Tour de France 2018 Rumours

[18-Valve. (pithy)]

Re: Re:

30 km and probably only time trial, jesus. Cant they just do something like 2013, that was great.

Dumoulin should tell them to swivel.

His loss, if so. ASO doesn't - and shouldn't - care. They're not desperate to have him at the start.

 

[Red Rick]

Re:

It's neither offensive nor trolling. I have no complaints about how this board gets moderated, to the contrary.

I just get fed up sometimes with this neverending crying over routes.

"This years routes gonna suck"
"Why don't they send the riders down this life threatening gravel descent?"
"Why do race organizers need money?"
"Why can't we finish atop this mountain without any space for accomodation?"
"But 40years ago they did 300km+ stages!!!!"
"Why are riders not robots?"
"Sprint stages are dull but uphill sprints like Peyragudes are great."
"EWP is ******, they didn't have this during the interbellum? I don't have to ride this."
"They finished here before! WHy how what? A country's topography doesn't change every year?!"

Excuse me my rant. I should perhaps steer clear of these route threads.

1. Is mostly likely right
2. Nobody is calling for that
3. Nobody is complaining about that
4. Neither true nor a complaint
5. What?
6. Nobody likes the Peyragudes finish
7. ???
8. France has enough places not to use the same damn climbs every (other) year.

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

When the EWP came about and some folks were (rightly) complaining about it, I made a stupid pun in my head calling it the "Evil Weather Protocol" because depriving cycling fans of the spectacular racing which can come about due to bad weather is just evil. But now whenever I read EWP in my head it's always the "evil weather protocol" and I have to think for a few seconds to remember what it actually stands for .

 

[Nirvana]

A PR stage would be great, but make it real, not just 5 sectors...all in, or use my PR-RVV design. All in. Make it the tie-breaker.

Marseilles ITT had poor attendance...security, fear of terrorism. Marseilles anyone? It's sad, but the TdF should avoid this area right now. Big crowds, et caetera, sad but it's the World we live in. People chose to watch it on TV.

I hope for a Dumoulin-friendly design. I'll be disappointed. I'll give it a 8 just to mess with Netserk, and be devastated. Not looking good.

If they put 50 kms of cobbles they gift the Tour to Nibali, imagine how many minutes he could gain over the other GC contenders, will be over before the first mountain stage. Probably a carnage even in a dry sunny day.

I love to see the cobbles but not more than 10/15 kms.

 

[Red Rick]

Definitely needs to be more than in 2015. Maybe have alternative routes depending on rain or not. Dry cobbles are a thing of attrition and stretching the peloton. 2015 had nothing significant in the end.

 

[Red Rick]

A PR stage would be great, but make it real, not just 5 sectors...all in, or use my PR-RVV design. All in. Make it the tie-breaker.

Marseilles ITT had poor attendance...security, fear of terrorism. Marseilles anyone? It's sad, but the TdF should avoid this area right now. Big crowds, et caetera, sad but it's the World we live in. People chose to watch it on TV.

I hope for a Dumoulin-friendly design. I'll be disappointed. I'll give it a 8 just to mess with Netserk, and be devastated. Not looking good.

If they put 50 kms of cobbles they gift the Tour to Nibali, imagine how many minutes he could gain over the other GC contenders, will be over before the first mountain stage. Probably a carnage even in a dry sunny day.

I love to see the cobbles but not more than 10/15 kms.

If it's dry, big gaps aren't all that certain. Dry cobbles require more team strength and Nibali's team should be gargabe on cobbles

 

[DBotero]

A PR stage would be great, but make it real, not just 5 sectors...all in, or use my PR-RVV design. All in. Make it the tie-breaker.

Marseilles ITT had poor attendance...security, fear of terrorism. Marseilles anyone? It's sad, but the TdF should avoid this area right now. Big crowds, et caetera, sad but it's the World we live in. People chose to watch it on TV.

I hope for a Dumoulin-friendly design. I'll be disappointed. I'll give it a 8 just to mess with Netserk, and be devastated. Not looking good.

If they put 50 kms of cobbles they gift the Tour to Nibali, imagine how many minutes he could gain over the other GC contenders, will be over before the first mountain stage. Probably a carnage even in a dry sunny day.

I love to see the cobbles but not more than 10/15 kms.

If you consider the 2015 stage there is no way that Nibali gains minutes on Froome on such a stage.Considering Sky has some decent cobbles riders around,Froome should be the favorite to gain time and not Nibali.
Cobbles are fun even if such a stage ends in a disaster for the GC guys.They should put more than 10/15kms definitely.

 

[OlavEH]

For GT purposes I would rather prefer sterrato to cobbles. There are less chances for accidents and coincidences happening with gravel roads/sterrato than it is with cobbles, but a sterrato stage could still be a very entertaining stage. A Tro Bro Leon like stage would therefore be most welcome IMO.

