Tour 2012: Route Rumours / Our wishes

[jens_attacks]

the route seems not as bad as I 1st thought but some of the finishes are way too long from the last descent

agreed,now i even think the climbers have their chance.
let's see where a guy like andy can take back his time lost on wiggins:
stage 7: planche des belles filles,pena cabarga,you go full gas,you can take even a minute on other favourites.
stage 8:definitely not for gc contenders but who know,they need to attack all of the way to paris
stage 10:almost no flat in the last 60 km.you have balls to attack on grand colombier,plenty of time for the rouleurs to be lost
stage 11:little or no flat in the last 80 km,contador-andy can go on croix de fer easily.
stage 12:gilbert(ufff,where are the bonus seconds,that could have been interesting)
stage 14:20 km of flat to the finish might be too much,breakaway stage
stage 16:very good stage
stage 17: port de bales again,very tough.

basically this route is an invitation to the climbers to attack,at least here you know they are forced.
in giro they aren't,that's why i think an itt is welcomed before the mountains.
so it might be a balanced route after all because there is no time for waiting(like this year).

 

[Magnus]

You know things are bad when the "wall" which is 270 meters long and the whopping 60 meters at 20% get a mention.

Thankfully you're free to not watch the last 270 meters

 

[roundabout]

The route will still be **** whether I watch it or not.

 

[DenisMenchov]

OFF TOPIC: Here is something really interesting and funny, Had to share it with you guys
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CofKpGRdb0&feature=player_embedded

 

[jens_attacks]

OFF TOPIC: Here is something really interesting and funny, Had to share it with you guys
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CofKpGRdb0&feature=player_embedded

i want to see wiggins in an interview like that

 

[Buffalo Soldier]

Just took a quick glance, and for the moment I really like this route!

 

[Greenflame]

This route is looking quite good imo. Sure there are too many sprint stages, it's the Tour after all. But the route is quite interesting, nice mix of short punchy arrivals, two good MTF's, and two finishes after a descend. One big stage with some legendary climbs á la Galibier stage this year would make this route infinitely better, but still, I am looking forward to this.

The winner here will have to be an all-rounder, able to time trial, grind longer climbs, punch the shorter and stepper climbs and descend well enough not to lose time there. Sanchez and Nibali, if they'd go for it, could use the descends to take time from the others, which means guys like the Schlecks have to drop those well before the top if they want any shot at the stage win.

Evans couldn't have wished for a better route for himself to defend on though, and I'm looking forward to seeing how he will handle himself next year against (hopefully) the full might of Contador.

 

[Eshnar]

Dunno if someone already asked but...
can anyone tell me why the Tour site doesn't show several stage profiles? Especially those of the stages to Luchon and Peyragudes...
Can't rate it if I can't see the mountains

 

[Magnus]

Dunno if someone already asked but...
can anyone tell me why the Tour site doesn't show several stage profiles? Especially those of the stages to Luchon and Peyragudes...
Can't rate it if I can't see the mountains

They're here:
http://www.letour.fr/2012/TDF/COURSE/fr/les_sommets_du_tour.html

 

[Eshnar]

They're here:
http://www.letour.fr/2012/TDF/COURSE/fr/les_sommets_du_tour.html

Thank you

 

[Bavarianrider]

Port de Balies seems like a killer.
Is this just a typo and this is Por de Bales or is it a new climb?

 

[Ferminal]

Port de Balies seems like a killer.
Is this just a typo and this is Por de Bales or is it a new climb?

It's the same Bales from chaingate.

 

[Bavarianrider]

It's the same Bales from chaingate.

Thanks.
Looks tough

 

[roundabout]

It's quite amusing to see a medium mountain icon next to the stage to Boulogne-sur-Mer. It's going to be hilly but calling it medium mountains is overkill.

 

[Anonymous]

I have just put the whole of the route presentation on cyclingtorrents
http://cyclingtorrents.nl/details.php?id=5848

Will be putting just the course on youtube shortly.

 

[Angliru]

In 2010 with a single long ITT the battle was very tight, though. Unfortunately with two ITTs the battle is over before it's even started - unless A.Schleck & Bruyneel pull out something magical regarding his TTing.

However this route brings Wiggins and Evans into the battle (for second place...). Wiggins should be a better time trialist than Evans or Contador (with the two being about equal, eh?) but he'll probably be the worst climber of the three.

Contador should win this with no problems but perhaps we'll see a battle for second/third place. I'm just sorry that the time trials play such a big part since in my opinion the battles in the mountains are much more exciting.

+1000 This is what I look forward to the most by far. This IMO is what the true story and history of the grand tours is and should be about. The TT should play a small part but the true drama and action for me is in the mountains without a doubt.

 

[Descender]

Great route. I'm genuinely excited.

There are some major flaws in it too, mostly the disposition of the stages. The descent finishes come before the MTFs, while it should be the other way around. And the fantastic Porrentuy medium-mountains stage comes right before the first ITT.

But it is a GT with a combination of different types of mountain stages instead of the unfathomable recent trend of MTFs, as many and as hard as possible. And, we have decent ITT kms as always should be.

