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Tour de France 2021 route rumors

Page 12 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
Apparently a lot of Pyrenees next year. Portet and Luz Ardiden as MTFs look like interesting choices. I still remember well Luz Ardiden drama in 2003, what a stage it was. Portet, most difficult Pyrenean Tdf climb, was used only once: no fireworks but it surely has potential to deliver.
 
Atleast there are no MTF's like Loze and Puy Mary this year where all the action could only happen in the last 2 km
Puy Mary I don't mind cause it's a medium mountain stage where it's not all that common to have guaranteed action let alone a lot of action at all. Col de la Loze was the single worst MTF they could've had in that location even though it could be legendary as a pass.
 
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Puy Mary I don't mind cause it's a medium mountain stage where it's not all that common to have guaranteed action let alone a lot of action at all. Col de la Loze was the single worst MTF they could've had in that location even though it could be legendary as a pass.

Yet cyclists were arriving one by one on Loze, opposite to the rest of MTFs. The drama was late but it delivered.
 
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I'm still fully expecting that ITT to be a TTT.
Yeah, like even if they announce it to be an ITT I'd still think, are we sure on the day of the stage Prudhomme is not just gonna turn up and tell the teams that unfortunately they only worked out a schedule for 22 starters, so what can you do?

Two flat ITT's and especially the first one at that point in the race is just so untypical for the way ASO has handled TT's in the last decade.
 
I'm still kinda unsure what to think of the final mountain stage to Luz Ardiden instead of Bagargui. On one hand, on paper those three pyrenees stages look pretty great and considering there will be a rest day after the Andorra stage they even got the order right. On the other hand it's the most ASO thing ever that they could be able to stick the Bales, the Peyresourde, the Azet, the Aspin and the Tourmalet all within two days. That amount of unoriginality in pyrenees stage design is even bad for Tour standards. But yeah, taking that part aside I actually think that's a good very good final block of mountain stages.
 
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I think Carapaz will do the Giro he was promised this year, especially considering the ITTs at the Tour. Thomas and Tao will go for the Tour and Bernal will depend on his recovery and what he wants.
I would say Tao for the Giro. He'd be going there as defending champ and could do a "co-leadership" deal with Carapaz. How often does a rider like Tao get to win a GT? And then return and wear number 1 the following year?

Tao could then get his well-earned Tour ride as one of the last mountain doms for Bernal/G, and Carapaz can ride the Vuelta (where, y'never know, he may yet be defending champ too).
 
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I'm still kinda unsure what to think of the final mountain stage to Luz Ardiden instead of Bagargui. On one hand, on paper those three pyrenees stages look pretty great and considering there will be a rest day after the Andorra stage they even got the order right. On the other hand it's the most ASO thing ever that they could be able to stick the Bales, the Peyresourde, the Azet, the Aspin and the Tourmalet all within two days. That amount of unoriginality in pyrenees stage design is even bad for Tour standards. But yeah, taking that part aside I actually think that's a good very good final block of mountain stages.
I'll somewhat settle for them doing their incredibly unimatinative vanilla stages somewhat right.
 
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Puy Mary I don't mind cause it's a medium mountain stage where it's not all that common to have guaranteed action let alone a lot of action at all. Col de la Loze was the single worst MTF they could've had in that location even though it could be legendary as a pass.

if the rider would actually RACE instead of sucking wheel until 2km to go, Loze would work fine.

Evenepoel would go a long way to bringing back excitement to mountain stages as he at least has shown to attack from a long way out, much like Contador did
 
Is it not a bit late for a TTT, especially of that length. I feel TTTs shouldn't be later than stage 3 myself as crashes or abandons can seriously affect them
It was stage 9, 28km, with an uphill finish in 2015. They'd already had stages on a Dutch a lovely person, the Muur de Huy, cobbles, and Mur de Bretagne before they got to the TTT. 15 prior abandons.




Something's gone wrong with the wording of my post, but I can't quite put my finger on it...
 
It was stage 9, 28km, with an uphill finish in 2015. They'd already had stages on a Dutch a lovely person, the Muur de Huy, cobbles, and Mur de Bretagne before they got to the TTT. 15 prior abandons.




Something's gone wrong with the wording of my post, but I can't quite put my finger on it...

Ya, that was also stupidly late imo. First 3 stages are ideal as unless there's a complete disaster of crashes, you'll only be down a few people. With teams of 8, losing two riders would be a disaster for a GC contender in a TTT. I don't like seeing someone lose their GC chances cos of misfortune like that. I'd rather the 50k ITT than a TTT even if both are not ideal imo
 
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One beer or as many as possible? If it's the latter, there could be a lot of WT spots available for new riders in 2022. That's not necessarily a bad thing. Adam Hansen would reconsider his Ironman plans.
Standard neutral support race-issue bidon full of beer, min 5% abv, cap off.
Riders line up in order. 3-2-1-Tap. The first rider drinks the entire contents of his bidon. When there is nothing but foam left, he tips it over his head. This is the signal for the next rider to start drinking. 8 beers must be drunk; if there are less than 8 riders available, the team nominates riders to drink 1 extra beer each. If less than 4 are available, the team nominates a rider to drink 3, etc.
 
I'm still kinda unsure what to think of the final mountain stage to Luz Ardiden instead of Bagargui. On one hand, on paper those three pyrenees stages look pretty great and considering there will be a rest day after the Andorra stage they even got the order right. On the other hand it's the most ASO thing ever that they could be able to stick the Bales, the Peyresourde, the Azet, the Aspin and the Tourmalet all within two days. That amount of unoriginality in pyrenees stage design is even bad for Tour standards. But yeah, taking that part aside I actually think that's a good very good final block of mountain stages.
Depends on what a Bagargui stage would look like, but Tourmalet>Luz Ardiden is pretty solid.
 
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if the rumored Pyrenees come to pass, we are going to need 2 very long iTTs to provide any balance. It may still tip to the climbers.

Reminds me of 2007 where the Pailheres/Plaueau de Beille stage (which also contained a cat 2) was considered the EASY stage in the Pyrenees. During the last few years, we'd be saying that was the Queen Stage
 
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