Where do ASO go from here? Tour route 2018

[Pennino]

Heavy on time trialing and climbing both. Let's say 65km of ITT and 6 big mountain stages of whom 4 with at least 3 heavy cols. Then surely the best will win, be it Froome, I wouldn't care.

 

[SlickMongoose]

21 x Paris-Roubaix.

 

[Brullnux]

Re:

21 x Paris-Roubaix.

I approve

 

[classicomano]

I just want a couple of hilly classic like stages to replace the pointless 200km flat ones.

 

[silvergrenade]

I want 2 cobbled stages, Paris-Roubaix type, 5 MTFs(LPSM Type), 2 Muritos, 4 Windy stages going through small villages( ) with Cobbled climbs in between, Atleast 100 Kms of TT and 50 Kms of TTT and the rest can be flat stages...
Lets see who the strongest GT rider is. :lol:

 

[Jagartrott]

Re:

- Descents are fun to watch but they are too dangerous and in today's racing they don't make a difference if not for the accidents. So reduce them, at least at the ending of the stages.

I don't agree at all.
It's the riders that make descents dangerous. Without wanting to sound arrogant, I'm a pretty good descender myself, and the way some in the group of favourites descended the Mont de Chat was plain stupid. They were way too close, and that was their own choosing, probably helped by nerves and insecurity. You have to leave some distance to be able to judge corners on such a descent + have a safety margin. Descending is part of bike racing and they *can* make a difference. Just look at the stage Nibali won at the Giro this year.

 

[Ricco']

Vayer just published a full route for the 2018 Tour, making it sound like a official deal.

1 TTT, 2 ITT (1 flat with around 50k's based on the distances between start and finish town, 1 hilly around Annecy), 4 MTFs (Col du Beal, Alpe d'Huez, Mont Ventoux and Superbagneres) and at least two more mountain stages that don't finish on the top (a short stage like 2017's Foix, finishing at Loudenvielle, probably with Peyresourde before and one finishing in Bagneres-de-Bigorre, probably after Tourmalet).

Lots of stages in the Northwest of France, so it is expected a very nervous first week.

https://twitter.com/festinaboy/status/889771365443792896

 

[Red Rick]

So a TTT to negate any advantage Dumoulin might get over Froome after the ITTs and enought TT to bury everyone else.

Lovely.

 

[Red Rick]

I do wonder how far ahead they plan with this kind of stuff, cause I don't think that after watching the Tour this year they're expecting that TTs make the race outcome more unpredictable.

 

[classicomano]

Sunweb could actually field a very capable team for the TTT though.

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

Looks pretty decent. Going into Bretagne I assume means we get a decent hilly stage (or even unpaved roads from Tro-Bro Léon like in the previous rumour?). A long flat ITT and a hilly ITT is decent. It depends on how hard they make it, but unless it's up and down on a decent gradient all the time, Dumoulin can probably still win a bit on Froome in the hilly TT. Also, as stated, the ITT to Bordeaux should be 50km or something. With two TTs, one of them being pan flat and 50km, Dumoulin really can't complain.

A stage in the Massif Central and hopefully a good Jura stage to Bellegarde-sur-Valserine is nice as well. Also, the stage to Agde I assume will be built for echelons (look at the map, and you'll know what I mean).

Really, if it has a good stage in Bretagne, good Jura stage, a good echelon stage enough TT kms and a it looks like enough mountains to balance it out. Looks pretty good compared to the stuff we normally get.

 

[Parker]

Re:

Vayer just published a full route for the 2018 Tour, making it sound like a official deal.

1 TTT, 2 ITT (1 flat with around 50k's based on the distances between start and finish town, 1 hilly around Annecy), 4 MTFs (Col du Beal, Alpe d'Huez, Mont Ventoux and Superbagneres) and at least two more mountain stages that don't finish on the top (a short stage like 2017's Foix, finishing at Loudenvielle, probably with Peyresourde before and one finishing in Bagneres-de-Bigorre, probably after Tourmalet).

Lots of stages in the Northwest of France, so it is expected a very nervous first week.

https://twitter.com/festinaboy/status/889771365443792896

It's not the route at all. That's a course designed by someone on a French cycling forum in a Design a Tour thread.

See here: https://legruppetto.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=6454&start=520

The fact that it was posted by Vayer is a big hint that it isn't true.

 

[Gigs_98]

Re:

Vayer just published a full route for the 2018 Tour, making it sound like a official deal.

