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Tour de France 2021 route rumors

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I agree on a guy like MAL who really can't time trial at all. But Bernal is at least a halfway descent time trialist, and is IMO a just as worthy TDF-winner asThomas or Dumoulin.

Bernal is a proven stage race winner, but I think that Tour has a bit of an * next to it, not only because of the altered route, but because there was no Froome, Dumoulin, Roglic, Pogacar. Time may tell us that this was a weak field, if it hasn't already.

That isn't to say that I don't think that Egan could win a TDF with a significant amount of time trialling. He is still very young and it's possible that he could get close to a Contador level in that discipline.
 
You have to add a real shitload of mountains to balance something like 110-120 km of flat ITT. Then we need at least 4-5 real monster mountain stages, and most of them should be designed for something more than attacks on the last few kms of the stage.
Yo
And what's wrong with being a skinny girl?
Nothing but IT should Not be the only requirement to win Gts
 
They would put way more than that into Ganna. But one-dimensional climbers have a birthright to contend for the overall GC, right?

Well, there is for instance a WC TT and an OTT especially for time trial specialists. The GTs are more for climbers... since a long time. It should not be about climbing alone, but it rarely has been. The last GTs have just been decided by time trialing and my strong guess would be that the Vuelta will be, too.
 
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No, we don't. If the all the riders are in equally good form, it's not like Carapaz, Bernal, MAL would manage to gain perhaps 6-8 minutes on Dumoulin, Roglic, etc., in the mountains. But if you have two very long ITTs like 50 kms each, Tom Dumoulin may very well beat the aforementioned climbers with at least 3-4 minutes in each ITT, perhaps more.

and then like Cadel in 2007, he may lose 2 minutes or more on a MTF because the climbers actually have to attack more than 1km from the finish
 
You have to add a real shitload of mountains to balance something like 110-120 km of flat ITT. Then we need at least 4-5 real monster mountain stages, and most of them should be designed for something more than attacks on the last few kms of the stage.

The Portet stage is the same level of difficulty as the 2001 and 2005 Pla D'Adet (Portet) stages. The leaders reached the bottom of the Portet in 1s and 2s. The peloton disintegrated on the Peyresourde and Val-Louron Azet
 
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and then like Cadel in 2007, he may lose 2 minutes or more on a MTF because the climbers actually have to attack more than 1km from the finish

I don't know. This year some guys knew from the start they would have to attack early in order to gain time before the time trial, Lopez most of all. But did they do it? No. They probably couldn't rather than did not want to, but anyway nobody attacks early anymore who's not a great time trialist, too.
 
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and then like Cadel in 2007, he may lose 2 minutes or more on a MTF because the climbers actually have to attack more than 1km from the finish
The Portet stage is the same level of difficulty as the 2001 and 2005 Pla D'Adet (Portet) stages. The leaders reached the bottom of the Portet in 1s and 2s. The peloton disintegrated on the Peyresourde and Val-Louron Azet
Is there anyone in the field at the same level in the mountains as Rasmussen or Contador in 2007?

Yeah, the Portet stage is tough. But a rider like Tom Dumoulin in peak form would never loose 8 minutes combined to Bernal or Carapaz in the mountains in the two finishes at Luz Ardiden and Portet. If we had 2 or 3 equally tough stages in the Alps, I would tend to agree with you, but not with the rumours that circulate at the moment. At a maximum something like 70 km ITT, no way wee need 100+.
 
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But they only ended up paving the whole thing prior to 2018, right?
Wasn't Portet in a similar state to Finestre?

Anyhow, for me the issue probably isn't MTFs, cause then you can largely follow the Vuelta formula of asphalting goat tracks in bum *** nowhere.

Better would be if they paved some of the huge passes they have that aren't raceable now but could be, especailly in the Alps. Also some of the Giro monsters are well available to the Tour should they get like one stage finish in Italy. And I guess there's a few climbs like Col de Granon where there's a road on the other side (i think) but probably not suitable for a road bike if bikes at all I can't see on google earth.

In general the issue isn't so much they don't have the passes, it's that those passes aren't in the well paying parts of the mountains in France.
 
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Wasn't Portet in a similar state to Finestre?

Anyhow, for me the issue probably isn't MTFs, cause then you can largely follow the Vuelta formula of asphalting goat tracks in bum *** nowhere.

Better would be if they paved some of the huge passes they have that aren't raceable now but could be, especailly in the Alps. Also some of the Giro monsters are well available to the Tour should they get like one stage finish in Italy. And I guess there's a few climbs like Col de Granon where there's a road on the other side (i think) but probably not suitable for a road bike if bikes at all I can't see on google earth.

