As expected, not a good route. Yes, there are a fair few things to like: the Grand Départ, as was known, is strong, there's an early mountain stage, the gravel stage could be anything between bad and awesome (hard to judge from just a profile) and the TT mileage is shockingly decent (and IMO close to balanced on this route).
However, the fact that 60k of TT that includes a major climb is enough shows that they've really dropped the ball with the thing that matters most: the mountains. There are only six stages with a genuine cat. 1 or higher climb, five of which are in the final 8 stages (seriously, this is more backloaded than many a Giro), with a severe overreliance on HC MTFs (the only non-MTF HCs being Galibier from the meme side, which is still the final climb of the day, and Bonette), bad pacing and no true queen stage. In addition, there are too many flat stages, once again also in places where you could put something interesting (and I'm not even counting Barcelonnette here).
All in all, ASO are yet again relying on the riders in general and Pogacar in particular to bail them out, because in many a recentish era (or even a race without Pogacar, as proven by the Giro), I would be expecting a race with zero GC attacks over, say, 10k out all Tour on this route.
yes, mostly agree. All the good stuff we actually already knew. And the presentation was just a confirmation that there were no surprises (except for the amount of gravel) in the other stages.
Good:
-Grand Depart seems really good
-Stage 4 already a real mountain stage.
-Gravel (although we have to see how this relates to gravel in strade bianchi or that we get a puncture party like Paris-Tours)
-The stage to Le Loiran is a well designed finale for a medium mountain stage
-At least we don't see the Southern Alp apear to much in the Tour, so except for the design of those stages it is a nice change of scenary compared to normal
-Good to have a 2nd time trial again
Not Good:
-to many sprint stages
-to backloaded (even with crossing the alps already in the first half)
-first mountain finish only after 2 weeks
-all important mountain stages have HC mountain finish, not helping to break open the stages early
-the design of the mountain stages in general.
-missing some extra medium mountain stage or punchy final
Personally I would have changed a few things:
Stage 1: no changes
Stage 2: no changes
Stage 3: no changes
Stage 4: finish in Vallmeier1800 instead of Valoire, to already have a Mountain top finish in the first 2 weeks
Stage 5: medium mountain instead of sprint (a waste of the jura), with a preference for a downhill finish after the Col de Portes in the finale
Stage 6: no changes (I would like to add some hills from the cote d'or, but with stage 5 already be medium mountain this could be a sprint)
Stage 7: an extra 5 kilometers
Stage 8: no changes (seems already a bit more than just a flat stage)
Stage 9: no changes
Stage 10: no changes
Stage 11: no changes
Stage 12: replace the finish town with another city in the region on a hill top. For example Tulle and then 1 lap around the town (steep uphill finish to see some small action between the GC riders)
Stage 13: no changes (Prudhumme already mentioned sprinters will have to work for it)
Stage 14: no changes (not a great stage, but at least ok)
Stage 15: finish in Foix, no Plateau the Beille (so, Peyresourde, Mente, Portet d'Aspet, Core (added), La Trappe (extra added), Agnes, Mur de Perguere, downhill finish to Foix)
Stage 16: no changes
Stage 17: Col de Moissiere instead of Bayard.
Stage 18: no changes
Stage 19: no changes (or maybe finish in Auron to make changes for attacks on the Bonette higher)
Stage 20: completely different. Start in Isola, Col Colmain, Col de Turini, Col de Castillon, Col de la Madone de Gorbio, Col d'Eze (vanuit Cap d'Ail), Quartre Chemins (from the steep side) and finish in Nice
Stage 21: no changes
Still a bit backloaded, but just wanna show that with a few changes the route already goes from mhew to pretty good.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram