Tour de France 2013

[Bavarianrider]

Read my question and you will understand what I mean.

Final climb is good but does not do much for me.

125km

 

[guncha]

I doubt Cavendish will make on stage 3.

Stage 2 looks worse than expected.

Where's the 5th "hilly" stage? Albi? Is stage 2 a "hilly" stage?

Flat stages - 1;5;6;10;12;13;21
Medium mountain/Hilly - 2;3;7;14;16
High mountain - 8;9;15;18;19;20
ITT/TTT - 4;11;17

My understanding about medium mountain/Hilly stages are as follows:
St.2. - meaningless stage, 50km of flat after the last climb makes no sense.
St.3. - final climb is 3.5km at 8%. Under certain circumstances it could create something.
St.7. - finish for punchers (?); the route could have 2nd cat. climb.
St.14. - some hills in Lyon.
St.16. - the same finish with Manse as in 2011 (2nd cat. climb 10km before finish).

 

[Ferminal]

I do not see the criticism of the Ventoux stage. 240km give or take is simply how long the start and finish are apart. Whether they start from Carpentras or Lyon you're always going to get the same result in terms of not needing to watch until Bedoin. 50km or 250km I don't really care. It's more or less impossible to have a meaningful mountain chain, a couple of random borderline Cat IIs isn't going to change anything. The only way you can do it is Ventoux twice (lol) which I completely expect to happen in a few years time when they take it next.

 

[Parrulo]

Another shocking tdf stage

actually this is a pretty good stage. 3 cat 1's with no flat in btw could cause some damage if raced properly the downhill is fairly technical for a while and really there are "only" 10 flat k's before the finish.

 

[OlavEH]

Another shocking tdf stage

Don't understand why they couldn't added Portillon and finished at Pla d'Adet instead. Would have been a much, much more interesting stage.

 

[Bavarianrider]

actually this is a pretty good stage. 3 cat 1's with no flat in btw could cause some damage if raced properly the downhill is fairly technical for a while and really there are "only" 10 flat k's before the finish.

Why didn't they go this way.

THis is an absolute classic in the Pyrenees. Would have been perfect for the 100th edition

 

[roundabout]

Flat stages - 1;5;6;10;12;13;21
Medium mountain/Hilly - 2;3;7;14;16
High mountain - 8;9;15;18;19;20
ITT/TTT - 4;11;17

My understanding about medium mountain/Hilly stages are as follows:
St.2. - meaningless stage, 50km of flat after the last climb makes no sense.
St.3. - final climb is 3.5km at 8%. Under certain circumstances it could create something.
St.7. - finish for punchers (?); the route could have 2nd cat. climb.
St.14. - some hills in Lyon.
St.16. - the same finish with Manse as in 2011 (2nd cat. climb 10km before finish).

Well, I suspected it would be something like this.

Lyon finish should be uphill. Maybe it will be done twice as there seemed to be a loop in Lyon from the 3D map?

 

[Bavarianrider]

Don't understand why they couldn't added Portillon and finished at Pla d'Adet instead. Would have been a much, much more interesting stage.

Seems like we had the same thought

 

[pdluz7]

I hope Contador ditch the tour and goes for the Giro and Vuelta, Andy too.

I hope so.

 

[Bavarianrider]

Seriously they are doing a TV show but are not able to provide profiles for all stages. That's just poor.

 

[Parrulo]

Why didn't they go this way.

THis is an absolute classic in the Pyrenees. Would have been perfect for the 100th edition

because they are absolute idiots? yes your option is much much better but when compared to the mountain stages we will get, the one ACF posted isn't even that bad, which just goes to show how pathetic the route is

 

[auscyclefan94]

actually this is a pretty good stage. 3 cat 1's with no flat in btw could cause some damage if raced properly the downhill is fairly technical for a while and really there are "only" 10 flat k's before the finish.

30km downhill and being the Tour de France, I doubt much will happen.

I do not see the criticism of the Ventoux stage. 240km give or take is simply how long the start and finish are apart. Whether they start from Carpentras or Lyon you're always going to get the same result in terms of not needing to watch until Bedoin. 50km or 250km I don't really care. It's more or less impossible to have a meaningful mountain chain, a couple of random borderline Cat IIs isn't going to change anything. The only way you can do it is Ventoux twice (lol) which I completely expect to happen in a few years time when they take it next.

