Tour de France 2019

[railxmig]

Il y a actuellement des travaux ( et ce pour quelques années encore ) absolument partout dans Briançon. La ville change de visage, et se modernise . Je ne vois pas donc pas Briançon accueillir le tour en 2019.

Google translate produces this:
"There is currently work (and for a few more years) absolutely everywhere in Briançon. The city is changing its face, and is modernizing. I do not see Briançon welcome the tour in 2019."

If that's true then passage through Briançon could be problematic. If the Tignes stage is true then i don't see anything before Iseran but the upper Maurienne hills like Aussons etc. The Val Thorens stage will probably include Roselend and not Madeleine. There will be some secondary climbs in between like Montvalezan or Montagny i guess. I wonder if it will decided to use the D96 at the bottom.

Rethel, Thionville etc. are apparently out and will be replaced by your usual set of Reims, Épernay and Nancy (or to be more exact - Métropole du Grand Nancy). Also, the Pau TT is for Vuelta.

As of now, this Tour doesn't shape to be too great. Tignes and Val Thorens are interesting choices and potential Valloire with Galibier is also quite unususall but the rest seems to be relatively tame. Wonder, what's with that Prat d'Albis rumour as i don't think there's any space for a finish. I guess it'll end on your usuall Peguere-Foix combo. But then in 2008 they did Portel from Rimont. I also wonder about Crouzette south and Portel - overally similar to Peguere but less regular.

 

[OlavEH]

Re: Re:

Yes, a start in Briancon would make sense and it would be a great stage, I just assumend that the start in Maurinne was set in stone, so I tried to find ways to make that one more interesting.
But yeah, Cenis-Iseran with a descent finish in Val d'Isere or a finish in Tignes is just a great concept.

The problem is that these kind of things almost never happen with ASO. It is much more probable that we'll see a stage with Iseran-Montvalezan-Tignes or just Iseran-Tignes. The will to design more interesting stages just isn't there.

 

[Red Rick]

It's like ASO wants the Tour decided by the TTT already

 

[OlavEH]

The stage to Tourmalet is rumoured to start in Toulouse. If this is correct, it is unlikely that we'll have more than Aspin and Tourmalet. This means a 180 km stage. If they also add Peyresourde the stage will be 215-220 kms.

 

[Tonton]

Acts of sabotage are multiplying against the equipment used to extend the PDBF climb...

https://sansattendre.noblogs.org/post/2018/10/12/la-planche-des-belles-filles-france-sabotage-du-chantier-du-tour-de-france-2019/

 

[May0maniac]

Acts of sabotage are multiplying against the equipment used to extend the PDBF climb...

https://sansattendre.noblogs.org/post/2018/10/12/la-planche-des-belles-filles-france-sabotage-du-chantier-du-tour-de-france-2019/

Sucks for the company that is involved, but I can understand why people are upset.

 

[Tonton]

Acts of sabotage are multiplying against the equipment used to extend the PDBF climb...

https://sansattendre.noblogs.org/post/2018/10/12/la-planche-des-belles-filles-france-sabotage-du-chantier-du-tour-de-france-2019/

Sucks for the company that is involved, but I can understand why people are upset.

The whole deal was "no resurfacing", which already upset environmentalists. Then they started gravel plus "binding" a.k.a. concrete on the gravel to provide traction...for pics...

https://www.estrepublicain.fr/edition-de-vesoul-haute-saone/2018/09/23/la-planche-un-goudron-polemique

 

[18-Valve. (pithy)]

Looks like the PdBF stage will start in Mulhouse, which would make Colmar a more likely finish for the preceding stage. Belfort has also applied, so let's hope it will be the former.

The first GC relevant road stage could be poorly designed it looks like. Mulhouse - Grand Ballon - Hundsruck - Ballon d'Alsace - PdBF. Ugh.

https://www.lalsace.fr/sport/2018/10/17/le-tour-attendu-a-mulhouse

 

[Valv.Piti]

Cant see whats wrong with that, thats a lot of climbing before Planche

 

[Red Rick]

It's the kind of stage where it barely matters what you put in front of the MTF.

 

[Valv.Piti]

So? Its better than what we have seen in 2012 and 2017

 

[Red Rick]

I mean that it barely matters.

 

[18-Valve. (pithy)]

Re:

Cant see whats wrong with that, thats a lot of climbing before Planche

Kind of, but that's beside the point. Because no other climbs were mentioned I assume that they won't do the full Ballon d'Alsace ascent, but descend to the southwest. Loads of false flat between Col du Hundsruck and Ballon d'Alsace and before PdBF that way, which can easily be avoided.

