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Tour de France 2021 route rumors

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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.



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%.
Throwback to the Sierra Nevada choo choo train of 2017
 
What's the stage to St Gaudens supposed to be? Your average Pau bunch sprint/Lourdes 90km after Aubisque replacement?

Also have there ever been plans/rumors to pave Pic du Midi?
I think the most sensible design is Envalira -> Port -> Portet-d'Aspet -> Saint-Gaudens.

An easier version of the 2009 stage:

tour-de-france-2009-stage-8-profile-8ec177b05b.jpg
 
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One climb I don't understand never seeing is Val Pelouse

I don't think there's anything up there anymore. And when they have so many ski resorts available as MTFs that are will to splash the cash, they'll go with those.

Collet d'Allevard or Pipay/Prapoutel, on the other hand really should make an appearance in the TDF at some point. Just look at stage 7 of the Dauphine 2019. You can chain them really nicely and better than at the Dauphiné, too.
 
That Envalira - Ordino - Cabus stage sounds absolutely horrendous. I know we've seen worse mountain stages but considering just how many climbs there are in this region this is really bad. If you told me to make a mountain stage in Andorra using two passes and a mtf, I'd genuinely struggle to find a worse route.

It will come before a restday, maybe that will save it, but it's still incredibly underwhelming. I mean is there a single spot in that whole stage where the gradients are higher than 10%?
 
I don't think there's anything up there anymore. And when they have so many ski resorts available as MTFs that are will to splash the cash, they'll go with those.

Collet d'Allevard or Pipay/Prapoutel, on the other hand really should make an appearance in the TDF at some point. Just look at stage 7 of the Dauphine 2019. You can chain them really nicely and better than at the Dauphiné, too.

I think there is nothing at the top of Port de Cabús as well, but it's still rumored as a finish.
 
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Cabús has 1 km of 10 %.

Pal and Arcalis would be worse. Rabassa about the same, maybe a bit worse.
Arcalis is probably worse but not by a lot. Kinda forgot how bad Rabassa is as a mtf as the beginning is rather steep. I guess also because it was actually really good in the 2018 Vuelta, but that was 100% down to awesomeness by Yates. It's really mostly Ordino instead of Beixalis that is bothering me massively. That's such an easy fix to make the stage better. But then I'm also thinking, why not just take a detour and climb Gallina or what do I know. Just anything more than Envalira and Ordino
 
Arcalis is probably worse but not by a lot. Kinda forgot how bad Rabassa is as a mtf as the beginning is rather steep. I guess also because it was actually really good in the 2018 Vuelta, but that was 100% down to awesomeness by Yates. It's really mostly Ordino instead of Beixalis that is bothering me massively. That's such an easy fix to make the stage better. But then I'm also thinking, why not just take a detour and climb Gallina or what do I know. Just anything more than Envalira and Ordino
2018 Rabassa was also due to how fast they did the flat because Movistar wanted to get the bonus seconds on the bottom. Considering the shortness of the stage and the overall 1850m net height gain, a 41km/h average was insane.
 

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