What would have improved this tour...

[Anonymous]

Two more stages with cobbles and a stage that exactly follows the Tour of Flanders route. Imagine that....

 

[blaxland]

The tour needs some radical changes,i would suggest Mtn ITT aswell as more cobbles stages and even throw in an ITT downhill......That way every style of rider in the race has a chance to win a stage.Maybe even a two man TT making teaming up riders very important....Otherwise i see Alberto Contador winning the next 5 tours...And Andy Schleck to change his name to Raymond Poulidor..This tour has not been very exciting.

 

[Lajeretta4Ever]

TTT - This would of influenced how El Pistolero put together his team and maybe it would of not been a bunch of elfish climbers.

Think about this. If there was a TTT, Saxo would of put 2 - 3 minutes into Astana. This would f forced El Pistolero to try to attack more and make for more interesting Mountain stages.

 

[DrC0721]

TTT - This would of influenced how El Pistolero put together his team and maybe it would of not been a bunch of elfish climbers.

Think about this. If there was a TTT, Saxo would of put 2 - 3 minutes into Astana. This would f forced El Pistolero to try to attack more and make for more interesting Mountain stages.

I like the TTT just as much as the next guy. But it needs to be shorter if they have one. Loosing 2-3 minutes just because you aren't on Team Radioshack or Saxo isn't fair. Make it where at most it there would be a minute and a half lost. Of course, it might as well be a rest day if it is that short.

 

[sensations]

More Mountain Top Finishes............ and less fail stages like Stage 15 where although we had 2 Tier 1 climbs and 2 HC climbs, the stage was so poorly designed with 60 km flat after the last climb, that the whole peloton soft-pedalled through the stage with Thor Hushovd, the green jersey holder, underlining how stupid the stage was by attacking the peloton in the climbs.

Mountain Top Finish........... for god sake!

It's called tradition. Pau - Bagneres-du-Luchon/Bagneres-du-Luchon - Pau is a total Pyrenees classic. I'm not the biggest fan of the Bagneres-Pau route either due to the 20km descent/40km flat road into Pau but there was no way getting around it. Needless to say Pau - Superbagneres would've made a total banger but that's a typical anticlockwise tour stage so it wasn't likely.

That said, I thought two of three mountain stages without a top finish were pretty damn good entertainment, especially the Morzine – Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne stage was thrilling stuff.

Anyways things I liked:
- The stage designs to Station De Rousses and Gap
- the first couple of stages (Brussels - Spa/Wanze - Arenberg)
- Morzine - St. Jean De Maurienne
- inclusion of the Port de Balés
- Col De Tourmalet finish

Things I didn't like
- The stage design to Bourg-de-Peage - Mende
Especially the last 100km into Mende. Extremely lazy. What a way to ruin those cracking last 4 kms.
- the Port de Pailheres - Ax3Domaines (or Plateau de Beille) doublewhammy
4th or 5th time in 9 years. BORED MUCH? I love the Pailheres don't get me wrong but the Col De Jau and the Pic De Canigou area are desperate for some attention.
- going into Morzine without the Joux Plane.
Now that would've made the race quite brutal but interesting.
- The lead up to the Port De Bales
What a bore that was. Would it have been too much to ask to include the Mente or maybe turn it into a mountaintop at Superbagneres? The Bales was great but the stage could've been better.

That's pretty much it. Some gripes but there are a couple of rather good things about this year's tour design.

 

[erader]

TTT - This would of influenced how El Pistolero put together his team and maybe it would of not been a bunch of elfish climbers.

Think about this. If there was a TTT, Saxo would of put 2 - 3 minutes into Astana. This would f forced El Pistolero to try to attack more and make for more interesting Mountain stages.

if cancellara hadn't neutralized one of the beginning stages AC would have won the race before the pyrenees.

erader

 

[soOpOSMthanks!]

A fixed gear "longest skid" comp followed by a "trick-off"

Sweet, bro.

 

[HokieJoe]

More mountain-top finishes. Screw long runs into the finish after the big climbs.

 

[BroDeal]

...is a really steep long climb like the Zoncolan or the Angliru.

This!

Modern doping make the climbs too easy. We need something where the riders have to carry crampons in their pockets and an ice axe strapped to their top tube.

Barring that, more than one true HC mountain top finish with a metric buttload of climbing before the final climb could not hurt.