Just use Chevrères (or Ballon de Servance, if raceable) as the penultimate climb instead.

 

[Valv.Piti]

But I just assume that ASO are a bunch of clueless race organizers so I wont get so worked up over that and instead applaud them for at least including some nice climbs beforehand..

 

[Bolder]

https://www.velonews.com/2018/10/from-the-mag/is-the-tour-de-france-in-trouble_480286

I agree with a lot of the article, and yet i can't help think that the world cup really took stole some of the tour's thunder. In another year ratings and roadside crowds etc. might have been the same. Any competitiveness issues should be blamed on other teams, not sky. (The Froome case was just a big pile of Not Good all around, however)

 

[Red Rick]

The Tour is only running on name recognition and it's favourable July spot nowadays. I think better coverage has made the Giro and Vuelta somewhat more appealing to casual viewers, and those who watch those races will likely enjoy the more than the Tour.

 

[Gigs_98]

I don't actually agree with the article. I think this is just an article of a cycling fan who (like most cycling fans) is frustrated by the boredom we witness every July trying to somehow find signs of the boredom actually harming the race. But then the main argument of the article is a slight drop in viewership during the first week which took place at the same time as the knock out stage of the world cup and if that's your main argument you basically don't have an argument at all. Right now what's really troubling is not that the tour is in a massive crisis but that it's still perfectly healthy. The tour has no right to be a financial success but somehow it is anyway and imo cycling can only really start to change for the better when it's biggest event, the tour, is starting to get into difficulties.

 

[Escarabajo]

The Tour will be in trouble if riders like Thomas continue winning!

 

[movingtarget]

Re:

The Tour will be in trouble if riders like Thomas continue winning!

if Dumoulin had won instead of Thomas would the race have been more exciting ? If a Frenchman won, all of this would be forgotten in a hurry but I don't see that happening in the foreseeable future.

 

[movingtarget]

Re:

The Tour is only running on name recognition and it's favourable July spot nowadays. I think better coverage has made the Giro and Vuelta somewhat more appealing to casual viewers, and those who watch those races will likely enjoy the more than the Tour.

I thought the coverage of the Vuelta was atrocious. The Vuelta definitely needs a new TV director. Do casual viewers even know about races outside the Tour ? The Tour is kinda like Wimbledon for casual tennis fans. If someone is only going to watch only one race during the year it will be the Tour probably. Personally the Giro was my favourite grand tour this year simply because it was the most dramatic and had some good mountain stages.

 

[Squire]

Re: Re:

The Tour is only running on name recognition and it's favourable July spot nowadays. I think better coverage has made the Giro and Vuelta somewhat more appealing to casual viewers, and those who watch those races will likely enjoy the more than the Tour.

I thought the coverage of the Vuelta was atrocious. The Vuelta definitely needs a new TV director. Do casual viewers even know about races outside the Tour ? The Tour is kinda like Wimbledon for casual tennis fans. If someone is only going to watch only one race during the year it will be the Tour probably. Personally the Giro was my favourite grand tour this year simply because it was the most dramatic and had some good mountain stages.

Just like every year other than 2012.

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

The Tour is only running on name recognition and it's favourable July spot nowadays. I think better coverage has made the Giro and Vuelta somewhat more appealing to casual viewers, and those who watch those races will likely enjoy the more than the Tour.

I thought the coverage of the Vuelta was atrocious. The Vuelta definitely needs a new TV director. Do casual viewers even know about races outside the Tour ? The Tour is kinda like Wimbledon for casual tennis fans. If someone is only going to watch only one race during the year it will be the Tour probably. Personally the Giro was my favourite grand tour this year simply because it was the most dramatic and had some good mountain stages.

Coverage itself was bad, but I think both races are most definitely getting more international recognition and fields.

 

[Red Rick]

I deleted a number of posts that were off topic at the very best.

Please stay on topic.

 

[cantpedal]

Re:

The Tour is only running on name recognition and it's favourable July spot nowadays. I think better coverage has made the Giro and Vuelta somewhat more appealing to casual viewers, and those who watch those races will likely enjoy the more than the Tour.

How much of the boredom is caused by full race coverage. used to be got about 2 hours at end of race now 5+ that for most stages is 4 hours of a travelogue.

 

[pastronef]

Re: Re:

The Tour will be in trouble if riders like Thomas continue winning!

if Dumoulin had won instead of Thomas would the race have been more exciting ? If a Frenchman won, all of this would be forgotten in a hurry but I don't see that happening in the foreseeable future.

agree, if Dumo just hang on to Thomas and beat him for yellow in the last TT would the Tour have been saved?
well, for twitter yes.