Tour de France Tour de France 2024 route rumours and announcements

[Red Rick]

What do we think the chances are of Stage 4 being Pinerolo > Sestriere > Montgenevre > Lautaret > Les Deux Alpes?

It’s ~145km and ~4000m climbing and finishes on a climb that’s hasn’t been used in a while but is most famous for the exploits of Pantani - in other words it looks like the perfect stage for ASO on paper. Or is that too many mountain passes for stage 4

It's a lot easier than the Pyrenees this year.

 

[nightowl]

It's a lot easier than the Pyrenees this year.

True, and only a stage earlier. It’s more the “climbing all day” aspect to it that makes me wonder

 

[houtdffan]

What do we think the chances are of Stage 4 being Pinerolo > Sestriere > Montgenevre > Lautaret > Les Deux Alpes?

It’s ~145km and ~4000m climbing and finishes on a climb that’s hasn’t been used in a while but is most famous for the exploits of Pantani - in other words it looks like the perfect stage for ASO on paper. Or is that too many mountain passes for stage 4

That may very well occur. Same as Finestre, Sestrieres, Montgenevre with an uphill finsh in Briancon

The danger to that second option is Vingegaard could win the tour on Stage 4, barring a thermonuclear Remco (and a 60km dead flat ITT with a real, LBL Ardennes stage, along with a San Sabastien stage, which we actually have a couple of those on stages 1 and 2)

 

[fabriziobernardi]

That may very well occur. Same as Finestre, Sestrieres, Montgenevre with an uphill finsh in Briancon

The danger to that second option is Vingegaard could win the tour on Stage 4, barring a thermonuclear Remco (and a 60km dead flat ITT with a real, LBL Ardennes stage, along with a San Sabastien stage, which we actually have a couple of those on stages 1 and 2)

I hope Finestre will be in a Tdf parcours in the next years. Luckily with a stage from Bourg St Maurice (Iseran-Montcenis-Finestre-Sestriere). And a stage the following day from Pinerolo to Granon (Agnel-Izoard-Granon), hopefully.

I think they will do a stage 4 from Pinerolo to Gap (Pinerolo twin city), with some Sestriere-Montgenevre and then some hilly like col de Manse from La Batie Neuve before the arrival in Gap

 

[Rob5091]

If Prudhomme's going all in "Remco friendly", then forget long mountain stages and think TT heavy, short mountain stages (as per the current norm) and lots of rolling stages. Which could be really good, but history does not lend to being optomistic.

 

[Red Rick]

If Prudhomme's going all in "Remco friendly", then forget long mountain stages and think TT heavy, short mountain stages (as per the current norm) and lots of rolling stages. Which could be really good, but history does not lend to being optomistic.

All that would do is make Pogacar vs Vingegaard battles worse.

 

[theyoungest]

That may very well occur. Same as Finestre, Sestrieres, Montgenevre with an uphill finsh in Briancon

The danger to that second option is Vingegaard could win the tour on Stage 4, barring a thermonuclear Remco (and a 60km dead flat ITT with a real, LBL Ardennes stage, along with a San Sabastien stage, which we actually have a couple of those on stages 1 and 2)

I don't think Remco is going to drop Pogi, Roglic, Vingegaard in a hilly stage. These guys aren't Pidcock or whoever he was up against in San Sebastian.

I think in a 60 k flat TT he'll take a minute max on these guys. If it's in the first week. If it's in the third week Vingegaard will win by 3 minutes

 

[Red Rick]

The one day aspect also gets ignored a lot IMO. In a GT his advantage in a hilly stage isn't nearly gonna be as big as in a race like Liege.

 

[OlavEH]

Finestre!

I prefer they use Finestre in the Giro, and rather exclusively.

For the Tour, a medium mountain+ stage as stage 4 would be nice. Later I hope for a big medium mountain stage in the Massif Central. In the Pyrenees something like a Col de Portet MTF after Tourmalet and Aspin (and preferably Aubisque but that is unlikely) and a Ariege mountain stage with a descent finish. Then a stage similar to the stage to Grenoble stage in CD this year followed by a stage including both Cayolle and Bonette in Mercantour.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Do we think this is better than the Basque-start? Its very close to 1-1 to the stages honestly, but I prefer this Grand Depart to the Basque one. I like stage 1 better specifically, and it should be a very unpredictable one. On top of that, you actually do have a bunch of KOM-points to lure some good climbers in the break.

 

[Rob5091]

Do we think this is better than the Basque-start? Its very close to 1-1 to the stages honestly, but I prefer this Grand Depart to the Basque one. I like stage 1 better specifically, and it should be a very unpredictable one. On top of that, you actually do have a bunch of KOM-points to lure some good climbers in the break.

Stage 1 is good (a 12,5 km long climb after just 35 km of the Tour must be some kind of record) and stage 2 is 200 km long and finishes with two times up to the Sanctuary San Luca in Bologna, so there'll be some GC gaps.

