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Tour de France Tour de France 2026 route rumours

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the proper TTs for a GT would be

an 8km flat prologue
an 85km flat TTT
a 70 km flat ITT
an MTT
a 40km flat to slightly rolling ITT

Balance it with 2 very hard mountain stages on the level of Morzine 1983 or Sestrieres 1992
Sounds absolutely dreadful. You need 6 that kind of mountain stages to balance that ridiculous amount of TT.

The thing about TTT is that today the difference in team strength is bigger than in many years. You shoudn't lose 5 minutes just because you don't have a very strong team.

A suitable amount of TT would something like a 50 km of flat ITT, 30 km of rolling ITT and no more. That should be balanced with around 3-4 tough mountain stages in high mountains and 1-2 big medium mountain stages. The high mountain stages should be at least 170-180 kms or more and 4000+ meters of categorized climb. And at least a 1 or 2 stages should be designed for more long range attacks and not with the biggest climb as MTF. Even more important for the Giro since Italy have much more opportunitie for this the Tour.
 
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Sounds absolutely dreadful. You need 6 that kind of mountain stages to balance that ridiculous amount of TT.

The thing about TTT is that today the difference in team strength is bigger than in many years. You shoudn't lose 5 minutes just because you don't have a very strong team.

A suitable amount of TT would something like a 50 km of flat ITT, 30 km of rolling ITT and no more. That should be balanced with around 3-4 tough mountain stages in high mountains and 1-2 big medium mountain stages. The high mountain stages should be at least 170-180 kms or more and 4000+ meters of categorized climb. And at least a 1 or 2 stages should be designed for more long range attacks and not with the biggest climb as MTF. Even more important for the Giro since Italy have much more opportunitie for this the Tour.

you dont think two 250km mountain stages with nearly 7,000m of climbing would balance the TTs?
 
If people want to discuss TTTs in a stage race in principle rather than in a thread about the 2026 TdF, we have a thread for that.
More than one (but it would be unwise to merge them such that the poll in your thread will be removed):




A bit different, but related:


And when it comes to ideal GT, the general discussion belongs here:

 
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Pailhères can be used as a MTF if climbed from Ax-les-Thermes and with the finish ~700 m from the top. The road is very narrow on the other side of the climb only from the Mijanès ski station to the top (last 6 km).

For the Tour, the only realistic uses of the climb are as either a pass when coming from Usson-les-Bains or as an uphill finish from Ax-les-Thermes. I doubt if there ever would be a bid for a downhill finish. The viable alternatives to past uses would be to climb Chioula or Envalira/Puymorens afterwards, but such uses seem a bit far-fetched unless the former is before a finish on Plateau de Beille. A Quillan finish is maybe a bit too creative, and Camurac (ski station) too small for the Tour.

Route d'Occitanie could have a finish at Camurac, and probably also at the Mijanès ski station. Maybe the very narrow Pradel could be in play there, and then you could combine that with Montsugra/Sept Frères too. If you can descend Pradel, then you can also descend Pailhères towards Mijanès, and can then do so towards Les Angles, Quillan or Prades.