Tour de France 2018 Rumours

[sir fly]

If the rumours come true, I suppose the wind is what ASO is counting on during the first week (besides Mûr de Brétagne, ttt and cobbles).
There must be some concept behind the centenary .. Departure from Atlantic is certainty (although a year late, but nevertheless) and Verdun is rumoured.
I'm too lazy to bother about other rumoured places.

Edit:
Yes, the first week commemorates the centenary, I've just checked some locations and US campaigns.
The departure and ttt are obvious hints, aren't they?

 

[Singer01]

Its basically just a 2 week stage race.

 

[Tonton]

Re:

If the rumours come true, I suppose the wind is what ASO is counting on during the first week (besides Mûr de Brétagne, ttt and cobbles).
There must be some concept behind the centenary .. Departure from Atlantic is certainty (although a year late, but nevertheless) and Verdun is rumoured.
I'm too lazy to bother about other rumoured places.

Edit:
Yes, the first week commemorates the centenary, I've just checked some locations and US campaigns.
The departure and ttt are obvious hints, aren't they?[/quote


Response:

Verdun was 1916, applied and was rejected in 2016...

 

[TMP402]

Re: Re:

If the rumours come true, I suppose the wind is what ASO is counting on during the first week (besides Mûr de Brétagne, ttt and cobbles).
There must be some concept behind the centenary .. Departure from Atlantic is certainty (although a year late, but nevertheless) and Verdun is rumoured.
I'm too lazy to bother about other rumoured places.

Edit:
Yes, the first week commemorates the centenary, I've just checked some locations and US campaigns.
The departure and ttt are obvious hints, aren't they?[/quote


Response:

Verdun was 1916, applied and was rejected in 2016...

Disgusting.

 

[MikeTichondrius]

It's a hilarious route based on the Velowire rumours. Only reasons to be interested in the first week seem to be the TTT, Mur de Bretagne and nothing else. Only the suggested Alençon finish *could* even have some preceding hills as all other finishes bar MdB are pan-flat all around. Not even a Plumelec-like finish to speak of. Unless the mountains blow us away this time around.

Any chance of Plateau de Solaison being in after this year's Dauphine?

 

[Max Rockatansky]

Re:

Do you want to see half GC contenders eliminated in the pave?

I want GC contenders to go Hinault or Nibali on the pavé.

 

[Chrispol]

Re:

It's a hilarious route based on the Velowire rumours. Only reasons to be interested in the first week seem to be the TTT, Mur de Bretagne and nothing else. Only the suggested Alençon finish *could* even have some preceding hills as all other finishes bar MdB are pan-flat all around. Not even a Plumelec-like finish to speak of. Unless the mountains blow us away this time around.

Any chance of Plateau de Solaison being in after this year's Dauphine?

Don't forget the ribinou from the Tro Bro Leon in the 4th stage.

 

[psdoodle]

New here but stumbled across this article today in Lilles newspaper. Looks like a start or finish definitely in Robaix on 7/15

http://www.lavoixdunord.fr/219056/article/2017-09-16/le-tour-de-france-2018-passera-par-roubaix

 

[deValtos]

Re: Re:

It's a hilarious route based on the Velowire rumours. Only reasons to be interested in the first week seem to be the TTT, Mur de Bretagne and nothing else. Only the suggested Alençon finish *could* even have some preceding hills as all other finishes bar MdB are pan-flat all around. Not even a Plumelec-like finish to speak of. Unless the mountains blow us away this time around.

Any chance of Plateau de Solaison being in after this year's Dauphine?

Don't forget the ribinou from the Tro Bro Leon in the 4th stage.

They're putting gravel tracks and cobbles both in on different stages? :exclaim:

This is shaping up to be a strange tour indeed. Looks like they are going for the Froome vs Dumo vs Nibali and giving the pure climbing route a rest for 2018.

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

It's a hilarious route based on the Velowire rumours. Only reasons to be interested in the first week seem to be the TTT, Mur de Bretagne and nothing else. Only the suggested Alençon finish *could* even have some preceding hills as all other finishes bar MdB are pan-flat all around. Not even a Plumelec-like finish to speak of. Unless the mountains blow us away this time around.

Any chance of Plateau de Solaison being in after this year's Dauphine?

Don't forget the ribinou from the Tro Bro Leon in the 4th stage.

They're putting gravel tracks and cobbles both in on different stages? :exclaim:

This is shaping up to be a strange tour indeed. Looks like they are going for the Froome vs Dumo vs Nibali and giving the pure climbing route a rest for 2018.

Or those stages are the substitutes for ITTs

 

[railxmig]

Re: Re:

It's a hilarious route based on the Velowire rumours. Only reasons to be interested in the first week seem to be the TTT, Mur de Bretagne and nothing else. Only the suggested Alençon finish *could* even have some preceding hills as all other finishes bar MdB are pan-flat all around. Not even a Plumelec-like finish to speak of. Unless the mountains blow us away this time around.

