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Rate The 2021 Tour De France Parcours!

Page 6 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.

What Do You Rate The TDF 2021 Course Out Of 10?

  • 10

    Votes: 1 0.9%
  • 9

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 8

    Votes: 12 10.9%
  • 7

    Votes: 21 19.1%
  • 6

    Votes: 22 20.0%
  • 5

    Votes: 22 20.0%
  • 4

    Votes: 16 14.5%
  • 3

    Votes: 9 8.2%
  • 2

    Votes: 1 0.9%
  • 1 or 0 (Vino/Red Rick/Libertine Seguros Option)

    Votes: 6 5.5%

  • Total voters
    110
Muret - Luz Ardiden via Tourmalet

Pau - Pla d'Adet via Bales, Peyresourde and Azet

A more coherent stage order, while reducing the finish difficulty an giving more space for attacks on the second stage. Optionally removing Port on stage 16 would have balanced the changes made in terms of overall difficulty.

I guess 2008 was the last year when the last mountain stage was over 200 km long.
 
A shame there is so much TT with a climber like Carapaz in this form. Unless Thomas is incredible it will just be the Slovenians far ahead once again.
Thomas can't do nothing against the slovenians. Compare the numbers of the slovenians with the numbers of thomas in the mountains.Thomas is so overrated on this forum.
About carapaz, i agree, he can give some fight to pogi and roglic in the mountains.
 
Muret - Luz Ardiden via Tourmalet

Pau - Pla d'Adet via Bales, Peyresourde and Azet

A more coherent stage order, while reducing the finish difficulty an giving more space for attacks on the second stage. Optionally removing Port on stage 16 would have balanced the changes made in terms of overall difficulty.

I guess 2008 was the last year when the last mountain stage was over 200 km long.
Stage 19 in 2018 was 200.5 km.

I think the stage order is okay, but they could at least have Aspin before Tourmalet and/or start the stage with Soulor.
 
Stage 19 in 2018 was 200.5 km.

I think the stage order is okay, but they could at least have Aspin before Tourmalet and/or start the stage with Soulor.
Probably. Also just 80km of extra flat would make it less of a meme stage. IMO that part of the Pyrenees is so extremely void of anything new it's not interesting at all. All the climbs are very straightforward too. Nothing particularly high, long or steep, with only few real HC passes in the Pyrenees.
 
I think this race will be saved by its field. If this was raced in 2016 or 2017 I would be way more pessimistic, but frankly I feel like Pogacar vs Roglic vs Ineos will somewhat deliver even on a mediocre route such as this. My main issue is still the lack of hard early stages. I appreciate your guys optimism about the first two stages but I'm 99% certain both of those will be total borefests ending in an uphill sprint. Stages 8 and 9 I fear are too soft to see a major gc battle, just like all of the pyrenees stages except stages 17 and 18. I guess that's my main issue here, that I feel like the gc battle might come down to just three mountain stages. I do actually like many of the softer stages here and think they will lead to great breakaway battles, but they are simply no replacement for proper high mountains.

It's also where my hope comes in that Pog vs Rog vs Ineos will deliver anyway, because not all of those parties will want to let it come down to pure watt fests on the Ventoux and the two late mtf's. I'm hoping for big team attacks by Ineos, Pogacar to maybe surprise me in the Alps trying to get yellow early, or some crosswind battles in the 2nd week. The fact that there are three parties entering this race that won't be satisfied by anything but the win alone makes this endlessly more exciting than those godforsaken Tours Froome won with Bardet and Uran behind him enjoying their July stroll to a TdF podium.
 
I think this race will be saved by its field. If this was raced in 2016 or 2017 I would be way more pessimistic, but frankly I feel like Pogacar vs Roglic vs Ineos will somewhat deliver even on a mediocre route such as this. My main issue is still the lack of hard early stages. I appreciate your guys optimism about the first two stages but I'm 99% certain both of those will be total borefests ending in an uphill sprint. Stages 8 and 9 I fear are too soft to see a major gc battle, just like all of the pyrenees stages except stages 17 and 18. I guess that's my main issue here, that I feel like the gc battle might come down to just three mountain stages. I do actually like many of the softer stages here and think they will lead to great breakaway battles, but they are simply no replacement for proper high mountains.

It's also where my hope comes in that Pog vs Rog vs Ineos will deliver anyway, because not all of those parties will want to let it come down to pure watt fests on the Ventoux and the two late mtf's. I'm hoping for big team attacks by Ineos, Pogacar to maybe surprise me in the Alps trying to get yellow early, or some crosswind battles in the 2nd week. The fact that there are three parties entering this race that won't be satisfied by anything but the win alone makes this endlessly more exciting than those godforsaken Tours Froome won with Bardet and Uran behind him enjoying their July stroll to a TdF podium.
Give the Tour some credit Gigs, at least 30% chance of some major crashes in the first 2 stages.