1 TTT, 2 ITT (1 flat with around 50k's based on the distances between start and finish town, 1 hilly around Annecy), 4 MTFs (Col du Beal, Alpe d'Huez, Mont Ventoux and Superbagneres) and at least two more mountain stages that don't finish on the top (a short stage like 2017's Foix, finishing at Loudenvielle, probably with Peyresourde before and one finishing in Bagneres-de-Bigorre, probably after Tourmalet).

Lots of stages in the Northwest of France, so it is expected a very nervous first week.

https://twitter.com/festinaboy/status/889771365443792896

That looks okay. I just hope that the stages which are no mountain stages aren't again all completely flat and that we will get our promised dirt road stage. And I doubt they will go to loudenvielle over the peyresurde that wouldn't make that much sense imo

 

[Svam]

Re:

Vayer just published a full route for the 2018 Tour, making it sound like a official deal.

1 TTT, 2 ITT (1 flat with around 50k's based on the distances between start and finish town, 1 hilly around Annecy), 4 MTFs (Col du Beal, Alpe d'Huez, Mont Ventoux and Superbagneres) and at least two more mountain stages that don't finish on the top (a short stage like 2017's Foix, finishing at Loudenvielle, probably with Peyresourde before and one finishing in Bagneres-de-Bigorre, probably after Tourmalet).

Lots of stages in the Northwest of France, so it is expected a very nervous first week.

https://twitter.com/festinaboy/status/889771365443792896

Never took what Vayer says for granted because it's often BS

This map, like the other 3-4 which are flooding twitter since yesterday, belongs to a group of 51 maps designed for our annual TDF-N+1 design challenge in the forum of legruppetto.com

However, the creator of this particular one composed it with a lot of rumours known in last march. :twisted:
Thus, a lot of represented towns are candidates for hosting a stage in 2018. In Brittany, Sarzeau (Lappartient's town), Lorient, Pointe du Raz (with possible dirt roads but not the same of Tro Bro Leon which are in North-Finistère) and Guerlédan (former known as Mûr-de-Bretagne) are very solid rumors. The departement of Ain (here represented by Bellegarde), Alpe d'Huez and Luchon-Superbagnères are also very strong rumours. Then, you have suspected sites which ASO is keeping near like Béal or Auch. And finally some candidates like Chartres, Compiègne (WW1), Annecy, Valence... a group from which Bordeaux is no longer a part since the town withdraw its candidacy last week.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re: Re:

Vayer just published a full route for the 2018 Tour, making it sound like a official deal.

1 TTT, 2 ITT (1 flat with around 50k's based on the distances between start and finish town, 1 hilly around Annecy), 4 MTFs (Col du Beal, Alpe d'Huez, Mont Ventoux and Superbagneres) and at least two more mountain stages that don't finish on the top (a short stage like 2017's Foix, finishing at Loudenvielle, probably with Peyresourde before and one finishing in Bagneres-de-Bigorre, probably after Tourmalet).

Lots of stages in the Northwest of France, so it is expected a very nervous first week.

https://twitter.com/festinaboy/status/889771365443792896

Never took what Vayer says for granted because it's often BS

This map, like the other 3-4 which are flooding twitter since yesterday, belongs to a group of 51 maps designed for our annual TDF-N+1 design challenge in the forum of legruppetto.com

However, the creator of this particular one composed it with a lot of rumours known in last march. :twisted:
Thus, a lot of represented towns are candidates for hosting a stage in 2018. In Brittany, Sarzeau (Lappartient's town), Lorient, Pointe du Raz (with possible dirt roads but not the same of Tro Bro Leon which are in North-Finistère) and Guerlédan (former known as Mûr-de-Bretagne) are very solid rumors. The departement of Ain (here represented by Bellegarde), Alpe d'Huez and Luchon-Superbagnères are also very strong rumours. Then, you have suspected sites which ASO is keeping near like Béal or Auch. And finally some candidates like Chartres, Compiègne (WW1), Annecy, Valence... a group from which Bordeaux is no longer a part since the town withdraw its candidacy last week.

Thanks!

Now that Bordeaux has withdrawn, where do you think the (hopefully) long, flat and final ITT will be?

 

[Tank Engine]

Re:

21 x Paris-Roubaix.

11 x Paris-Roubaix + 10 x Lombardy course from the last couple of years.

 

[movingtarget]

Re:

TTTs end up punishing GC riders on small teams way more than the likes of Sky, who have several strong climbers who can TT as well as strong roleurs.

Yeah I never liked them and one GC rider always crashes or loses big time.

