Tour de France Tour de France 2024: Stage-by-stage analysis

[Miha81]

Thank you for this. Always nice read before the start.

 

[BigCoward]

I'd rather have had a garbage post and a great route than the other way around.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

It's the 50th anniversary, so back to Pla d'Adet like in 1974. Worth noting that it will be the third way to finish there, as they'll take a detour with ~1.5 km to go.

Gotta say, I've since wondered if it would've been possible to tarmac the backside of Portet and celebrate with a Portet > Pla d'Adet combo.

I have no idea how I didn't clock either of those, will amend the post to reflect that (and fix a couple of image links that got broken) later today.

 

[QueenStagiaire]

The profile of Tourmalet you posted is actually of the side used last year (undoubtedly the better one)

 

[Netserk]

I have no idea how I didn't clock either of those, will amend the post to reflect that (and fix a couple of image links that got broken) later today.

A shame it wasn't possible to have the stage on the very date of the anniversary.

To be clear, I meant third way to finish on Pla d'Adet. In 1974-1982 (until the planned inauguration of Portet) I think they finished with the same last 220 m as this year, but they came from Route du Pla d'Adet to Rue du Port Vieux. In 1993-2014 they took the pink route. And now for this year they go by Estiouère for the first time.

 

[Miha81]

I'd rather have had a garbage post and a great route than the other way around.

The riders make the race. You can have best route but garbage racing. Anyway we will soon see.

 

[Netserk]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1806665124352245981

View: https://x.com/Domestique___/status/1806665124352245981

 

[Escarabajo]

Can the moderator please add the stage links to the table in the first post?
That would be very helpful.

Thanks to Devil's Elbow for the hard work and great summary.

 

[AmRacer]

Can the moderator please add the stage links to the table in the first post?
That would be very helpful.

Thanks to Devil's Elbow for the hard work and great summary.

I think only the first stage has its own thread.

 

[DJO]

Fantastic op, thank you. Will be using this on a daily basis. Thanks again, @Devil's Elbow

 

[Devil's Elbow]

I think only the first stage has its own thread.

I think @Escarabajo means linking to the individual posts, not the threads. Will take a look at doing that shortly.

 

[Froome]

Negative points of this route

The route is garbage until stage 14.

The first stage is overrated, since the last 2 climbs are very easy.

Just one real mountain stage until stage 14, and so bad designed with just 140 km and by the easy side of Galibier. Going by Mont cenis and climbing Telegraphe would be better.

Stupid gravel stage who will just give to the fans a lot of crashes.

A ridiculous flat ITT with just 25 km. It should be a flat TT of 55 km.

Bad designed medium stages except for the stage of Le Lioran.

I would prefer a real mountain time trial than a time trial like stage 21.

Prudhomme suddenly forgot of climbs like Madeleine, Alpe d'huez, Croix de fer, Izoard, Granon, Ventoux, Portet, Iseran....at least he put Cime de la Bonette in the route. He is always trying to not benefit the previous Tour de France champion.

Col de la couillolle is a real bad finish.

Positive points of this route

200 km stage with finish on Plateau de Beille, but it's missing another stage like this in the alpes.

The return of Cime de la bonette.

The stage of Le Lioran.

Stage 2 with cote de san Luca near the finish.

The combo Noyer/Super Devoluy.


The route of the Tour 2022 was very good, but the quality of the routes of the Tour decreased last year and this year.

I hope they can do in the Tour 2025 a decent flat TT of about 55/60 km, the return of a Mountain TT like alpe d'huez 2004, some nice medium mountain stages with finishes in mur de bretagne and Mende, and the return of Granon, Ventoux, and the introduction of Finestre in the Tour de France.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Tourmalet profile fixed, Pla d’Adet description amended, broken image links fixed and hyperlinks added to the stage numbers in the table in the first post.

 

[zlev11]

very nice writeup. i actually dont mind the route this year. yeah it's not great but i've kinda given up any hope of there being a truly great TDF route ever again. i get much more upset with a bad Giro route than a bad Tour route.

 

[AmRacer]

This Tour has everything
Wheelsucking
Wattbombs
Stomp
Daredevil descents

 

[tobydawq]

Negative points of this route



A ridiculous flat ITT with just 25 km. It should be a flat TT of 55 km.

Okay, boomer.

 

[BigCoward]

The riders make the race. You can have best route but garbage racing. Anyway we will soon see.

You are more likely to have garbage racing with a garbage route.

 

[red_flanders]

@Devil's Elbow thank you SOOO much for the writeup. Haven't had a chance to read but the overview yet, but looking forward to getting some time with it!

"Not hard enough". Can't agree, but not hard enough...for what? To create separation? Decide a real winner? Plenty hard enough IMO.

Going to be a great Tour.

 

[gregrowlerson]

Negative points of this route

The route is garbage until stage 14.

The first stage is overrated, since the last 2 climbs are very easy.

Just one real mountain stage until stage 14, and so bad designed with just 140 km and by the easy side of Galibier. Going by Mont cenis and climbing Telegraphe would be better.

