The idea of a penultimate stage ITT up The Plank of the Pretty Girls sounds brilliant.
Route announcement on Tuesday.
The idea of a penultimate stage ITT up The Plank of the Pretty Girls sounds brilliant.
They did similar up Alpe d'Huez in the Armstrong years if I remember rightly. It were Radio Rental
They've been doing very south-based TdFs for a couple of years now. I called the first one a Brexit Tour - keeping it as far as possible from the UK.
Maybe they're just continuing that theme...
I like the idea of the ITT being uphill and think that they should always have one if they are having an ITT on the flat and get rid of the TTT.
Seems to me that it limits the riders who might win Grand Tours when the good lightweight climbers have to battle through ITT's alone while the great time trialists get team support up the hills.
Torn about the TTT because it's part of the tradition but the fact that it won't skew the individual is good. they could just have the TTT as a team cash prize and leave the GC alone, this would be better.
2017 was designed for Bardet, this is for Pinot and Julien 🙂
And now having looked at the route, if anyone wants a campsite recommendation in Chatelaillon Plages (sp) I can recommend a cracker.
Can we have a long flat ITT and a git of a climb ITT in the same year please?
And as many echelon inducing stages as we can too.
Seems to me that it limits the riders who might win Grand Tours when the good lightweight climbers have to battle through ITT’s alone while the great time trialists get team support up the hills.
The counter is that the general classification is for the best all round rider and not the best climber. I think a well placed TT really helps shape things up where as pure climbing means GC is often defensive.
I seem to recall mountain TTs were quite a popular inclusion some years back.
I like the route, at least the riders won't encounter dreadful Yorkshire weather 🤠 🤡
That could be arranged with some freak inclement weather, Bikebouy. The weather station on the summit of Mont Aiguoal is officially the wettest place in the whole of France, fact fans!
Just not in July (usually)
I’m really torn on this - we’ve already booked a hotel in Nice for the Grand Depart, but there’s two stages in places I love - the Vercors and Grenoble, but I can’t really manage to fit them all into one holiday. And the Villard de Lans finish is Bastille Day. We’ve got some soul searching to do. I think that last week looks great.
Will probably ride to Mt Aigoual to see finish and start the next day in hometown.
All good.
For info, on a 3 year cycle, the TDF must be within 100km of the whole French population.
I don’t disagree lunge, the time trialists would still have help on all the other climbing stages it just seems if you are going to test people individually during the race it would find the better all rounder if those tests covered a wider range of terrain. Of course I’m biased, I weigh 55kg and have to kill myself to keep up with others on the flat then hang around at the tops of hills while they take their time 😊
it just seems if you are going to test people individually during the race it would find the better all rounder if those tests covered a wider range of terrain. Of course I’m biased, I weigh 55kg and have to kill myself to keep up with others on the flat then hang around at the tops of hills while they take their time
I quite agree, so to make it well rounded then for every summit finish there is a TT, and for every mountain stage that isn't summit finish there is a TTT.
Said by lunge, 83kg, "massive engine" but too heavy to challenge in the hills. Plus, TT days always brings the best kit out and I'm a kit geek!
Optimism or realism?
https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/2020-tour-de-france-rescheduled-for-august-29-september-20/
Nice to think so but I'm not convinced.
No chance, very optimistic IMO.
France plans to lift some lock-down rules in a few weeks, with most, if not all rules lifted Early July so all being well they should be fine. Whether international travel bans are lifted to allow athletes to travel to compete is another matter.
Source:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/13/macron-france-remain-strict-lockdown-for-another-month
Whether international travel bans are lifted to allow athletes to travel to compete is another matter.
Not just the athletes, it's thousands of support crew, media from across the world, the hotels and shops/restaurants to support them, the flights to get them there...
Don't get me wrong, I really hope it does go ahead and as a means of helping economic recovery, it's actually very good indeed, all that cash coming in. But it's reliant on a multitude of external factors like airlines being back up and functional, hotels re-opening and having the staff to cope and if course, Covid 19 suddenly just disappearing (or at least, fading to become background noise like the flu).
Any of those things fail to happen means a lot of egg on face as the Tour gets cancelled or postponed again.
I'd say it's almost certain to go ahead. The Tour is such an important part of the French identity and keeping it running this year would be a massive boost to morale and hopefully mark the start of the country returning to something resembling normality. I doubt they would have rescheduled without some form of assurances from the govt on their exit strategy from the lockdown.
I’d say it’s almost certain to go ahead. The Tour is such an important part of the French identity and keeping it running this year would be a massive boost to morale and hopefully mark the start of the country returning to something resembling normality. I doubt they would have rescheduled without some form of assurances from the govt on their exit strategy from the lockdown.
Agreed.
I know it's easy to think this is the end of days, and maybe it is for the US but Europe has turned a corner.
Dare I say it, the Corona thread on STW is probably the bleakest, most pessimistic discussion place on the Web I've found about CV. Mainland Europe is starting to come out of this, China is already down that road.
I think it will be very hard for anyone from the US to be involved, I fear they're in for the most pain of any nation, but I'm confident life will be a lot more normal in 3/4 weeks and by July we'll cautiously able to travel.
Dare I say it, the Corona thread on STW is probably the bleakest, most pessimistic discussion place on the Web I’ve found about CV. Mainland Europe is starting to come out of this, China is already down that road.
Have you seen the Daily Mail and Express websites? The Daily Mail had a belter today - they placed some mental article from a headbanger saying smoking would help CV next to one saying smoking weed makes it worse all below the worst recession in 300 years banner. Got to scare, enrage and befuddle gammons all on one page.
