like they have no idea what they are doing. But taking the monetary aspects (that they will rate higher than we do) out of the equation, I think we should consider the possibility that they are not totally clueless.
In fact what the recent GTs have shown is that actually the declared big stages made everyone hold back before and that teams waited for the two "decisive" stages. Everyone was so afraid of the monsters of mountains or the accumulated fatigue or just waited for that one time trial where they thought they would have the upper hand.