 

[Ruby United]

Re: Re:

21 x Paris-Roubaix.

11 x Paris-Roubaix + 10 x Lombardy course from the last couple of years.

In all seriousness, I have never understood why we don't have 3/4 Paris-Roubaix type stages in the Tour.
It doesn't have to be quite as hard as Roubaix - even if it is just like 2014 (but longer) or 2015 (but harder) or that one stage where Frank Schleck crashed out in 2010.
I want to see 3/4 of them in the Tour, with one of them being 250km.

I do understand that some would contend it is too difficult for the riders, but isn't that the point of the Tour - to test the best riders of the world to the best of ALL their abilities?
(That's why I am so pro having relatively 80km+ of TT at least in every Tour - the Tour is not supposed to be won by Chiappucci's or even Quintana's [unless he does his every-once-in-a-while brilliant TT]. The Tour should test all aspects of the best riders in the world)

 

[jsem94]

If they give us a Tro-Bro-Leon stage all else is forgiven.

 

[VO2 Max]

With Dumoulin there of course we need more ITT to help change the dynamic. It can even help the likes of Bardet because Sky will actually need to allow a race to happen if there's someone who can conceivably out-TT Froome. Even in Italy TD couldn't be broken on the climbs, riding tempo all day on long steady TdF climbs like this July would suit him to the ground.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Well, it's simple, if ASO goes for a mountainous route, we are going for a Froome vs Landa/Bardet (Aka Armstrong vs Beloki/Heras) type of race.

If they go for a TT minded route, it's a Froome vs Dumoulin (aka Armstrong vs Ullrich) kinda race.

 

[perico]

Re:

Vayer just published a full route for the 2018 Tour, making it sound like a official deal.

1 TTT, 2 ITT (1 flat with around 50k's based on the distances between start and finish town, 1 hilly around Annecy), 4 MTFs (Col du Beal, Alpe d'Huez, Mont Ventoux and Superbagneres) and at least two more mountain stages that don't finish on the top (a short stage like 2017's Foix, finishing at Loudenvielle, probably with Peyresourde before and one finishing in Bagneres-de-Bigorre, probably after Tourmalet).

Lots of stages in the Northwest of France, so it is expected a very nervous first week.

https://twitter.com/festinaboy/status/889771365443792896

If true, it's about time they finished a stage with Superbagneres. It's a legendary climb that's been ignored since 1989.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Well, it's simple, if ASO goes for a mountainous route, we are going for a Froome vs Landa/Bardet (Aka Armstrong vs Beloki/Heras) type of race.

If they go for a TT minded route, it's a Froome vs Dumoulin (aka Armstrong vs Ullrich) kinda race.

The funny thing is Beloki actually would be one of the best time trialists right now.... its just that skewed towards climbers right now its ridiculous.

 

[Max Rockatansky]

Re: Re:

If true, it's about time they finished a stage with Superbagneres. It's a legendary climb that's been ignored since 1989.

It's fake. It's a race design from a great french forum. It seemed quite clear, because of the distances of stages 7 and 8. They would never put 231 and 239 kms in it. Just click on "Afficher" under the map. Some really great stages, but all fanboy dreaming.

https://legruppetto.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=6454&start=520#p906010

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Well, it's simple, if ASO goes for a mountainous route, we are going for a Froome vs Landa/Bardet (Aka Armstrong vs Beloki/Heras) type of race.

If they go for a TT minded route, it's a Froome vs Dumoulin (aka Armstrong vs Ullrich) kinda race.

The funny thing is Beloki actually would be one of the best time trialists right now.... its just that skewed towards climbers right now its ridiculous.

Yeah I find it kinda frustrating. And I already said this like 5 years ago, way before there was any speaking of Dumoulin (before people throw the chauvinist card at me). But I find it really weird that they went from having a regular 100km, often even more (with TTT) design to .. what, 40 this year? And not only this year, but the last couple of years already.
I didn't even get the complaining about Wiggins Tour with 100km TT.. So what. It used to be normal.
The key word here is balance. It's lost, it's heavily advantage to the climbers, and what you get is that they lose to the only climber good enough to TT as well (Froome).

If you throw in more TT kilometers we'll get a different dynamic, more time trial specialists who can climb who actually see the benefit for going for the GC, instead of side-stepping it because there is too few TT kilometers anyway. And it forces the climbers to try more, instead of waiting on the last 3km of the final climb (I'm looking at you, Romain Bardet and Fabio Aru)