Individual vs team dynamics should be good this Tour for the first time since literally 2011. Jumbo isn't that strong. But I also think there's a considerable risk Pogacar just yeets away on Colombiere or something already and the race is NID in the end.
 
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I have high hopes for Tignes, despite the route. Less so for the preceding stage. Ventoux will deliver, no doubt. I think we'll see some fairly solid MTF action, but I have next to no hope outside of that (except Ventoux, obviously).

Romme&Colombiere is a very tough combo: over 16 km in total at 8.5-9% (with just a few minutes of descent in between and 15 km to the finish). There could be very intense action there with considerable gaps if at least one of the contenders teams makes the race. I actually have high hopes for this stage (more than Tignes).
 
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Give the Tour some credit Gigs, at least 30% chance of some major crashes in the first 2 stages.

Individual vs team dynamics should be good this Tour for the first time since literally 2011. Jumbo isn't that strong. But I also think there's a considerable risk Pogacar just yeets away on Colombiere or something already and the race is NID in the end.
In fact I'd argue the main advantage of those hilly stages at the beginning is that they will downsize the peloton a bit possibly slightly lowering the risk of crashes.

About Pogacar, I agree that risk exists. But then again, I still don't think there have been that many great climbing performances from him that suggest he will be able to do so.
 
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In fact I'd argue the main advantage of those hilly stages at the beginning is that they will downsize the peloton a bit possibly slightly lowering the risk of crashes.

About Pogacar, I agree that risk exists. But then again, I still don't think there have been that many great climbing performances from him that suggest he will be able to do so.
Think this is pretty much the worst case for a nervous peloton while still being easy enough you can't possibly have a bad day and fall out of GC contention altogether.

Did probably overrate Romme/Colombier or Pogacar there.
 
Romme&Colombiere is a very tough combo: over 16 km in total at 8.5-9% (with just a few minutes of descent in between and 15 km to the finish). There could be very intense action there with considerable gaps if at least one of the contenders teams makes the race. I actually have high hopes for this stage (more than Tignes).
The last time they did this combo was horrible. I couldn't imagine any race having this combo and resulting in a garbage result. That was the Tour.
 
Had the organizers added Col d'Aubisque on Stage 18 before Tourmalet (I am not sure if that is possible) and added a medium mountain stage up and down with small but steep climbs all day on stage 19 I would have changed the score 2 points or even 3 points. Third week looks really bad now.
 
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Give the Tour some credit Gigs, at least 30% chance of some major crashes in the first 2 stages.

I am afraid that percentage should be close to 100%. Since 2011 I cannot remember a single opening stage (that was not a TT) not being a crashfest. 2011 had at least two mass crashes with Contador and Sanchez losing time, 2013 was the Orica bus debacle with a mass pileup 6k to go (with Contador again). 2014 was the Cav sprint crash at the end, 2016... Contador again, plus some big crashes in the sprint. 2018 had that Froome crash among others, 2019 Groenewgen went down among others in the last K and last year, well, 80% of the peloton was on the ground (or in the road signs) during the stage...

Let us hope this year is an exception. But I seriously doubt that...
 
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Had the organizers added Col d'Aubisque on Stage 18 before Tourmalet (I am not sure if that is possible) and added a medium mountain stage up and down with small but steep climbs all day on stage 19 I would have changed the score 2 points or even 3 points. Third week looks really bad now.
Wrong side of Tourmalet. As you can see on the stage map below, Aubisque is directly south of Pau. So if you want that climb in the stage, it has to be at the start. I suggested Soulor instead.

The options immediately before the east side of Tourmalet are Aspin (classic option), Ancizan (repeat of the 2011 stage), or Beyrède (novel in the Tour).

br0muAr.jpeg
 
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Wrong side of Tourmalet. As you can see on the stage map below, Aubisque is directly south of Pau. So if you want that climb in the stage, it has to be at the start. I suggested Soulor instead.

The options immediately before the east side of Tourmalet are Aspin (classic option), Ancizan (repeat of the 2011 stage), or Beyrède (novel in the Tour).

br0muAr.jpeg
Actually you can have either Aubisque or Soulor. The stage's only 130k long. It still would have long flat before Tourmalet. Beyrède you can forget, it's too narrow.
 
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Actually you can have either Aubisque or Soulor. The stage's only 130k long. It still would have long flat before Tourmalet. Beyrède you can forget, it's too narrow.
Yes, Aubisque instead of Soulor is a negligibly longer detour, my point was that it wouldn't link 'directly' to that side of Tourmalet.

The descent of Beyrède is not narrower than other descents the Tour has used:

vNLGHDt.png
 
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