 

[Ryaguas]

Well I would like to see:

- ICTT: Every year should be made it in a mythical climb (Alpe D'Huez, Le Tourmalet, Verbier, etc) Did you remember the last ICTT in Alpe D'Huez? How many ppl was there?
- A Short TTT: Everybody love that... the teams working together and the images are really cool... should be like 20 or 40kms long...
- More Mountain top finish: I know that La Grande Boucle is about money and the organization earns a lot of money from the towns but if they are looking for more emotions this is one way...
- More finishes like those that we can see in the spring classics: Amstel Gold Race, Fleche Wallone, Liege - Bastogne - Liege, etc... who did say that the constant attacks that we saw in Revel were not awesomes (specially with Vino winning! )?
- Also I like others ideas that you have said...

La Grande Boucle is a race that should be won for the most complete rider, not only climbers, that's why we can't abuse with the MTF or putting a lot of HC climbs, I know that the organization can use other things to spice Le Tour...

 

[richwagmn]

Quit skipping the Alpe d'huez. It's the monument every climber wants to win and will go all out for.

This. Especially if it's going to be AC vs AS. Do an ITT up the Alpe.

 

[onetofifteen]

Quit skipping the Alpe d'huez. It's the monument every climber wants to win and will go all out for.

I think most would agree that if the Alpe was in this year we would have seen more of the same. They would have shadowed each other all the way up and then, if we were lucky, because it's AdH they might have sprinted for the line.

Also with the Alpe you have the added factor of the time record that people like to talk about. But obviously AC would no be going eyeballs out to break Pantani's record because AS would be on his wheel the whole way up. Instead they would each make one attack to break the other, fail, and then hold hands all the way to the top.

This is what we saw on every mountain this tour. I think there is room for one ridiculously steep, whoever can put out the most watts/kg wins, mountain top finish.

 

[Dutchsmurf]

Adding more mountaintop finishes would have only given us more of the same. Putting back the time bonuses at the finish is an idea, that makes them at least sprint for the stage. Which is a slight improvement. Some shorter, classic like, hill finishes would have been fun.
Anyway, throwing more mountains into it isn't going to help any. They will just ride conservative to the last mountain. Maybe give time bonuses at mountains too instead of that pointless mountain jersey?

 

[saganftw]

just make mountain top finish Angliru,Zoncolan and TT to Harachov,you ll see some serious racing

 

[auscyclefan94]

The more tt km's, the closer the race! having the Angliru or Zoncoland in there will make the race very closed as the pure climbers such as Contador will have too much of an advantage. Increase tt km's, keep the mountains the same and maybe try not to back log all the mountain stages in the 2nd and 3rd week and put some mountains in the 1st week! Liven the race up!

 

[L'arriviste]

I'll drop the stylus on an old, broken record, but if Vacansoleil etc had replaced BMC, Sky, Footon (except Valls anyway).

Think about it: the Feillus would have had to rise to the occasion in a golden year for the French. And I think they would have. In hindsight, that's kind of sad.

 

[auscyclefan94]

I'll drop the stylus on an old, broken record, but if Vacansoleil etc had replaced BMC, Sky, Footon (except Valls anyway).

Think about it: the Feillus would have had to rose to the occasion in a golden year for the French. And I think they would have. In hindsight, that's kind of sad.

You don't know that...

 

[L'arriviste]

You don't know that...

I know, ACF, you're right of course. It's just an idea.

But to me it seems as valid as rule changes or different stage profiles. These ASO team agreements don't work so well for us spectators.

And I daresay you'll not like me for lumping BMC in with Sky, Footon or Milram, but wouldn't you agree that apart from Cadel (until misfortune befell him) and a bit of Burghardt, there's not been much to shout about?

 

[personal]

Mountain top finish TTT AND TTT on flat.

 

[ttrider]

Put in a 30km tt before station des rousses
Joux plan before morzine finish or replace with galibier-duex alpe-alpe d huez stage

Finish on top of the Aubisque 130km stage with 4 monumental climbs no flat try and use hautacum, loz ardiden

Otherwise decent route this year i reccon but alpe d huez really is good and what is a celebration of the pyrenees without Hautacum

Most importantly move the race back 2 weeks and the Giro forward a week to increase contenders for both

 

[sublimit]

A TT up the Alpe D'Huez.

Generaly find more steeper climbs, replace the annoying running fans with sheep.

 

[Bala Verde]

fail

he was referring to the sheep that ran onto the road

I can't believe I missed those.

 

[Indurrey]

Less ***-ness: waiting for people who crashed, punctured, broke a spoke, broke a fingernail. If you have the chance to put time into an opponent, why the hell do you not do it?! It's not supposed to be friendly club tour through the countryside.

Edit: Oh, and get rid of the radios once and for all.

 

[michaeld]

An 80 km ITT, and a mountain ITT.

 

[El Pistolero]

An 80 km ITT, and a mountain ITT.

You might as well declare Contador winner then before the Tour even starts.