Any chance of Plateau de Solaison being in after this year's Dauphine?

Don't forget the ribinou from the Tro Bro Leon in the 4th stage.

For now the rumours are saying about Pointe du Raz, which is in the southern part of Finistère, while Tro Bro is in the northern part. I'm not entirely sure, how many of these tracks are there and in what quality they are. One of the rumoured places is Plogoff. Is the dirt section between Lézanquel - Kergaradec - Lannoan rideable? It's just north of Plogoff. If yes, then they're plenty of similar in the area.

As for hotel bookings. Inga and rom26 from Velowire say, that Tour might visit Valence in 20/21 July. Also, there seems to be some bookings in Albertville and Salanches (per user thibaut), so Méribel doesn't look convincing. As per this article Issoire would like to have the Tour next year, but that's rather doubtful, if Tour has a love boner for Mende (for unknown to me reasons).

 

[capuldemetal]

http://www.ciclo21.com/tour-francia-2018/


just seeing quintana on tranchee d'arenberg will worth all the money!

 

[glassmoon]

Re:

http://www.ciclo21.com/tour-francia-2018/


just seeing quintana on tranchee d'arenberg will worth all the money!

LOL, Nairo would be jumping 1 feet into the air every other second

 

[railxmig]

It seems Méribel was dropped for good. now the rumours say about either Le Grand-Bornard or (as always) La Rosière. The rest day could be in either Aix-les-Bains or Annecy. If in the first one, then both option are possible. If in the 2nd one, then Grand-Bornard would be a bit too close. La Rosière tried a couple of times to host a TdF finish, but without success. Also it seems there could be 3 days in the Alps. Maybe both Grand-Bornard/Sallanches and La Rosière will be featured, as i have doubts about AdH MTT (in reality, i don't really want to see it).

 

[Robert5091]

Cobbles? Why not! Scared the s**t out of the GC guys in 2014 and early on means there's time for GC guys to recover time.

 

[rghysens]

The latest rumours (based on velowire), with Eshnar's assesment (***** = certainty; * = wild guess):


Stage 1: Noirmoutier-en-l'Île - Fontenay-le-Comte; flat (*****)
Stage 2: Mouilleron-Saint-Germain - La Roche-sur-Yon; flat (*****)
Stage 3: Cholet - Cholet: ttt (*****)
Stage 4: La Baule - Sarzeau; flat (****)
Stage 5: Lorient - Pointe du Raz: flat with ribins (other than those of tro Bro Leon) (****)
Stage 6: Quimper - Mur de Bretagne/Saint-Brieuc; hilly or hilltop finish, HTF on Mur de Bretagne seems to be the most likely. Either way, it won't be won by Kittel (***)
Stage 7: Fougères - Alençon: possibly with a hilly final (4-5 hills from 40km to go to 15km to go, crossing the so-called Alpes Mancelles) (****)
Stage 8: Dreux - Amiens; flat (****)
Stage 9: Compiègne - Roubaix; no strong rumours about cobbles, but come on... (***)

restday + transfer to the Alps

Stage 10: Aix-les-Bains or Annécy - Le Grand Bornand; high mountains, Romme + Colombière? (***)
Stage 11: Sallanches or ... - La Rosière; high mountains + mtf (**)
Stage 12: Bourg-Saint-Maurice - l'Alpe d'Huez; high mountains (Madeleine-Glandon-traditional mtf or Madeleine-Galibier-Sarenne) (***)
Stage 13: Bourg d'Oisans - Valence; (****) start and finish seem to be decided, question is what will be the course. Following the Romanche and isère (= flat) or crossing the Vercors (= medium mountains)
Stage 14: Valence - Mende; medium mountains with the finish on the altiport (but from which side?) (****)
Stage 15: Millau - Narbonne (**); flat. Start from Millau seems to be quite sure, finish not so

restday

Stage 16: Carcassonne - Superbagnères (**); medium mountains + mtf
Stage 17: ... - Loudenvielle (***); high mountains
Stage 18: the LS special: Pau -Tourmalet; high mountains + mtf (**)
Stage 19: ... - ... (*); flat stage to the surroundings of Bordeaux
Stage 20: ... - ... (*); flat itt in the neighbourhood of Niort
Stage 21: ... - Paris (****); final flat parade, the start isn't all that important. Some vague rumours about finishing on the course of the 2024 olympics road race. It is possible that that course is implemented in the final parade stage, though.

 

[Forever The Best]

La Rosiere can be awesome if linked with San Carlo-PSB combo, but probably won't happen.

