Tour de France Tour de France 2022 route rumors thread.

[houtdffan]

It doesn't explain:

• Why ASO have lowered the threshold for HC/cat. 1 climbs without increasing the amount they put in a race
• Why the average mountain stage length decreases every year
• Why we barely have stages with a difficult start anymore. Aigle, Morzine and Albertville are all surrounded by good climbs so they can't blame it on the stage host locations
• Why the race has to have a HC MTF or a TT on Stage 20 (the only exception in the past 20 years is 2016)
• Why the order of mountain stages is wrong every single year
• Why good options are deliberately skipped, e.g. not finishing on the PBF gravel ramp, not having a flat stage into Liège, not having any climbs before weak MTFs like Orcières or Mégève when there's plenty of options

And quite a few other things, but this post is long enough...

If you go back to the Jean Marie LeBlanc days when Prudhomme was designing the course, there were usually only 21-23 cat 2 or higher climbs in the tour. Goveneou has increased the number. He just reduced the number of very hard mountain stages

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Okay, but so how does it work? I mean the places / cities won't really pay for passing through them, they will pay for being finish, right? And there will be a limited number of places willing to pay enormous sums just for that, anyway. Also, the shorter the stages are, the less roads you have to close...

What's changed in this regard relative to 10 or 20 years ago? Or compared to Italy, where half the country is broke, half the roads are in poor repair, mayors force reroutes days in advance, yet RCS mostly avoids the issues omnipresent in ASO designs?

 

[Samu Cuenca]

What's changed in this regard relative to 10 or 20 years ago? Or compared to Italy, where half the country is broke, half the roads are in poor repair, mayors force reroutes days in advance, yet RCS mostly avoids the issues omnipresent in ASO designs?

I guess it makes a difference that ASO/TV covers the stages in full nowadays.
That obviously isn't the only reason, though.

 

[Ricco']

Can we still change?

 

[tobydawq]

This must be the worst day of the year on this forum. Good thing I'm on holiday...

 

[Devil's Elbow]

I guess it makes a difference that ASO/TV covers the stages in full nowadays.

So does RCS/RAI. When it doesn't rain, at least.

 

[OlavEH]

• Why ASO have lowered the threshold for HC/cat. 1 climbs without increasing the amount they put in a race
• Why the average mountain stage length decreases every year
• Why we barely have stages with a difficult start anymore. Aigle, Morzine and Albertville are all surrounded by good climbs so they can't blame it on the stage host locations
• Why the race has to have a HC MTF or a TT on Stage 20 (the only exception in the past 20 years is 2016)
• Why the order of mountain stages is wrong every single year
• Why good options are deliberately skipped, e.g. not finishing on the PBF gravel ramp, not having a flat stage into Liège, not having any climbs before weak MTFs like Orcières or Mégève when there's plenty of options

And quite a few other things, but this post is long enough...

And ASO doesn't have a scope that narrow that there are no room for adjustments. The developement we've seen the last decade with the ramp on PDFB, Col de Portet, Col de la Loze, etc., are very likely to somewhat degree initiated by ASO wanted to do something more spectacular. If they really wanted to, they could've created a route that would have spawned a lot more excitement among cycling fans without using millions of euros to upgrade various goat paths or losing millions of euros by skipping lucrative stage finishes.

 

[gregrowlerson]

It doesn't explain:

• Why ASO have lowered the threshold for HC/cat. 1 climbs without increasing the amount they put in a race
• Why the average mountain stage length decreases every year
• Why we barely have stages with a difficult start anymore. Aigle, Morzine and Albertville are all surrounded by good climbs so they can't blame it on the stage host locations
• Why the race has to have a HC MTF or a TT on Stage 20 (the only exception in the past 20 years is 2016)
• Why the order of mountain stages is wrong every single year
• Why good options are deliberately skipped, e.g. not finishing on the PBF gravel ramp, not having a flat stage into Liège, not having any climbs before weak MTFs like Orcières or Mégève when there's plenty of options

And quite a few other things, but this post is long enough...

I like long posts.

Some don't though. They say "Too Long, Didn't Read" (TLDR).

Christian Prudhomme seems to think it's Too Long, Don't Ride.

CP as he is also known. Or to us as something else. There's a valley in-between that start and finish.

 

[Samamba]

So almost every mountain stage has a flat start (apart from 1)? Once again... Man I hate this trend. Weak ass breaks with 1 or 2 proper climbers going to the finish line.

And *** all those junior length stages.

 

[gregrowlerson]

It's in the bag.

What's in the bag?

I've finally got the answer. It's Nibali's balls.

'He' is going to enter the other race next year. For the 175 kms stage.

 

[OlavEH]

Not much of a route for the sprinter's though. Between stage 5 and 18, there is proably only two stages that will end in a mass sprint (if the Saint-Etienne stage is flat).

 

[Samu Cuenca]

So does RCS/RAI. When it doesn't rain, at least.

Still it seems that they have found a way here to save money. Next step will be to pressure the UCI into to cutting the teams down to 7 riders, so the hotel bills can get smaller. Then they will probably use the extra money to build a new ascent called "La Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious La Planche Des Belles Filles".

