Besides, the stage designs for the high mountains (not looking to promissing, well we discussed the Andorra stage already, than the queen stage, with by far the most difficult climb as finish, and 3 mountaintop finishes in the last part of the tour and Tinges from the North), I'm also wondering how interesting stages besides the high mountains will be. Last years especially, it seemed that ASO at least developed more interest in the stage design for medium mountain and hilly stages, with even some nice designs. However, with the rumoured stages, it will be more difficult:
stage 1: flat or maximum slighly hilly with finish for strong sprinter punchers
stage 2: puncheurs
stage 3: flat
stage 4: flat
stage 5: time trail
stage 6: flat
stage 7: could be intersting .... is signal d'Uchon ASO proof?
stage 8: downhill finish, but how difficult will the stage be in total and how much will next stage block any action?
stage 9: Tignes from the North is dificult to make interesting
rest
stage 10: sprint or a breakaway stage
stage 11: downhill mont Ventoux (question here is, will there be other difficulties besides Ventoux, and does that actually matter as focus will be on Ventoux anyway)
stage 12: flat (sprint)
stage 13: flat (sprint) (at least some changes for echelons)
stage 14: big question? sprint seems unlikely. So, could be hilly or a Pescheux special with Pailhares.
stage 15: the big Andorra stage
rest
stage 16: Envalira + completely sprint or a kind of 2009 version
stage 17: queen stage
stage 18: last mountain stage
stage 19: flat (sprint)
stage 20: time trail
stage 21: flat (sprint)