 

[SKSemtex]

What a pity that France does not have a rider close to Sagan ability. I would love to see one time the Tour which could be won by riders who are winning spring classic.
Tour full of hilly stages on narrow streets, cobbles stages, sterrato stage. Tour impossible to be controlled by best mountain goats. Tour where each break is dangerous so no more Sunday afternoon riding first 150 km of each stage.

I do not understand why Tour has to be always designed to be won by a list of riders countable by fingers of one hand.
Sorry, by one finger.

 

[staubsauger]

There are the spring classics, the fall classics, Paris - Nice, the world championships which are primarily won by classics contenders. Even the Tour of Switzerland has been won by Giorgio Furlan and Fabian Cancellara in the past. There's absolutely no need for classics contenders to be able to win the Tour. It's worse enough that Dan Martin nowadays is a legit gt contender. In this year's Tour someone like Stefan Schumacher in his prime could've gotten a top 10 spot on the general classification. Without an Armstrong or Di Luca transformation. It is simply wrong and a hint at atrocious route design, I'm sorry.

 

[Nirvana]

A PR stage would be great, but make it real, not just 5 sectors...all in, or use my PR-RVV design. All in. Make it the tie-breaker.

Marseilles ITT had poor attendance...security, fear of terrorism. Marseilles anyone? It's sad, but the TdF should avoid this area right now. Big crowds, et caetera, sad but it's the World we live in. People chose to watch it on TV.

I hope for a Dumoulin-friendly design. I'll be disappointed. I'll give it a 8 just to mess with Netserk, and be devastated. Not looking good.

If they put 50 kms of cobbles they gift the Tour to Nibali, imagine how many minutes he could gain over the other GC contenders, will be over before the first mountain stage. Probably a carnage even in a dry sunny day.

I love to see the cobbles but not more than 10/15 kms.

If you consider the 2015 stage there is no way that Nibali gains minutes on Froome on such a stage.Considering Sky has some decent cobbles riders around,Froome should be the favorite to gain time and not Nibali.
Cobbles are fun even if such a stage ends in a disaster for the GC guys.They should put more than 10/15kms definitely.

Because we had only 11,5 kms of pretty easy cobbles sectors (plus another sector in the first part), with such a stage we could have some entarteinment but with limited selection and problems for GC riders.

But if they put a full Roubaix as suggested by Tonton will be a completely different thing, a lot of GC riders will be already dropped with 100 kms to go, a rider like Porte could lose even 20/30 minutes.

 

[mikii4567]

Nord Eclair mentions the cobble stage as starting in Arras, ending in Roubaix after 150 kilometres and featuring the Carrefour de l’Arbre and Gruson to make a grand total of... 3,2 kilometres of cobbles apparently not to intervene with the 2018 FIFA World Cup final held on the same day and aid the logistics of the transfer to Aix-les-Bains that evening. Camphin-en-Pévèle might also be in, but not definitely. They also report on crosswinds, ribin and Mûr-de-Bretagne as being what should be the most tricky aspect of week 1

Don't take this for granted, but anything can be expected from this... 9 days to go.

http://www.nordeclair.fr/98807/article/2017-10-07/une-etape-courte-et-peu-de-paves-entre-arras-et-roubaix

 

[Max Rockatansky]

Rate the Tour 2018 route -> 0

 

[Red Rick]

Rate the Tour 2018 route -> 0

That's gonna be a good poll

"Rate the Tour de France 2018 a 0"

"How do you rate the Tour de France route?"

Options being: 0, Zero, zilch, nada, nothing.

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

I think a first week with something hilly, unpaved roads and cobbles is fine. Of course, the hills may just an uphill sprint in Mur de Bretagne, the cobbles may be too few for a good cobbled stage (as some folks in this thread suggest) and who knows about the stage using unpaved roads. The potential is certainly there for a good first week though, imo. I can already see Dumoulin and Nibali going ham on all that stuff trying to get an edge over Skelethor.

 

[DNP-Old]

Re:

Nord Eclair mentions the cobble stage as starting in Arras, ending in Roubaix after 150 kilometres and featuring the Carrefour de l’Arbre and Gruson to make a grand total of... 3,2 kilometres of cobbles apparently not to intervene with the 2018 FIFA World Cup final held on the same day and aid the logistics of the transfer to Aix-les-Bains that evening. Camphin-en-Pévèle might also be in, but not definitely. They also report on crosswinds, ribin and Mûr-de-Bretagne as being what should be the most tricky aspect of week 1

Don't take this for granted, but anything can be expected from this... 9 days to go.

http://www.nordeclair.fr/98807/article/2017-10-07/une-etape-courte-et-peu-de-paves-entre-arras-et-roubaix

Ha. Hahahahaha. Hahaha. Ha.