 

[Samamba]

Not much of a route for the sprinter's though. Between stage 5 and 18, there is proably only two stages that will end in a mass sprint (if the Saint-Etienne stage is flat).

Perfect for Merlier, he can just take a flight home instead of France after the Denmark sprint stages.

 

[Red Rick]

Perfect for Merlier, he can just take a flight home instead of France after the Denmark sprint stages.

Be back home in time for the Kermisses and ***

 

[Bolder]

I'm definitely in the minority in liking shorter stages, within reason. I'm not convinced that a long stage doesn't mean it's just ridden slower before the action begins. And a break might have a better chance to feature in the ending, if not survive...

 

[Netserk]

This must be the worst day of the year on this forum. Good thing I'm on holiday...

I'm sure you have route preferences as well, and do you think the overall route of the Tour is getting better year after year, or is the overall trend negative in your opinion?

 

[solo80k]

Pogi should try Tour Vuelta double next year. This is way too easy for him unless he crashes on cobblestones.

 

[Max Rockatansky]

To be honest, I haven’t examined the route other than the alps so far but this sounds like a course Jean Marie LeBlanc came out of retirement just to give his approval for.

Oh those LeBlanc first weeks of one long flat stage after the other. Followed by a long flat itt.

 

[Red Rick]

I'm sure you have route preferences as well, and do you think the overall route of the Tour is getting better year after year, or is the overall trend negative in your opinion?

Nah it's just always negative when you ignore the times it's positive.

 

[Zoetemelk-fan]

Just tuned in - speaking the rumours of the l'Alpe d'Huez and a spectacle stage, I was reeally hoping for a La Marmotte stage, i.e. Bourg d'Oissans - Col du Glandon - Col du Télégraphe - Col du Galibier - l'Alpe d'Huez - (+5500hm in just 174K).
Now all the "hard" stages are ~150k short, i.e. no endurance races making it suitable for the hardmen stamina guys.
Bring at least one mammoth +260K Argelés-Gazost - Pamplona stage in with 7 mountains followed by 100 k pursuit in +46°C (like the one in 1996), please.
This presented 2022 route seems more suited and designed for a certain Frenchman...(sorry).

 

[tobydawq]

I'm sure you have route preferences as well, and do you think the overall route of the Tour is getting better year after year, or is the overall trend negative in your opinion?

I don't think it's negative at all. But I think it's impossible to have a discussion with that point of view here, because every time ASO are about to announce a route most people have been honing their farmer's weapons and megaphones and begin shouting OMG, Not Good Enough, That stage is too short, Those two stages should be switched, Too few TT kms, Planche des Belles Filles is crap because LS says so, That mountain would have been better than this and so on and so on, automatically. If there is a good stage in the eyes of the CN mob it gets ignored because it's not cool to express an ounce of satisfaction on this day. The negativity is infinitely more annoying than the racing which could be good. It was the same before the Worlds with OMG, I can climb that climb, what is it doing on a Worlds course? and then, when the racing ended up good, it was lucky because no race organiser ever knows what they're doing at all.

 

[roundabout]

also Chatel and Mende are the most challenging looking weekend stages (unless the weather plays along in Denmark). have ASO realized that the product that they are putting out is not good and gave up on competing for weekend viewership?

 

[Netserk]

I don't think it's negative at all. But I think it's impossible to have a discussion with that point of view here, because every time ASO are about to announce a route most people have been honing their farmer's weapons and mehaphones and begin shouting OMG, Not Good Enough, That stage is too short, Those two stages should be switched, Too few TT kms, Planche des Belles Filles is crap because LS says so, That mountain would hsve been better than this and so on and so on, automatically. If there is a good stage in the eyes of the CN mob it gets ignored because it's not cool to express an ounce of satisfaction on this day. The negativity is infinitely more annoying than the racing which could be good. It was the same before the Worlds with OMG, I can climb that climb, what is it doing on a Worlds course? and then, when the racing ended up good, it was lucky because no race organiser ever knows what they're doing at all.

I have expressed satisfaction in this thread. I still think it's tragic that most of the mountain stages start with 50 km of flat roads, and I would prefer more flat stages that I could just ignore and not watch if it meant that there would be one or two giant mountain stages. Is that really so unreasonable? As I suggested a few days ago, they could easily start the Hautacam stage with climbing Soulor. I'm not asking for perfection.

 

[gregrowlerson]

Oh those LeBlanc first weeks of one long flat stage after the other. Followed by a long flat itt.

Painting can be boring.

But it can look good afterwards.

 

[tobydawq]

I have expressed satisfaction in this thread. I still think it's tragic that most of the mountain stages start with 50 km of flat roads, and I would prefer more flat stages that I could just ignore and not watch if it meant that there would be one or two giant mountain stages. Is that really so unreasonable? As I suggested a few days ago, they could easily start the Hautacam stage with climbing Soulor. I'm not asking for perfection.

But what is the problem with the flat starts? On most of those stages, the break cannot establish itself before the first mountain anyway, which makes the racing even harder than if it's just a W/kg slugfest from the beginning.

Edit: okay, "most", is - admittedly - perhaps stretching things a bit.