Tour de France Tour de France 2024 route rumours and announcements

[yaco]

A final stage MTT? 2 climbs

This route had better be balanced by a 50-60 km flat ITT

What - The usual suspects will dominate this ITT - Add another ITT and it will be the same story.

 

[Red Rick]

It's brutal for Non GC contenders who are used to a parade in stage 21.

I honestly never hated the Paris parade. It just depends on how many sprint stages there are overall. This year has 3 out of the last 4 stages being sprints, which is horrible.

 

[Bonimenier]

I honestly never hated the Paris parade. It just depends on how many sprint stages there are overall. This year has 3 out of the last 4 stages being sprints, which is horrible.

Your memory isn't what it used to be, it seems.

 

[Red Rick]

Your memory isn't what it used to be, it seems.

How so?

 

[DNP-Old]

It's brutal for Non GC contenders who are used to a parade in stage 21.

I question whether sprinters will even take the start that late in the race, knowing they have chances for Olympic gold two weeks later.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Red Rick is right to warn me of the dissing of Tze Core and Saint-Panthaléon going on here.

However I actually like the final TT. If we're going to go with this though, there needs to be a proper flat TT earlier in the race. If the only TT is on the last day it's a bit of a letdown for racing in previous days quite often, and if the only TT is a hilly one it needs to be a behemoth, like 2009 Cinque Terre or 2015 Valdobbiadene - and neither of those are really suitable for stage 21 roles imo.

 

[Ilmaestro99]

Can we discuss this in June 2024 please

 

[Valv.Piti]

A 35 km hilly TT on Cote d' Azur gets presented

... but, it sucks, gimme back Paris!

Really?...

 

[Izzyeviel]

They should have had the final MTT go up Ventoux instead. What a waste of a day

 

[Kaptain Kool]

At least do something new. I would make it a 1km ITT course only on the Promenade, a team relay with all 8 riders. Riders on teams are penalized 1 min for each missing rider. Rewards GC riders with domestiques who have the courage to finish the race.

 

[tobydawq]

At least do something new. I would make it a 1km ITT course only on the Promenade, a team relay with all 8 riders. Riders on teams are penalized 1 min for each missing rider. Rewards GC riders with domestiques who have the courage to finish the race.

Yeah, how scandalous this isn't becoming reality.

 

[SHAD0W93]

A TDF that is actually raced for 21 stages and not 20? Sign me up.

Whole the final stage in Paris doesn’t encourage any attacks, if the time was 30 seconds or less and depending on rider things would be popping off on the final stage. I could see Pog, Evenepoel, or Roglic going all out with their teams. Especially with bonus seconds on the line.

 

[Izzyeviel]

Pog put a minute into Vinegaard last year on the final stage

 

[Lequack]

A 100

Whole the final stage in Paris doesn’t encourage any attacks, if the time was 30 seconds or less and depending on rider things would be popping off on the final stage. I could see Pog, Evenepoel, or Roglic going all out with their teams. Especially with bonus seconds on the line.

There is an unwritten rule to not race the stage to Paris. So even if the difference was 1 second you couldn't do anything about it, or else you would be cast out of the cycling brotherhood.

 

[SHAD0W93]

A 100


There is an unwritten rule to not race the stage to Paris. So even if the difference was 1 second you couldn't do anything about it, or else you would be cast out of the cycling brotherhood.

Didn’t stop Vino. If it’s that close with a chance to win, there’s no way they will let that go. At the end of the day it is still a stage in the race that can effect the results.

Imagine on that little uphill under the tunnel that has the Norwegian corner. Quickstep is drilling it and Merlier/Jakobsen lead Evenepoel out.

 

[Andy schleck]

A 35 km hilly TT on Cote d' Azur gets presented

... but, it sucks, gimme back Paris!

Really?...

One day, maybe one day, people will get satisfied with the route of the tour. Maybe one day.
I watch cycling since 2003, and the routes of the tour, always were a s*** for cycling community.

