Tour 2012: Route Rumours / Our wishes

[Fetisoff]

Miguel Indurain must be thinking of a comeback just to ride this one

 

[TeoSheva]

Miguel Indurain must be thinking of a comeback just to ride this one

nice one

 

[Bavarianrider]

You guys act like there are 100km of TT and not even one HC climb close to the finsih

Oh wait a second

 

[Descender]

I am genuinely excited about this route. A pleasant surprise!

 

[Nielsa]

Contador, Evans, Menchov, and Friggins (Kloden/Leipheimer) will be very very happy.

+ Velits. OPQS could actually do well in GC.

 

[El Pistolero]

+ Velits. OPQS could actually do well in GC.

And Thomas Degendt could top 10 here.

 

[barmaher]

It looks like a good route to me. A lot of the "en ligne" stages are actually hilly or medium mountains. It will force the climbers to attack early and often. I think the route is tailor made for diesels with good engines like Evans and Wiggins.

Contador will still probably win if he shows up, but this course looks designed to neutralise his main strength, which is HC finishes.

It is an intriguing course, the more I look at it.

So long as there are less than 6 pure Cav stages, I will be happy.

 

[barmaher]

Poor John Gadret.

 

[Bavarianrider]

For sure teams can't allow a break like the one of Voeckler in 2012.

 

[CasperVg]

Doesn't look too bad imo, could've done with a bit more mountains (a great queen stage perhaps) but I like the 2 relatively long ITTs. Altho the weekends seem to be filled with flat stages only.

 

[Sophistic]

Who knows how tough the 5 mountain stages actually are and in the end the riders make the race, just take this years Tour...
96km of ITT is atleast one step in the right direction.

 

[theyoungest]

And Thomas Degendt could top 10 here.

Meh, he had two good Tour stages and has been utter crap since. Doesn't scream "great recovery" to me.

 

[Straßenrennen]

smells like a big middle finger too bruyneel imo.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Absolutely effing pathetic. Makes the 2009 course look good. Pure garbage. Utter drivel, absolute pap and complete rubbish.

Fabian Cancellara on 2009 Tour de Suisse form could win this, with Tony Martin in second and Bradley Wiggins in 3rd.

Except Chris Froome will suddenly discover the ability to sit on the front and pace the péloton for 180km to set up the sprint for two weeks then climb better than Contador in the two stages that matter, and time trial better than Cancellara (again).

At least now they've moved the Tour de Pologne I might be able to watch that instead for one third of this crapfest.

 

[Fus087]

Remember 2009, when Wiggins said he hoped to win the Tour & a gold medal at the Olympics in 2012?
Everybody thought he'd become delusional.

Now, it actually looks quite possible.

 

[Descender]

Stage 10 is actually a mountain stage too, with the new Grand Colombier and Biche:

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

So how many genuine sprint stages then?

 

[roundabout]

Stage 10 is actually a mountain stage too, with the new Grand Colombier and Biche:

There should be 3rd climb there as well.

But it must be 35km from the summit of Biche. Good luck holding the gap from there.

 

[Publicus]

Well looking at this route, I'm thinking Contador may try and go for the Giro-Tour double again.

 

[uphillstruggle]

Just checked the area around the first TT.
Seems like it won't be that hilly. Both towns are ca 35 km apart. So if the TT is 38km they pretty much have to go straight. There are hardly any hills on the straight line. So there's almost no room to include the hills of the area.

What? There is a hill range separating the direct route between them.

 

[guncha]

I know I am a minority in this forum because I rated TDF 11 & TDF 10 routes higher than Giro 11 & Giro 10 routes. I won't repeat reasons why. But this leaked route looks like a complete crap.

First MTF (Planche des Belles Filles) is 2nd category climb (steep but too short to make a difference). Toussuire stage is nice mountain stage. Peyragudes stage could also be ok. But still it is not enough with just two 1st category MTF.

If their plan with finish at Pierre-Saint-Martin (H.C.) failed they could have made a finish at Grand Colombier (as of now this stage looks like a complete waste); or they could have made Pau > Superbagnères a queen stage.

I don't understand this route because at the moment it has two decent stages with MTF and one high mountain GC stage with decent (Luchon). Bellegarde, Annonay, Foix stage is a waste of time and complete crap (major climbs are too far from finish). TDF 2012 - the worst GT route ever?

 

[Escarabajo]

Tony Martin Tour de France...

2 long ITT's a prologue and ONLY 4 MOUNTAIN STAGES

Wow. I don't ever remember the Tour being this bad.

Is there a possibility for the Giro to become more relevant than this boring race?

 

[Escarabajo]

Well looking at this route, I'm thinking Contador may try and go for the Giro-Tour double again.

If Contador goes for the Tour only, he should be cautious not to fall sleep in the bike. I think that would be the biggest risk.

 

[hrotha]

I'm going to wait for the actual parcours before judging. If several of those "en ligne" stages are good and hard, it'll be OK. I like the two ITTs.

 

[The Hitch]

Ok, i just found out about the events of today, so my responses might be many as i read through the thread.

Looks like a horrible route though. I hope this is a joke.

Maybe ASO will want at least 1 surprise in presentation so will change something and put in a real mountain stage before then.

Clearly Evans is the huge favorite on this one.

Uhh, why?