I'll make a more detailed analysis when I find the time, but overall I'd give this route a pretty good mark.

 

[Descender]

Dunno if someone already asked but...
can anyone tell me why the Tour site doesn't show several stage profiles? Especially those of the stages to Luchon and Peyragudes...
Can't rate it if I can't see the mountains

It's unacceptable... if you make a presentation of the race, at least have all profiles ready!!

The Giro and the Vuelta do it.

 

[slim charles]

If Giro doesn't look spectacular, this certainly looks even less exciting. I am happy that some riders who are good TTers will get chance to win it, but I simply prefer mountains. It's much more interesting, can produce some epic battles. TTs can too, but not nearly as often.

 

[Descender]

I'm with roundabout, the extra 15km between Croix de Fer and La Toussuire is unnecessary and detracts, rather than adds to the stage. If they wanted extra distance they could have done something around Albertville before going on to Madeleine.

This is true. It's not too bad since they are not 15 flat kms but constitute the Col de Mollard, but I agree with your interpretation.

 

[Descender]

If Giro doesn't look spectacular, this certainly looks even less exciting. I am happy that some riders who are good TTers will get chance to win it, but I simply prefer mountains. It's much more interesting, can produce some epic battles. TTs can too, but not nearly as often.

[I'm going to copy paste this for future use.]

Mountains and TTs go hand-in-hand. It's not about the TTs themselves. If climbers lose time to TTlists on the TTs, they will be forced to attack more and from farther away than if they are not threatened.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

It's basically Pena Cabarga, bring on the Froome wagon.

Except where Peña Cabarga's big difficulty is is its inconsistency - at some points it's virtually flat, at other points up to 18%. This one appears according to the profile to max out at 11%, which suggests it's pretty tough, but pretty uniform - should be easier to maintain rhythm on.

 

[Anonymous]

The route - english commentary
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBZwt7G0jBI

 

[guncha]

BTW, Velonews has published details of all H.C., 1st and 2nd cat climbs.

Stage 7: La Planche des Belles Filles
La Planche des Belles Filles: 5.9 km at 8.5 percent average (1035 metres)

Stage 8: Porrentruy
Cote de Maison-Rouge: 7.9 km at 5 percent (784 m)
Cote de Saignelegier: 7.8 km at 6.1 percent (979 m)
Cote de Saulcy: 4.6 km at 8.6 percent (931 m)
Cote de la Caquerelle: 4.3 km at 7.6 percent (827 m)
Col de la Croix: 3.7 km at 9.2 percent (779 m)

Stage 10 Bellegarde-sur-Valserine
Cote de Corlier: 6.4 km at 5.5 percent (762 m)
Col du Grand Colombier: 17.4 km at 7.1 percent (1501 m)

Stage 11: La Toussuire
Col de la Madeleine: 25.3 km at 6.2 percent (2000 m)
Col de la Croix-de-Fer: 22.4 km at 6.9 percent (2067 m)
Col du Mollard: 5.77 km at 6.8 percent (1638 m)
La Toussuire: 18 km at 6.1 percent (1705 m)

Stage 12: Annonay
Col du Grand Cucheron: 12.5 km at 6.5 percent (1188 m)
Col du Granier: 9.7 km at 8.6 percent (1134 m)

Stage 14: Foix
Col du Portel: 5.3 km at 6.3 percent (601 m)
Port de Lers: 11.4 km at 7 percent (1517 m)
Mur de Peguere: 9.4 km at 7.9 percent (1375 m)

Stage 16: Bagneres-de-Luchon:
Col d’Aubisque: 16.4 km at 7.1 percent (1709 m)
Col du Tourmalet: 19 km at 7.4 percent (2115 m)
Col d’Aspin: 12.44 km at 4.8 percent (1489 m)
Col de Peyresourde: 9.5 km at 6.77 percent (1559 m)

Stage 17: Peyragudes
Col de Mente: 9.3 km at 9.1 percent (1349 m)
Col des Ares: 6 km at 5.33 percent (797 m)
Port de Bales: 11.8 km at 7.7 percent (1755 m)
Peyragudes (via Peyresourde): 15.4 km at 5.1 percent (1603 m)

P.S. Final MTF of Peyragudes has just 5.1% over 15.4%. It seems they will climb final 9.7km of Peyresourde at 7.8%, then they will have 2-3km flat/decent section finally another 2-3km ascent to Peyresourde.

 

[Papparrazzi]

depending on which way they will do the climb the La Toussuire profile will be one of the two following (me bet is the 1st one):

http://www.climbbybike.com/profile.asp?Climbprofile=La-Toussuire&MountainID=6881

http://www.climbbybike.com/profile.asp?Climbprofile=La-Toussuire&MountainID=6880

PS: sadly hasnt added the two Pyrenee stages to the profile list yet. Normally *** "high mountain" stages are available from the beginning.

I'm guessing they'll do the 2006 route up it when Landis blew. That had the same Glandon, Croix de Fer, Mollard circuit too.