 

[Tonton]

Yep, we see some with prejudice and agendas. Jealousy? Hatred? I don't know and I don't care. A majority of the members here are (somewhat) objective, all in all it's fair.

With the "biggest race" label comes pressure and expectations. It's hard to react to a piece of information when a course design is a whole body of work. What will stages 18 and 19 be like? We don't know. So it's all up in the air and we're overreacting.

 

[gregrowlerson]

Looks like a pretty interesting final weekend, though I would prefer to have the ITT before the mountain road stage. As it is, probably little point in having stage 19 be GC relevant at all, so hopefully that's like your typical pancake flat 3rd week Giro stage, and stage 18 is a serious mountain stage. And as others have mentioned, still need another (flatter) ITT earlier in the race. Fingers crossed.

 

[houtdffan]

Looks like a pretty interesting final weekend, though I would prefer to have the ITT before the mountain road stage. As it is, probably little point in having stage 19 be GC relevant at all, so hopefully that's like your typical pancake flat 3rd week Giro stage, and stage 18 is a serious mountain stage. And as others have mentioned, still need another (flatter) ITT earlier in the race. Fingers crossed.

Would have been nice to have a monster mountain stage with Eze as the final climb on the final day. A harder version of stage 2 from the 2020 tour

 

[capuldemetal]

good..but not good enough.add cayolle,get 60 more k's and over 6000 m of climbing.i'm asking too much?

 

[Netserk]

Christian Estrosi the Mayor of Nice thanked Sophie Ricourt, mayor of Barcelonnette for her presence and he was mentioning Col de la Bonette. So there might be a chance.

BREAKING NEWS!

It has leaked that Sophie Ricourt asked @Mayomaniac to design a Barcelonnette stage that would be the queen stage of the race, held on the last Thursday of the race. He asked her if she would pay for some roadworks, and she replied: "I'll do anything, just make sure it's a memorable stage!"

And so he granted her wish and traced a stage starting and ending in Barcelonnette:

Barcelonnette > Barcelonnette

220.0 km, +6478 m. Bike ride in Barcelonnette, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

ridewithgps.com

 

[Bolder]

I don't see much of a difference between this and the PDBF Roglic disaster. It's just a mtf ITT. Plus, what were they going to do for a Stage 21? Have them go up and down the promenade des Anglais 8 times? Yawn.

The reason I hate ceremonial final GT stages is that they are a waste of everyone's time. The stupid champagne stunts, the obligatory arm-in-arm shots, the lame cobble "sprint"...no thanks. And I live in Paris -- you have to stand out in the broiling sun for hours if you want to see the riders toodle on by. Give me something, anything, of consequence and I'm happy. Even if you have to finish in Paris, there are enough steep little climbs in the Chevreuse to make a decent stage.

 

[RedheadDane]

At least do something new. I would make it a 1km ITT course only on the Promenade, a team relay with all 8 riders. Riders on teams are penalized 1 min for each missing rider. Rewards GC riders with domestiques who have the courage to finish the race.

I can only assume you're joking. Because, it would kinda suck to be punished just because one of your domestiques happens to be called Wilco Kelderman...

 

[gregrowlerson]

I can only assume you're joking. Because, it would kinda suck to be punished just because one of your domestiques happens to be called Wilco Kelderman...

That's when the DS has to make the tough call on whether Wilco the domestique is worth more than a minute to your team leader in the early stages vs. the minute that he is likely to lose you at the end of the race

 

[Mayomaniac]

BREAKING NEWS!

It has leaked that Sophie Ricourt asked @Mayomaniac to design a Barcelonnette stage that would be the queen stage of the race, held on the last Thursday of the race. He asked her if she would pay for some roadworks, and she replied: "I'll do anything, just make sure it's a memorable stage!"

And so he granted her wish and traced a stage starting and ending in Barcelonnette:

Barcelonnette > Barcelonnette

220.0 km, +6478 m. Bike ride in Barcelonnette, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

ridewithgps.com

Yeah, Allos-Champs-Valberg before Bonette from South would already be more than enough for a modern ASO queenstage....