Rate the 2024 Tour de France Route

[KZD]

I gave it a 6 out of 10.

Positives aspects:
- Cime de la Bonette back after an old hiatus (stage 19 as a whole is really good)
- Gravel stage
- Grand depart as a whole
- Stage 14

Negative aspectes:
- First MTF on stage 14 which makes for an overall backloded race
- Up to 8 sprint stages
- Mountain stages with the exception of stage 15 are too short
- The 59TT km's are nice but I don't like that the two are hilly

I don't like TDFF route either. Too backloaded and the Netherlands Grand depart seems really boring with a comical length TT.

 

[saunaking]

i dont like wasting the Tourmalet but i love the stage that starts going up the Peyersourde.
I like the mtn stages near the end, the final TT is ok, better than paris bs
I dont like short stages but like the fact that the ASO has realized today's peloton races the *** out of them and soft pedals on long ass stages
8

 

[ashhutch1997]

It certainly would have been straightforward to start from Isola and go over Saint-Martin, Turini, (Braus), Castillon, Madone before a descent finish to Monaco. With three other HC MTFs, it would have been a good trade.

Isola > Monaco

150.0 km, +4089 m. Bike ride in Roure, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

ridewithgps.com

I agree, that would have been a nice stage, I would have loved them to do a Paris Nice style stage 20 or even 21. A lot of routes these days come down to what towns/ departments pay the most.
Also, would there be enough hotels ect in Isola to stop overnight?

 

[Zoetemelk-fan]

I gave it an 8 due to all the unknown-unknown stages, up to the riders to do a heck of a spectacle, other kind that the stages with the predictable outcomes.

 

[Valv.Piti]

10.

A route doesn't matter at all.

What matters is it will be ridden by riders that put on a show.

Yeah, good analysis budster

 

[Red Rick]

Solid deuce. They have completely given up on designing mountain stages and all they care is the 1 marketing gimmick every Tour. Gravel is just cobbles with half the skills and twice the punctures.

 

[Kaptain Kool]

Give it 5. Its's ok. Would consider a 6 since the Stage 21 ITT means that 2 stages I wouldn't watch have been conveniently rolled into one.

 

[fbjim]

Given that the last few tours have had exciting racing, I would be happier with current TDF course philosophy if they just included one 200km mountain stage per race. Doesn't even need to be the queen stage, you can have that be your 120km stage with climbing from the gun.

 

[houtdffan]

Given that the last few tours have had exciting racing, I would be happier with current TDF course philosophy if they just included one 200km mountain stage per race. Doesn't even need to be the queen stage, you can have that be your 120km stage with climbing from the gun.

we have the 200km mountain stage to Plateau de Beille

 

[proffate]

Solid deuce. They have completely given up on designing mountain stages and all they care is the 1 marketing gimmick every Tour. Gravel is just cobbles with half the skills and twice the punctures.

Tom Pidcock certainly didn't need any skills to ride away from the pack at Strade, did he? Meanwhile a cx WC flatted out of Roubaix.

 

[OlavEH]

we have the 200km mountain stage to Plateau de Beille

But the design of this stage is awful. A long flat section halfway and 20 kms flat before the last climb to PdB. I would rather have seen a 140 km stage which had great design (not that this is possible with PdB).

 

[houtdffan]

But the design of this stage is awful. A long flat section halfway and 20 kms flat before the last climb to PdB. I would rather have seen a 140 km stage which had great design (not that this is possible with PdB).

Only thing I'd have liked to see with that stage was to find a way to include the Core. Even if that meant an old fashioned epic 7 hour 250 km slog

If the PDB stage is raced hard, those flats will enhance the time gaps

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Tom Pidcock certainly didn't need any skills to ride away from the pack at Strade, did he? Meanwhile a cx WC flatted out of Roubaix.

I must have missed the part where half the skills of cobbles equates to zero skills on the gravel.