Stupid gravel stage who will just give to the fans a lot of crashes.

A ridiculous flat ITT with just 25 km. It should be a flat TT of 55 km.

Bad designed medium stages except for the stage of Le Lioran.

I would prefer a real mountain time trial than a time trial like stage 21.

Prudhomme suddenly forgot of climbs like Madeleine, Alpe d'huez, Croix de fer, Izoard, Granon, Ventoux, Portet, Iseran....at least he put Cime de la Bonette in the route. He is always trying to not benefit the previous Tour de France champion.

Col de la couillolle is a real bad finish.

Positive points of this route

200 km stage with finish on Plateau de Beille, but it's missing another stage like this in the alpes.

The return of Cime de la bonette.

The stage of Le Lioran.

Stage 2 with cote de san Luca near the finish.

The combo Noyer/Super Devoluy.


The route of the Tour 2022 was very good, but the quality of the routes of the Tour decreased last year and this year.

I hope they can do in the Tour 2025 a decent flat TT of about 55/60 km, the return of a Mountain TT like alpe d'huez 2004, some nice medium mountain stages with finishes in mur de bretagne and Mende, and the return of Granon, Ventoux, and the introduction of Finestre in the Tour de France.

I'm not quite as negative as you on it, but smirk-inducing post in the spirit of this forum.

 

[tobydawq]

Welcome to the 2024 Giro, mark two. No, really – it’s basically the same route. Let’s run things down:

• Both the Giro and the Tour have an unusually hard start
• Both have a really weak middle section of the race
• Both have too many sprint opportunities
• Both have a sterrato stage that’s unlikely to do much for the GC
• Both are extremely backloaded
• Both are overreliant on MTFs, or at least on the final climb when there isn’t a big MTF
• Both don’t have a true queen stage
• Both aren’t really hard enough in general
• Both do at least have a decent amount of TT
• Both don’t end in the city that tradition would dictate

The hype is endless.

I look forward to reading your work but it's certainly obvious that ASO aren't paying you.

I honestly don't see what is so horrible about this route (apart from a few too many sprint opportunities). But that's probably to the surprise of nobody.

 

[AmRacer]

The hype is endless.

I look forward to reading your work but it's certainly obvious that ASO aren't paying you.

I honestly don't see what is so horrible about this route (apart from a few too many sprint opportunities). But that's probably to the surprise of nobody.

The sprint stages are there for Cav making history.

 

[tobydawq]

Mainly I don't like it when there's only 5 mountain stages. Galibier stage is good for a stage 4. The 2 Pyrenees stages we get are good, but I don't like the order, and Plateau de Beille isn't the right climb for a queen stage.

Then, with only 5 mountain stages, Isola 2000 is just not a great stage IMO with 15km of false flat between the already not that special Bonette. Then there's Couillole, which is a mountain stage that impressively manages to do everything wrong IMO. It's too short, it's got the hardest climb at the end, and the climb at the end isn't even impressive to begin with.

I will say I like the first 2 stages and the stages to Le Lorian and Superdevuily, and the 2 ITT format is good by me as well.

So there's some good things, but I think poor big mountain stage design is very hard to counteract with nice medium mountain stages.

The Couillole stage certainly doesn't do everything wrong. There are no valleys between the climbs and you always create upheaval whenever there is a flat kilometre between climbs that could've been avoided. It seems like a classic instance of closing the eyes to the good things and refocussing on something else you can get upset about.

And Bonette is 2800 metres high, it's plenty special.

 

[QueenStagiaire]

I think the worst thing about the route is actually the final big ITT directly after the last mountain stage, it‘s a recipe for disaster. Always put the last TT ahead of the last mountains so the stakes are clear and it doesn’t become an energy conservation competition.

 

[tobydawq]

Flats between climbs are a problem when you have climbs good enough to create action before the last climb. Here it really doesn't matter. Plus there's actually significant amounts of false flat and sub 6% climbing, that stage is pretty controllable.

And while you may argue I'm inconsistent, I've never been inconsistent in my view that altitude by itself isn't that special and doesn't make stages selective enough in itself. We saw Pogacar and Vingegaard go nuts on the Galibier in 2022 and everyone that mattered came back before they got to Granon. Now if it were Agnello instead of Bonette that would be a big difference.

Similarly, I've also always been quite consistent in looking mainly at the big mountain stages.

So what the rest came back before Granon? It was still an absolutely epic stage that decided the Tour. Or have you just dismissed it as a one-climb stage because Van Aert was there at the bottom of Granon?

 

[QueenStagiaire]

. We saw Pogacar and Vingegaard go nuts on the Galibier in 2022 and everyone that mattered came back before they got to Granon. Now if it were Agnello instead of Bonette that would be a big difference.

Go nuts= only actually start dropping people 4k from the top, then already go back to softpedalling before the top so Bardet is coming back at the top, then keep on not pedaling until Van Aert has brought everyone you deem relevant (not Mas who was great on Alpe the next day) back. If you had Agnello or Loze or Montevergine doesn‘t matter. If you only ride arrhythmically for like 3 kilometers before sitting up, then everyone will come back.