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Tour de France Tour de France 2022 route rumors thread.

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railxmig

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I dunno what Mont-Saint-Clair has to do with anything here. I believe the Hérault dep is right now heavy into ecology and as we all know le Tour is the "biggest enemy" in the eyes of ecologists. Even when recently le Tour was passing through the dep it was deeper in the region. I think within the next couple of years the only places that may be interested in hosting te race would be Béziers (nearby Cazouls-lès-Béziers is interested so it may be an alternative to Narbonne) and maybe some smaller towns deeper in the dep like Lodève, Gignac or Clermont-l'Hérault. From these three previously only Lodève had a Tour (all starts i believe). Rather than with Mont-Saint-Clair you can play around with Lodève (Col du Vent, Col de la Baraque de Bral, Col de Labeil? or any of the Navacelles climbs).
 
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railxmig

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Unterlenkerfahrend said:
With the rumours of stage 4 finishing in Wallers and will include cobbles does someone have a suggestion of how many kilometers or how many passages of cobbles we could expect based on potential profils in this region?
Click to expand...
I guess similar to that rain soaked 2014 stage but longer (160-190km) as it could start from Calais or Dunkerque if Côte d'Opale stage before is real.
 
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Fyr3

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Froome said:
It would be the only way to bernal beat the slovenians, but they are better than him in everything.
Click to expand...

In time trial certainly but Bernal has excellent bike handling so would likely do quite well on cobbles, and we also haven't seen them do a similar season since 2020. Remember that year that in the Tour de l'Ain Bernal was only a handful of seconds behind on the road, and he was plagued by his back issues after a solid first week, so its hardly like we have seen a top level Bernal with a similar preparation go up against the Slovenians proper. For all we know he might be not quite at their level but close enough that a bit of luck, good tactics and cobbles might see him come out on top.

All we really have to go on at the moment is a Vuelta where Bernal had already won the Giro so he had a completely different race calendar to Roglic, and Bernal is nowhere near as suited to the Vuelta parcours as a Giro or Tour when it comes to the climbing.
 
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Escarabajo

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Bernal is like a Nibali type of rider. I was thinking that he has excellent bike handling skills and is very resourceful in classic type of stages. If he is fit to compete. That and big altitude (usually long) mountains.
Strade Bianche, Giro, descending almost everywhere, etc.

Another option is if the Slovenians lower their level. Is not far fetched that it could happen. This is a sport of many, many variables and still anything can happen.
 
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railxmig

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It seems some here are reacting like cobbles have never been in the Tour. Quite some time passed since 2014 and there were cobbles in 2015 and 2018 and like 90% (including freaking Quintana and Landa) of favourites were together. The chance of rain there in July is quite slim so we've been quite spoiled 7 years ago.

As for Bernal being the best in cobbles... i may believe in this. The guy was slightly better than Poga in Strade while having pre-Giro shape and Poga in "Poga smash these fools. Poga strongest there is!" mode.
 
johnymax

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railxmig said:
It seems some here are reacting like cobbles have never been in the Tour. Quite some time passed since 2014 and there were cobbles in 2015 and 2018 and like 90% (including freaking Quintana and Landa) of favourites were together. The chance of rain there in July is quite slim so we've been quite spoiled 7 years ago.

As for Bernal being the best in cobbles... i may believe in this. The guy was slightly better than Poga in Strade while having pre-Giro shape and Poga in "Poga smash these fools. Poga strongest there is!" mode.
Click to expand...
Roglič was also there in 2018 and did pretty well.
 
Libertine Seguros

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Red Rick said:
Which one? La Crashique or stage 7? Or the early hilltop finishes?
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2x stages that weren't pure sprint stages on the opening weekend
Early time trial to sort contenders from pretenders
Attempts where possible to bait echelons, then you're at the mercy of the weather
250km intermediate stage - perfectly placed immediately before the mountains to ensure fatigue a factor even if the bunch didn't want to race it (which they did)

That's a pretty good recipe for a week 1 truth be told. The spectator sign crash was not something ASO could really have planned for, and while you can do your best to avoid it, crashes in week 1 of the Tour, where everybody still has something to protect and the importance of the race means every team is trying to crowd to the front at all times to keep their leaders safe, are kind of inevitable. Trying to force reappraisals with GC gaps created by puncheur stages and an ITT is pretty reasonable.
 
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topcat

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railxmig said:
It seems some here are reacting like cobbles have never been in the Tour. Quite some time passed since 2014 and there were cobbles in 2015 and 2018 and like 90% (including freaking Quintana and Landa) of favourites were together. The chance of rain there in July is quite slim so we've been quite spoiled 7 years ago.

As for Bernal being the best in cobbles... i may believe in this. The guy was slightly better than Poga in Strade while having pre-Giro shape and Poga in "Poga smash these fools. Poga strongest there is!" mode.
Click to expand...
Red Rick said:
Good old cobbles not enough favorites crashed out this year.
Click to expand...
Cobbles-yes, pray for rain for the racing
Sterrato-yes, a banker
Long rolling stages-yes
Brutally tough multi montains-yes
Nancy boy muritos-no
 
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ice&fire

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railxmig said:
It seems some here are reacting like cobbles have never been in the Tour. Quite some time passed since 2014 and there were cobbles in 2015 and 2018 and like 90% (including freaking Quintana and Landa) of favourites were together. The chance of rain there in July is quite slim so we've been quite spoiled 7 years ago.

As for Bernal being the best in cobbles... i may believe in this. The guy was slightly better than Poga in Strade while having pre-Giro shape and Poga in "Poga smash these fools. Poga strongest there is!" mode.
Click to expand...
Landa crashed just after one of the cobbled sectors. IIRC he hit a pothole while he was drinking and had to chase for a while with the help of some teammates. Those silly tarmac sectors in between the cobbles let riders relax, get distracted and crash.
 
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Descender

Descender

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I'm a fan of cobbles in the Tour for two main reasons:

  • They are a good counterpoint to the mountains, and a way to level the playing field towards the rouleurs / TTlists. I don't see why Quintana struggling on the cobbles is any different than Dumoulin struggling on the Galibier.
  • Cobbled roads are usually in the part of France that is furthest away from the high mountains, which makes them fit well in the route overall
 
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