I also must have missed the part where double the punctures on the gravel means there are no punctures on the cobbles.

 

[Red Rick]

Tom Pidcock certainly didn't need any skills to ride away from the pack at Strade, did he? Meanwhile a cx WC flatted out of Roubaix.

Strade is great because of the combination of gravel and overall super hard profile. Flatter road races with small gravel sections just turn into puncture fests.

 

[SafeBet]

I rated it 9 the moment it was announced it'd start in Italy. Would've given it a 10 had they switched stage 20 and 21.

 

[OlavEH]

If the PDB stage is raced hard, those flats will enhance the time gaps

That more or less never happens when the last climb is the toughest by a margin and there is a so long flat section before that.

Valley and length can be okay in certain stages. A stage with Iseran and Galibier to Les Deux Alpes would be close to 200 km and a potentially much better design than that PdB stage.

 

[Tommy Gun]

A rest day and a stage starting from my home town, therefore a perfect 10 for me!
Besides, I love the start in Italy and the early Alpine stage.

 

[Krzysztof_O]

I'll give it 4. I don't like the route at all. One of the worst GT routes in recent memory. It's super-backloaded and has a lot of flat stages. There will be no big GC action until stage 14. Stage 4 looks good on paper but no significant action will take place there methinks. Opening stages are fine (minor GC action), also stage 11 should deliver something. Pyrenean stages and final weekend should be exciting (so it's a plus) but the first 2 weeks will be generally meh: major contenders saving themselves for the final week push and not too many chances to make the difference anyway.

 

[Rob5091]

Remco not too pleased with the gravel, but I'm going to have to practice my rain dance as a 24 hour deluge before that stage and it should get interesting.

https://cyclinguptodate.com/cycling...y-stage-9-gravel-on-2024-tour-de-france-route

 

[fbjim]

PdB is pretty standard stage design. Theoretically it could be insane if the hard start lets some "second tier" GC guys up the road like what happened a few times last year but it's fundamentally a long leadup to the GC climbs at the end, which is fine.

I think it should have been Pailhares/PdB and if you remember, that stage in 2007 started with nearly 120km of flat. And despite that, it was one of the best stages of that Tour.

 

[stonerider]

Remco not too pleased with the gravel, but I'm going to have to practice my rain dance as a 24 hour deluge before that stage and it should get interesting.

https://cyclinguptodate.com/cycling...y-stage-9-gravel-on-2024-tour-de-france-route

Remco needs to practice his off road skills. At least the gravel stage will give him a great excuse to lose a lot of time so he can go back to trying to win stages later in the race.

 

[hrotha]

Thoroughly unimpressed by what I've seen but I'm tempted to give it a 0 just out of frustration over the insanely impractical way the information is presented at the official TdF website year after year

Anyway, not nearly enough time-trialing, and then one ITT on the very last day instead of before the mountains, and a rolling ITT at that. Interesting first week. Too many short mountain stages. I dunno but I'm not going to put more effort into my score than they put into their route so let's just say 3/10 and go get drunk to forget

 

[Netserk]

Anyway, not nearly enough time-trialing, and then one ITT on the very last day instead of before the mountains, and a rolling ITT at that.

While I agree in the sense that I trace fictive routes with more time-trialing (the Giro I recently made had 122.5 km of ITT as a prologue and stages 7 & 17) and often also quite front-loaded with that, I will say again that this is the most ITT km in over a decade. It's much better on that front than this year's route. It's less back-loaded than last year's route. It's more or less on par with '21. Strictly better than '18-'20.

It's a step in the right direction, even if it's bad that the last ITT could block the race.

 

[AmRacer]

I give this route 1 Cav, and that's a 10.

 

[Pantani_lives]

9/10

What I like is that different riders get a chance to gain time. Vingegaard has the high mountains. Pogacar has the gravel and the middle mountains. Evenepoel has the time trials and the middle mountains. Other riders can try to gain time in a transitional stage.