Tour de France 2021 route rumors

[gavia88]

I guess the final climbs themselves are probably decent climbs for like 5-10km attacks

That is the only good thing I can think of.

wow Rick seeing positive points in this route, the only good surprise of this route presentation so far

 

[Koronin]

Interesting tweet from Movistar on this route. Basically they are happy about all the stages close to Spain and Andorra and are hoping all the fans can be there next year.

 

[gavia88]

I guess the final climbs themselves are probably decent climbs for like 5-10km attacks

That is the only good thing I can think of.

well, maybe you are right here, they even have to attack. As stages are very light, and there are barely stages to attack, they can't waste opportunities

 

[fuiers]

Just the out of curiosity what did the forum think of the 2020 route for comparison?

 

[Red Rick]

Just the out of curiosity what did the forum think of the 2020 route for comparison?

Hated it.

But then again that should come as a surprise to nobody, I hate pretty much all Tour routes.

 

[roundabout]

I guess the final climbs themselves are probably decent climbs for like 5-10km attacks

That is the only good thing I can think of.

The stages themselves aren't that difficult to wear out the superteams though

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Just the out of curiosity what did the forum think of the 2020 route for comparison?

Can only speak for myself. Didn't like it, but it was clearly better than this. More sprints and weaker mountains than last year.

 

[gavia88]

Just the out of curiosity what did the forum think of the 2020 route for comparison?

Hated it.

But then again that should come as a surprise to nobody, I hate pretty much all Tour routes.

well, compared to this route, last year the route was briliant in retroperspective hahaha

I think this route easily beats 2012 in being horrible

 

[Red Rick]

The stages themselves aren't that difficult to wear out the superteams though

Gonna need your own team to murder the first 3rd of the Ventoux and hope to die the least.

If they just let you go laughing watching their own stems, then oopsie

 

[Netserk]

Ventoux is nice. Portet and Luz-Ardiden are good (less so the stages they are in). They are getting closer to an acceptable amount of ITT.

I would really like to like this route.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

The tragedy is the time we get a nice Andorra option, it comes at the start of a mountain block of hard MTFs that will likely prevent any racing.

On the plus side, probably only one stage for Sepp Kuss, so hopefully we won't have to put up with him sitting there doing straight up nothing, killing racing while everybody rides along with the third best Jumbo rider throughout the whole three weeks again.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

well, maybe you are right here, they even have to attack. As stages are very light, and there are barely stages to attack, they can't waste opportunities

Well unless Jumbo have the yellow jersey on all the mountain stages. It probably comes down to Evenepoel (if he's there) or Alaphilippe being at Tour-winning level to prevent that.

 

[Red Rick]

well, compared to this route, last year the route was briliant in retroperspective hahaha

I think this route easily beats 2012 in being horrible

I don't think anything will ever beat 2012 for sheer horror.

I think this is terrible, but it still beats 2009, 2012, 2017 and 2019

 

[Mayomaniac]

Lol

https://twitter.com/x/status/1323003099515179012

 

[Red Rick]

The tragedy is the time we get a nice Andorra option, it comes at the start of a mountain block of hard MTFs that will likely prevent any racing.

On the plus side, probably only one stage for Sepp Kuss, so hopefully we won't have to put up with him sitting there doing straight up nothing, killing racing while everybody rides along with the third best Jumbo rider throughout the whole three weeks again.

Do not despair

The Rider of Rohan will come to aid in the most desperate hour.

 

[Mayomaniac]

The tragedy is the time we get a nice Andorra option, it comes at the start of a mountain block of hard MTFs that will likely prevent any racing.

On the plus side, probably only one stage for Sepp Kuss, so hopefully we won't have to put up with him sitting there doing straight up nothing, killing racing while everybody rides along with the third best Jumbo rider throughout the whole three weeks again.

Your Sepp Kuss hate is funny, but he probably just repeated what a stupid Rabo ds told him.
Besides that, we all know that that tryhard George Bennett is the actual root of all evil.