Ventoux stage should be the 120km mountain stage instead of the stage to Annecy Semnox.

 

[Magnus]

Read my question and you will understand what I mean.

If you're wondering why it's flat I'd suggest that it's probably because that's the way the road is if you're going from Givors to Mont Ventoux in 240 km.

Personally I think the flat run-in, then MTF has as much a place in a GT as other kind of mountain stages.

 

[auscyclefan94]

Seriously they are doing a TV show but are not able to provide profiles for all stages. That's just poor.

Never have done that. Some criticise the Giro for not publicizing their event, the Tdf needs to look in the mirror.

 

[OlavEH]

THis is an absolute classic in the Pyrenees. Would have been perfect for the 100th edition

That stage is potentially one of the best mountain stages they could make in the Tour. Almost noe flat the last 75-80 km, just up and down. Short and aggressive climbs. Would have been great.

 

[Ferminal]

I'm confused, a bit underwhelmed now that it's all laid out on paper. Think the second ITT saves it, easily the best stage.

 

[18-Valve. (pithy)]

actually this is a pretty good stage. 3 cat 1's with no flat in btw could cause some damage if raced properly the downhill is fairly technical for a while and really there are "only" 10 flat k's before the finish.

Take a closer look.

They added some unnecessary false flat between the last two climbs. Looks like 10 kms at least.

 

[Ferminal]

Take a closer look.

They added some unnecessary false flat between the last two climbs. Looks like 10 kms at least.

Yep, had to go through Loudenville, plus some random detour before Ancizan.

I also think they deliberately made the Huez stage the hardest one, didn't want it being upstaged.

 

[Bavarianrider]

I'm confused, a bit underwhelmed now that it's all laid out on paper. Think the second ITT saves it, easily the best stage.

You guys are vastly over rating that TT.
After all it's a 15km MTT featuring medium mountains.
Why didn't they just do a MTT in Annecy instead.

 

[roundabout]

I'm confused, a bit underwhelmed now that it's all laid out on paper. Think the second ITT saves it, easily the best stage.

While it's a great stage, on this route it's probably too climber-friendly.

 

[Ferminal]

You guys are vastly over rating that TT.
After all it's a 15km MTT featuring medium mountains.
Why didn't they just do a MTT in Annecy instead.

Why is an MTT better than two climbs and two descents? At least this favours the specialists maybe as much as the climbers, route would be massively imbalanced if it was an MTT.

 

[Parrulo]

Take a closer look.

They added some unnecessary false flat between the last two climbs. Looks like 10 kms at least.

oh them <_<

 

[guncha]

If you're wondering why it's flat I'd suggest that it's probably because that's the way the road is if you're going from Givors to Mont Ventoux in 240 km.

Personally I think the flat run-in, then MTF has as much a place in a GT as other kind of mountain stages.

I don't understand criticism about Mt.Ventoux.
Normally Mt.Ventoux should create fireworks and some 2nd cat. climbs would not change anything. Mt.Ventoux 2009 was exception not norm.

 

[Bavarianrider]

Why is an MTT better than two climbs and two descents?

Because it would be 19km TT on one real MT instead of two 5,5km hills.
Really this TT is nothing special.
You could have done such brilliant super challenging TT with real tough climbing between those two cties. But no, of course ASo was settling for the sissy version

 

[Zoetemelk-fan]

I do not see the criticism of the Ventoux stage. 240km give or take is simply how long the start and finish are apart. Whether they start from Carpentras or Lyon you're always going to get the same result in terms of not needing to watch until Bedoin. 50km or 250km I don't really care. It's more or less impossible to have a meaningful mountain chain, a couple of random borderline Cat IIs isn't going to change anything. The only way you can do it is Ventoux twice (lol) which I completely expect to happen in a few years time when they take it next.

The B I G difference between a 50km Ventoux stage and the 242km-one is stamina. 220km before they hit Mont Ventoux...thats an absolute KILLER stage in my eyes. Even though if the 220km is pancake flat, that'll make a difference on Mont Ventoux. You can write it down.