Tour de France 2018

funnights74

The route for next year's Grand Boucle was unveiled today. Most of it had been flagged, cobbles are back, as is Alpe d'huez. Team and individual tt's.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/tour-de-france-2018-route-revealed/

I had intended to watch it on eurosport this morning and I forgot

velo.2010

Froome is the strongest grand tour rider, therefore its his to lose again in 2018.

A route like this is an attempt by the organisers for him to lose it by not completing, or to put him several minutes behind after a calamity in the first week. I'd rather for someone to reach his level and beat him fair and square. Alternatively, an older Froome may not be as strong and it opens up the field a little.

death1234567

65km stage? Is it the tour or an A4 race?

at1withmyself

death1234567 wrote: »

65km stage? Is it the tour or an A4 race?

That will be the best stage, madness from the start and 3 climbs so should be fun!

Diarmuid

death1234567 wrote: »

65km stage? Is it the tour or an A4 race?

45k of which are climbs. Those shorter stages encourage much more attacking riding as opposed to a 180k mountain stage where all the action happens in the final 5k

Diarmuid

Diarmuid wrote: »

45k of which are climbs. Those shorter stages encourage much more attacking riding as opposed to a 180k mountain stage where all the action happens in the final 5k

Indeed, sounds very similar to how they ran the first event in La Course for the women this year. Very entertaining race , and likely men get a stage like that next year after being trailed successfully on the women this year.

Darkglasses

I'm absolutely delighted with that stage, it's exactly what contemporary racing needs.

velo.2010

About Frome. The only pattern of weakness I can discern with him relates to hard mountain stages immediately after a hard TT. Unfortunately, the ITT next year is the last true stage of the race.

I think successive long, hard stages - while potentially boring - can lead to major time losses for a GC rider. Testing endurance and recovery is the point of GC after all. Bigger time gaps, created from real racing and not a puncture or crash on the cobbles, lead to better racing from guys who have had a bad day... a la Contador disrupting the Vuelta this year.

Short stages lend themselves to explosive racing but results tells me that the time gaps created are not as big as some might expect between the big favourites. I'm guessing that's the point from the organisers view of things... keep it close for as long as possible.

I think a lack of several mountain stages in a row lends to the problem too. We've seen it in recent years. Only two days in the Alps or Pyrenees. It gives someone like Froome, breathing room to recover and ultimately gain the time needed to win in the ITT. That was the case in this years Tour.

In reality, I think the shorter stages are a function of the belief (of ASO and UCI) that longer, more mountainous Tours are likely to encourage doping among riders.

Heisenberg.

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retalivity

Heisenberg. wrote: »

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going back 8=9 years now, but when i was at mont ventoux, there were cyclists cycling up it all morning before the race came thru. The police came thru at the head of the caravan clearing everyone off. Not sure if its changed much in the years since

fat bloke

Heisenberg. wrote: »

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The bigger mountain stages can be closed to vehicular traffic from 8pm the night before but, within reason, cyclists /pedestrians are allowed up much closer to the caravan arrival.

BailMeOut

just realized I will be in Vendee from 8th July 2018 for two weeks so will definitely get to see some of it!

Brian

death1234567 wrote: »

65km stage? Is it the tour or an A4 race?

at1withmyself wrote: »

That will be the best stage, madness from the start and 3 climbs so should be fun!

Diarmuid wrote: »

45k of which are climbs. Those shorter stages encourage much more attacking riding as opposed to a 180k mountain stage where all the action happens in the final 5k

http://road.cc/content/news/232569-video-crazy-mike-cotty-previews-next-years-short-brutal-tour-de-france-stage

2 Wheels Good

Heisenberg. wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

We were on the Hautacam in 2014. Got 1/2 ways up for a morning spin before deciding to go back to the hotel for the lunch bag as it was already busy with walkers/bikes. Got up to the finish just before they closed the last 3km. We had to jump barriers and cross fields to get back to our planned spot just before the barriers. They weren't that strict below the barriers.
Ended up cycling down with some of the pros after the stage.