 

[sir fly]

I wouldn't laugh to it, at all.
If it's really the Carrefour de l’Arbre, and not only a nearby section named after it (like it was some years ago), and if it's correctly placed in the stage - it could be hellish.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

I think a first week with something hilly, unpaved roads and cobbles is fine. Of course, the hills may just an uphill sprint in Mur de Bretagne, the cobbles may be too few for a good cobbled stage (as some folks in this thread suggest) and who knows about the stage using unpaved roads. The potential is certainly there for a good first week though, imo. I can already see Dumoulin and Nibali going ham on all that stuff trying to get an edge over Skelethor.

Agree, thats really not that bad and you can throw a TTT in there as well. Anything thats not a sprinters stage is a good stage in the first week, really. As mentioned before it reminds one of the first week in 2015 which I found intriguing-

But it will depend on the mountain stages. Can't be worse than this year..

 

[Ruby United]

Paris-Roubaix in the Tour is obviously a joke.
(I tried it in PCM and Kwiatkowski ended up winning the Tour. Sagan got a top ten overall!)
However, I would like to see a tough cobbled stage - something to really test the GC riders.

 

[Max Rockatansky]

Tour de France 1980 - Week 1

P Frankfurt 7,6k
1a Frankfurt - Wiesbaden 133k
1b Frankfurt TTT 46k
2 Frankfurt - Metz 276k
3 Metz - Liège 283k (Wanne, Haute-Levée, Rosier, Theux, Forges) -> 8hrs
4 Francorchamps ITT 34k
5 Liège - Lille 249k (25k of cobbles) -> 8hrs
6 Lille - Compiège 216k (more sectors, a few were cut but another 25k planned)

It was raining the whole week. This was a first week for the ages. And now this?! Come on...

 

[Singer01]

I'd rather no cobbles than 3km.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Tour de France 1980 - Week 1

P Frankfurt 7,6k
1a Frankfurt - Wiesbaden 133k
1b Frankfurt TTT 46k
2 Frankfurt - Metz 276k
3 Metz - Liège 283k (Wanne, Haute-Levée, Rosier, Theux, Forges) -> 8hrs
4 Francorchamps ITT 34k
5 Liège - Lille 249k (25k of cobbles) -> 8hrs
6 Lille - Compiège 216k (more sectors, a few were cut but another 25k planned)

It was raining the whole week. This was a first week for the ages. And now this?! Come on...

Lol. This is actually insane.

 

[sir fly]

Tour de France 1980 - Week 1

P Frankfurt 7,6k
1a Frankfurt - Wiesbaden 133k
1b Frankfurt TTT 46k
2 Frankfurt - Metz 276k
3 Metz - Liège 283k (Wanne, Haute-Levée, Rosier, Theux, Forges) -> 8hrs
4 Francorchamps ITT 34k
5 Liège - Lille 249k (25k of cobbles) -> 8hrs
6 Lille - Compiège 216k (more sectors, a few were cut but another 25k planned)

It was raining the whole week. This was a first week for the ages. And now this?! Come on...

The times when Tour champions were winning PR. And when the business wasn't so profitable.
Nevertheless, I like the concept.

 

[jfazendeiro]

Re:

Nord Eclair mentions the cobble stage as starting in Arras, ending in Roubaix after 150 kilometres and featuring the Carrefour de l’Arbre and Gruson to make a grand total of... 3,2 kilometres of cobbles apparently not to intervene with the 2018 FIFA World Cup final held on the same day and aid the logistics of the transfer to Aix-les-Bains that evening. Camphin-en-Pévèle might also be in, but not definitely. They also report on crosswinds, ribin and Mûr-de-Bretagne as being what should be the most tricky aspect of week 1

Don't take this for granted, but anything can be expected from this... 9 days to go.

http://www.nordeclair.fr/98807/article/2017-10-07/une-etape-courte-et-peu-de-paves-entre-arras-et-roubaix

What makes doubt of this report is both the predicted distance of the stage and the unequivalent plan of this stage with the one previously expected wich started in Compiègne.
I do not think we will have only 3 cobblestones sectors.

 

[Anderis]

Paris-Roubaix in the Tour is obviously a joke.
(I tried it in PCM and Kwiatkowski ended up winning the Tour. Sagan got a top ten overall!)
However, I would like to see a tough cobbled stage - something to really test the GC riders.

Sagan is so overpowered in PCM that he sometimes ends up in top10 GC in GTs even without cobbled stages.

I hope we have a decent cobbled stage. Well, TBH, a proper TdF cobbled stage would be a cycling race day I would look forward to the most of the whole year. I love the idea of GC contenders being forced to do something they're not really used to and we don't really know how good they are at it.