I'd say the French tend to complain more, actually. I mean yes the media does its usual cheerleading (although not always, for example a few years back the limited amount of individual TT km's elicited quite a bit of criticism) but you'll find 2 areas where French cycling fans are often vocally unhappy with a Tour route:That's fair. As a Dutchman, having GT starts in my own country has lost its appeal a long time ago
The day this forum likes a Tour route better than most is the day the world ends. I know full well this forum isn't representative at all, but there's a lot of people out there who react positively to every route announcement ever. I was wondering if that was the case for some on here too, thanks to everyone who responded for proving me wrong.
- not visiting enough regions or showing off enough of the country
- not enough climb finishes
People last year were unhappy for example about the Ventoux stage in the 2021 Tour because of the descent finish (& the way the stage unfolded, with Vingegaard losing his advantage gained on the climb, later gave credence to those complaints IMO). A good climb finish is the best "fail safe" fall back option which at least gives some certain time gaps & action - whereas routes designed by the organizers to encourage "adventurous racing" have a tendency to backfire & create duds, i.e. I'm thinking of typical Prudhomme stages with new climbs in the middle mountains found god knows where which he oversells as super hard... then a peloton of 40+ riders pass the top without any problems. And stages with the big climbs way too far from the finish. That also used to happen too much in the 2010's.