In general the issue isn't so much they don't have the passes, it's that those passes aren't in the well paying parts of the mountains in France.
They do have the Col de la Loze now, which can also be used as a pass. That's something.

And generally I feel like the ASO has actually tried to find new, or bring back old, really hard passes these last few years. The Grand Colombier has become somewhat of a regular Tour climb, they've introduced the Plauteau de Glieres and the Mont du Chat as their weak men's Mortirolos. It's just that they are lacking a real Mortirolo. If France had a climb like Punta Veleno or something similar, where all they would need would be some fresh tarmac and they would have themselves a new Tour icon, they probably wouldn't hesitate a second. But as it stands they have to build roads that are entirely new and who wants to make that sort of investment? Realistically there are bigger problems in the world than the Tour using a 15 km at 7% climb instead of a 20 km at 7.5% climb.

I also don't really agree that the hard climbs just aren't in the well paying regions. It's true that pretty much the entire French Alps south of the Col de Vars are underused but really those climbs aren't any harder than the ones in the north. It's mostly the Bonette and the Lombarda that I really wish we would see more often, but aside from that all those climbs are the same 10-15km at 7% monotony that we have throughout the entire French Alps and Pyrenees. And really while Bonette and Lombarda are cool, there are many climbs harder than those elswhere too.
 
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They do have the Col de la Loze now, which can also be used as a pass. That's something.

And generally I feel like the ASO has actually tried to find new, or bring back old, really hard passes these last few years. The Grand Colombier has become somewhat of a regular Tour climb, they've introduced the Plauteau de Glieres and the Mont du Chat as their weak men's Mortirolos. It's just that they are lacking a real Mortirolo. If France had a climb like Punta Veleno or something similar, where all they would need would be some fresh tarmac and they would have themselves a new Tour icon, they probably wouldn't hesitate a second. But as it stands they have to build roads that are entirely new and who wants to make that sort of investment? Realistically there are bigger problems in the world than the Tour using a 15 km at 7% climb instead of a 20 km at 7.5% climb.

I also don't really agree that the hard climbs just aren't in the well paying regions. It's true that pretty much the entire French Alps south of the Col de Vars are underused but really those climbs aren't any harder than the ones in the north. It's mostly the Bonette and the Lombarda that I really wish we would see more often, but aside from that all those climbs are the same 10-15km at 7% monotony that we have throughout the entire French Alps and Pyrenees. And really while Bonette and Lombarda are cool, there are many climbs harder than those elswhere too.
Tbh I reach my annual quotum of talking about Col de Rosael by March every year
 
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They do have the Col de la Loze now, which can also be used as a pass. That's something.

And generally I feel like the ASO has actually tried to find new, or bring back old, really hard passes these last few years. The Grand Colombier has become somewhat of a regular Tour climb, they've introduced the Plauteau de Glieres and the Mont du Chat as their weak men's Mortirolos. It's just that they are lacking a real Mortirolo. If France had a climb like Punta Veleno or something similar, where all they would need would be some fresh tarmac and they would have themselves a new Tour icon, they probably wouldn't hesitate a second. But as it stands they have to build roads that are entirely new and who wants to make that sort of investment? Realistically there are bigger problems in the world than the Tour using a 15 km at 7% climb instead of a 20 km at 7.5% climb.

I also don't really agree that the hard climbs just aren't in the well paying regions. It's true that pretty much the entire French Alps south of the Col de Vars are underused but really those climbs aren't any harder than the ones in the north. It's mostly the Bonette and the Lombarda that I really wish we would see more often, but aside from that all those climbs are the same 10-15km at 7% monotony that we have throughout the entire French Alps and Pyrenees. And really while Bonette and Lombarda are cool, there are many climbs harder than those elswhere too.

well, they definitely change compared to the Peschaux years. Gouvenou used quite some new climbs, or climbs that hasn't been used for a while. So, I don't think there is theHowever, stage design wise there are still possibilities for improvement.
The article mentions Ordino.
Of course I'd prefer Beixalis, but what can you do?


considering that ASO barely has reel tappones the last couple of years, I wouldn't be surprised that baixalis is seen as to hard in a stage like this (with already so many mountains). But Ordino is really nothing special. Ok, Baixalis, is not super ultra spectacular neither, but at least some real steep kilometers to split the field already before the finale climb. I guess that the whole stage will easily have 60+ or even 70 kilometers of climbing, and none of those kilometers will be reaching 10%.
 
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