If the tour goes ahead I'll go and buy a TV just to watch it. Will be such a welcome relief. My work normally does a TDF team challenge as well so that could be a bit of fun (make up teams, team has to do the stage distance every day).
Dare I say it, the Corona thread on STW is probably the bleakest, most pessimistic discussion place on the Web I’ve found about CV.
Maybe, but there does seem to be a decent amount of expertise on there. Perhaps we are seeing the first peak in some European countries, but the strategy involves turning restrictions on and off as case numbers ebb and flow over the months to come. I still can't see a situation in which the French are sufficiently relaxed about the situation by July to allow a caravan of support staff and riders numbering in the hundreds, plus a massive influx of fans from across the world to join the estimated 12 million on the roadside. I suppose you could ban travelling fans, and go back to just residents of villages and towns allowed to watch in that location.
Would be great to have a race, but the organisers will need some degree of certainty pretty soon, as the logistics of reorganising it for later in the year, perhaps September, would need to start early, so it won't be a question of waiting until the end of May to see how things are looking then.
Would be great to have a race, but the organisers will need some degree of certainty pretty soon, as the logistics of reorganising it for later in the year, perhaps September, would need to start early, so it won’t be a question of waiting until the end of May to see how things are looking then.
I think you've missed the news, it has been rearranged to start on Aug 29th iirc.
Yep, TdF 29th August-20th Sept followed by the Giro then La Vuelta in October. It'll be interesting to see how the teams select for this fixture congestion. I'd think Ineos will go with Thomas, Bernal then Froome as leaders if they're all race fit. Movistar will stay with their too many chiefs and not enough indians strategy that has served them so well in the recent past.
Nice to think so but I’m not convinced.
Egan Bernal is crap. It took him ages to catch me on Zwift yesterday and his numbers were rubbish too. I think Rohan Dennis will win it, no problem, he'll just treat it as a three-week time trial 🙂
Dare I say it, the Corona thread on STW is probably the bleakest, most pessimistic discussion place on the Web I’ve found about CV.
I take it as being a mix of scared people trying hard to find an illusion of control by jabbering about models, without considering that what really matters is how people act on them. And scared people letting off steam by tearing into each other.
I find the one where people keep yelling JUST STAY AT HOME! at anyone who dares to ride a bike slightly more depressing. There's some very skewed risk analysis going on. Coughs and dogs and trees.
Anyway, fingers crossed for the Tour happening 🙂
I think you’ve missed the news, it has been rearranged to start on Aug 29th iirc.
I certainly had. There's a fair chance that will go ahead. I thought we were still talking about a July start.
Maybe they will have to restrict it to riders currently in France. That's one way to get a French winner 🙂
Part of me wishes that they keep it in the mountains for the whole tour to limit the areas they take it to… just because TV viewers love those stages.
Big question is what state the riders are going to be in, their form will be all over the place even with a date to train to. I can see it being a mess especially if the contagion levels increase or don't slow as fast as they suspect. I love watching bike races but can't help but think this is presumptuous
Froome gotta be happy about the race being knocked back a couple of months - more time to get fit again, and very little race sharpening for the rest of the competitors beforehand.
Belgians banging out 320km days at the moment whereas no Spanish based rider will turn a wheel outdoors for another month at least... The effect of that will be interesting
Belgians banging out 320km days at the moment whereas no Spanish based rider will turn a wheel outdoors for another month at least… The effect of that will be interesting
That's the bit I don't like about it - it won't be a fair competition, there's a massive difference in the amount of training athletes from different countries will have been able to get in before the race.
@mogrim I know what you mean but I'm looking forward to that aspect of it. It'll be like one of those rides where you meet up with old mates for a big ride. One guy will be as fit as ever, another has become a Zwift fiend and rips everyone's legs off and the other doesn't ride any more and his hit the ale.
It'll be all over the place but could be funny watching half the peloton struggling up the first hill like an early season Jan Ulrich.
the other doesn’t ride any more and has hit the ale.
Sounds like he should be on STW.
What about the fact that there has been little to no testing?
Do you reckon we'll have an Astana rider win by 18 minutes having set a KOM on every climb?
What about the fact that there has been little to no testing?
Not much point thinking about things we have no control over.
It is all just what it is.
Was listening to Trek rider Toms Skujins on King of the Ride, and he was really enthusiastic about the whole prospect of hosting 3 grand tours so close together, entirely on the grounds that nobody knows what racing it will produce and it's likely never going to happen again, so we should embrace it. And I agree with that sentiment entirely.
Froome leaving Ineos at the end of the season. Wonder how/if that will affect their Tour plans...
Well, it's nearly time!
Roglic? Looks imperious, but will his Dauphine crash have any impact? See also his key lieutenant, Kruiswijk.
Ineos? No idea. Bluffing? Blown out? Who knows. Sivakov (spl?) was amazing yesterday.
Pinot looks strong, gave it everything. However, does look like he's carrying a bit of weight. Deliberate tactic?
Of course, there's also the looming threat of C19. Will it make Paris? Maybe a closed road finishing in a velodrome instead? Who knows...!
As I put in the Dauphone thread:
Is Roglic injured? Does that mean Dumoulin or Kruijswijk will be the leader at the tour? Or will they have 2, or even 3 leaders?
Are Ineos off pace? Is Froome bluffing? Is Bernal as good as last year? Should G have done the Classics this year?
Pinot, what can he do?
Bardet, same question.
And also, the bog question is if they'll make the 3 weeks. I certainly wouldn't be betting on that...
It’ll be a very interesting 3 weeks in France.