 

[Netserk]

PdB rumoured.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1683607156401008640

View: https://twitter.com/ammattipyoraily/status/1683607156401008640

 

[Red Rick]

Do we think this is better than the Basque-start? Its very close to 1-1 to the stages honestly, but I prefer this Grand Depart to the Basque one. I like stage 1 better specifically, and it should be a very unpredictable one. On top of that, you actually do have a bunch of KOM-points to lure some good climbers in the break.

I like it a bit better. Flat finish after San Luca should mean there's no waiting for a little kick uphill. I also like stage 1 better than the Jaizkibel stage.

 

[Valv.Piti]

PdB rumoured.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1683607156401008640

View: https://twitter.com/ammattipyoraily/status/1683607156401008640

What interesting stuff can be made with Plateau de Beille? When I started watching cycling, this was the Alpe d' Huez of the Pyrenees, but lately the stages there have been rather bad.

 

[Red Rick]

What interesting stuff can be made with Plateau de Beille? When I started watching cycling, this was the Alpe d' Huez of the Pyrenees, but lately the stages there have been rather bad.

So you're saying it is still exactly the Alpe d'Huez of the Pyrenees? IMO it's largely just suffered from being before the Alps the last 2 times it's been in, both times when desperation moves happened on the Alpe

I guess you don't get Galibier close to it, and you don't get a first 1km that's 11%, but aside from that they're pretty similar.

I do way prefer Pailheres and an approach from the east than the weak Cat 1s they've done the previous 2 times.

 

[QueenStagiaire]

So you're saying it is still exactly the Alpe d'Huez of the Pyrenees? IMO it's largely just suffered from being before the Alps the last 2 times it's been in, both times when desperation moves happened on the Alpe

I guess you don't get Galibier close to it, and you don't get a first 1km that's 11%, but aside from that they're pretty similar.

I do way prefer Pailheres and an approach from the east than the weak Cat 1s they've done the previous 2 times.

Approach from the east would be the best option, but it doesn‘t fit into a Tour starting in Italy and finishing in Nice, as they‘re likely to come into the Pyrenees from the north and exit east. Plateau de Beille would likely be the last mountain stage in the Pyrenees.

 

[OlavEH]

What interesting stuff can be made with Plateau de Beille? When I started watching cycling, this was the Alpe d' Huez of the Pyrenees, but lately the stages there have been rather bad.

Well, it's pretty standard with at least one stage like that every year. AdH, Beille, Grand Colombier, etc.

 

[QueenStagiaire]

So it looks like ASO will get the opportunity to make the first Tour stage to Plateau de Beille of less than five hours.

 

[Valv.Piti]

So you're saying it is still exactly the Alpe d'Huez of the Pyrenees? IMO it's largely just suffered from being before the Alps the last 2 times it's been in, both times when desperation moves happened on the Alpe

I guess you don't get Galibier close to it, and you don't get a first 1km that's 11%, but aside from that they're pretty similar.

I do way prefer Pailheres and an approach from the east than the weak Cat 1s they've done the previous 2 times.

What I meant was something spectacular always happened there, but then again, Alpe has always been kinda whack the last couple of times. It was the battlefield for the best climbers and riders who wanted to win the race, and usually the overall winner won here.

Hopefully 2024 will restore its greatness. It will probably always come down to a MTF shootout, and there's nothing wrong with that, just that the last couple of times there hasn't been a shootout at all.

 

[Ulle97]

Plateau de Beille is a very tough climb. Is there another climb that links with it??

We usually see PdeB as a MTF but with a long valley before it. Even when they used Pailheres before it, we had a long flat valley before the final climb.

What I meant was something spectacular always happened there, but then again, Alpe has always been kinda whack the last couple of times. It was the battlefield for the best climbers and riders who wanted to win the race, and usually the overall winner won here.

Hopefully 2024 will restore its greatness. It will probably always come down to a MTF shootout, and there's nothing wrong with that, just that the last couple of times there hasn't been a shootout at all.

 

[OlavEH]

Plateau de Beille is a very tough climb. Is there another climb that links with it??

No, not really. When using PdB, they can approach from the east using Pailheres or from the west where the penultimate climb most typically will be Port de Lers.

 

[Red Rick]

If you come from Paillheres, you can climb this

then descend this

And then you have 'only' 8.2 km of flat.

4% descends never help the action much, but it should definitely reduce the bunch arriving at the bottom of PdB by a lot.

But if we get there from the west it's not gonna be much fun.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Man, that would be an absolutely perfect climb for me (and most sunday warriors). Never seen such a consistent 4-5% climb in my life, looks like heaven.

 

[Red Rick]

Man, that would be an absolutely perfect climb for me (and most sunday warriors). Never seen such a consistent 4-5% climb in my life, looks like heaven.

A true Sunday warrior gets scared descending that and does an Ilnur Zakarin impression

 

[Ulle97]

If you come from Paillheres, you can climb this

then descend this

And then you have 'only' 8.2 km of flat.

4% descends never help the action much, but it should definitely reduce the bunch arriving at the bottom of PdB by a lot.

But if we get there from the west it's not gonna be much fun.

I think they used that Chioula climb in 2001 before finishing the stage on Ax3 Domaines.