 

[jnormanroach]

Alaphilippe FTW?

 

[guncha]

I like this route because it is well balanced for the first time since 2016. 58km of ITT is OK. I like that it has three 200km+ stages and one at 199km.
First week is decent, because it only has three stages for sprinters. I like first two stages in Brittany, ITT and Le Creusot. Given the stage finish locations Alps are fine too . Loving Mont Ventoux stage. Quillan is better than rumored because it has nice climb 17km before finish. Andorra is also better than rumored because it has Beixalis. Portet and Luz Ardiden stages are fine too.
I would give it 7 or 8 because I would have liked to see MTF in Andorra. I also don't like sequence of stages (Grand Bornard should be after MTF, Quillan is placed before mountain stage). Also just one MTF in first 16 days...

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Your Sepp Kuss hate is funny, but he probably just repeated what a stupid Rabo ds told him.
Besides that, we all know that that tryhard George Bennett is the actual root of all evil.

The way Jumbo use, or rather won't use, Kuss, is the real evil rather than him himself, but it's hard not to hold it against him as the embodiment of what the problem is, especially when he talks smack not againt his opponents, but against the very concept of racing.

 

[Mayomaniac]

The way Jumbo use, or rather won't use, Kuss, is the real evil rather than him himself, but it's hard not to hold it against him as the embodiment of what the problem is, especially when he talks smack not againt his opponents, but against the very concept of racing.

Jumbo's way of racing is pretty much "2012 Purito if he had the Skytrain"...

 

[hrotha]

Controversial opinion:
2012 route >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> this

 

[Big Doopie]

And exactly how many TT kms do you need to crown the best overall rider. If Bernal won a TDF with one minute on Dumoulin after loosing 5 mins in 60k of ITT and beating him with 6 mins in the mountain, would that make him an unworthy winner since there wasn't more TT kms?

No. It wouldn’t.

It would make him in fact far worthier than most recent winners (himself included!).

Speaking of which. Glad to see the TDF has added KMs of ITT. And yet still not this fabled 60 of which you speak.

However with 60 KMs of ITT I doubt we would be talking about Yates, Lopez, Landa etc as anything other than top ten material.

With 60kms of ITT Bernal doesn’t win 2019 (a TDF which most now realize was weak on competition).

 

[johnymax]

I came with low expectations and am still disappointed.

You don't like those descent finishes?

 

[Descender]

I can only name three good things about this route, and they're all dampened by something else...

• I count four descent finishes
• Ventoux stage is nice, and something different for once
• 58km ITT, some of it early

Negatives:

• ITT over two stages. Why??? I'd pay to see one 58km ITT
• It should be a law that you have to climb at least Peyresourde and Aspin before Tourmalet and Luz Ardiden. That stage is a bad joke. Hell, even the cancelled Vuelta stage with Portalet+Aubisque+Tourmalet had more bite.
• Apart from Ventoux, all mountain stages are underwhelming. Too short or too light on climbing.
• MTF are too hard. By all means, do Luz or Tignes or Portet. Don't do all in the same Tour as the only true MTF.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Jumbo's way of racing is pretty much "2012 Purito if he had the Skytrain"...

Addy Engels is cycling's answer to Jose Mourinho back in his heyday. Amass a world class team of superstars, then set them to work playing 10 men behind the ball, 1-0 football. There is literally zero concept of the idea of using world class climber helpers to attack, they have two tactics:

• everybody ride formation at the speed of the third best rider, keeping Sepp Kuss fresh to deter anybody from attacking
• everybody ride on the front and then set up Roglič to... follow people.

The former is preferred because the latter actually led to interesting racing. Literally there is a direct relationship between Sepp Kuss being dropped and actually entertaining stages. Get rid of him, and cycling gets much better. You know, like how people countered the idea of ending the never-ending-final-set system at Wimbledon with just banning John Isner? Whether it's his fault or not, solve the parcours issues and ban Sepp, and I think we have an instant improvement in the quality of racing.