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

There are a myriad of possibilities to create good mountain stages for La Rosière, though. There are even several ones which require nothing extraordinary in terms of route design. If we get La Rosière without a decent stage before it, it would almost prove the ever more likely hypothesis that the ASO actually hate cycling and are making terrible routes on purpose.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Looks like a first very reminiscent of 2015 which actually was pretty good, it at least had 4 good and meaningful opening stages with ITT, echelons, Huy and cobbles. I dont know, rouleurs will be needed and it may be extremely nervous. As for the mountains its hard to say anything, Romme + Colombiere is great, but as the first mountain stage of a block of 3 with a Sky-train, I don't really know.
Anything less than 45-50 kilometres time trial on stage 20 and Dumoulin shouldn't go.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

First week looks interesting. Starting with 3 flat stages and a TTT is disappointing, but echelons + TTT + ribinou + cobbles 1) forces Sky to bring a strong rouleur squad, combined with having a rider less it should impact their mountain squad, and b) create opportunities to catch Froome/Sky off guard outside the mountains.

If Alpe d'Huez is the final Alpine stage it will probably kill the preceding stages. It is easily possible to have stages Aix/Annecy to Alpe, Bourg d'Oisans to La Rosière (over the Iseran), an ambush stage Bourg-Saint-Maurice to Grand Bornand and then a flat stage Albertville to Valence, but ASO will go for the order in rghysens' post if these locations are correct. At least it's better than what we had this year...

Third weekend looks to be as weak as its predecessors. Mende is underwhelming as a weekend mountain stage and Millau-Narbonne should be like this year's Stage 16, not bad, but not so interesting for a Sunday.

As far as the Pyrenees are concerned, Superbagnères followed by Loudenvielle (presumably an ambush stage?) sounds really good... if the final mountain stage is not a Tourmalet MTF. I'm also not stoked for a Stage 20 TT for a second year in a row, but oh well.

This could be a pretty good route if the Alps don't end on Alpe and the Pyrenees don't end on the Tourmalet, great example of the devil being in the detail. At least the rumours are exciting if the route won't be...

 

[Gigs_98]

Re:

Looks like a first very reminiscent of 2015 which actually was pretty good, it at least had 4 good and meaningful opening stages with ITT, echelons, Huy and cobbles. I dont know, rouleurs will be needed and it may be extremely nervous. As for the mountains its hard to say anything, Romme + Colombiere is great, but as the first mountain stage of a block of 3 with a Sky-train, I don't really know.
Anything less than 45-50 kilometres time trial on stage 20 and Dumoulin shouldn't go.

Exactly, my big fear as well. But at least the following two stages have mtf's. I'm usually a big fan of downhill finishes but considering how incredibly passive the tour was ridden in the last two years I'm happy about every single mtf. Big long range attacks won't happen anyway.

 

[OlavEH]

The latest rumours (based on velowire), with Eshnar's assesment (***** = certainty; * = wild guess):

Stage 10: Aix-les-Bains or Annécy - Le Grand Bornand; high mountains, Romme + Colombière? (***)
Stage 11: Sallanches or ... - La Rosière; high mountains + mtf (**)
Stage 12: Bourg-Saint-Maurice - l'Alpe d'Huez; high mountains (Madeleine-Glandon-traditional mtf or Madeleine-Galibier-Sarenne) (***)
Stage 13: Bourg d'Oisans - Valence; (****) start and finish seem to be decided, question is what will be the course. Following the Romanche and isère (= flat) or crossing the Vercors (= medium mountains)
Stage 14: Valence - Mende; medium mountains with the finish on the altiport (but from which side?) (****)
Stage 15: Millau - Narbonne (**); flat. Start from Millau seems to be quite sure, finish not so

restday

Stage 16: Carcassonne - Superbagnères (**); medium mountains + mtf
Stage 17: ... - Loudenvielle (***); high mountains
Stage 18: the LS special: Pau -Tourmalet; high mountains + mtf (**)

This actually looks quite good. A Colombiere-Romme combo. Alpe d'Huez via both Madeleine and Galibier/Glandon. And a Superbagneres MTF. Adding to this a gravel stage and Mur de Bretagne in the first week, and Mende in the second week. Not brilliant stage design, but certainly better than the last few years.

But more likely we'll see a medium interesting La Rosiere stage, no Madeleine, only Galibier/Croix de Fer and no Superbagneres.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Can anyone explain how you can use La Rosiere and show a profile of the actual climb? Not much info about it

 

[Red Rick]

Brilliant. The same *** climbs over and over again.

Hey vogues, we need to design a TOur route

Mur de Bretagne? Check.
Mende? Check
Alpe d'Huez preceded by one of dem Galibier/Glandon? Check
Tourmalet? Check

That's not to say Romme+Colombiere wouldn't be good.

 

[OlavEH]

Re:

Can anyone explain how you can use La Rosiere and show a profile of the actual climb? Not much info about it

The first part of the climb to Petit-Bernard:

http://cyclingcols.com/col/PetitSaintBernard_PiccoloSanBernardo