so what do we think of the route ?

northernneil

huge swathes of northern france missed out again - looks quite bumpy to me

all show no go

A bit of PR, a bit of LBL, decent mountain stages with summit finishes, no TTT and less than 60km of ITT. Looks good to me. I guess The Tourmalet is the place to be as a spectator.
A much better parcours than this year. I guess it's now down to the riders to make a race of it.

dave milne

so the monster stage that takes in the peyresourde, aspin, tourmalet and the aubisque then ends in pau?

what a load of s*** that completely ruins it

Tusher

And no TTT?

I can understand why (Cuddles will be delighted for one) but I think the TTT is just the most beautiful thing.

Away to have a closer look at the flat stages. There are a couple of flat stages, aren't there?

Kléber

dave milne wrote:

so the monster stage that takes in the peyresourde, aspin, tourmalet and the aubisque then ends in pau?

what a load of s*** that completely ruins it

There are several other summit finishes. This stage will sap the strength of riders for the coming days and it's sure to give a worthy winner.

Summit finishes: Les Rousses (not a monster climb), Avoriaz and Ax and the Tourmalet. The finishes into St Jean de Maurienne and Bagneres de Luchon come right after big climbs.

dave milne

Kléber wrote:

dave milne wrote:

so the monster stage that takes in the peyresourde, aspin, tourmalet and the aubisque then ends in pau?

what a load of s*** that completely ruins it

There are several other summit finishes. This stage will sap the strength of riders for the coming days and it's sure to give a worthy winner.

Summit finishes: Les Rousses (not a monster climb), Avoriaz and Ax and the Tourmalet. The finishes into St Jean de Maurienne and Bagneres de Luchon come right after big climbs.

There are 3 other summit finishes same as last year. Not enough (imo)

josame

Alp d Heuz???

White Horse

Pretty much the same as 2009 then. Mountain stages that are neutralised by being downhill finishes and the mountain-top ones not going to be decisive enough.

The thoughts behind the 2009 route was to bring everything to a winner-takes-all in one stage but that didn't work so why try it again? The interesting Tours have several opportunities for the contenders to take time, not just one mountain stage and the TTs.

richard wants a baum

havent seen a profile of the stages but it sounds promising particularly like the lack of TT we know The Chin is going to win anyway and its going to give some of the other guys a chance in the GC. It really comes down to the riders though if they all ride conservatively then it will be boring.

northernneil

even though there are not to many summit finishes I worry (or hope) cav can make it over strong enough to compete in green

stagehopper

Lack of a TTT is a big positive.

LangerDan

Think the TT is a week too late - they could have used it to to open up the time gaps after what will probably be another conservative few days in the Alps. We could be on for another snooze fest. One or two attacks and then everyone spends the remaining time sitting around looking at each other.

Maybe it'll rain on the cobbles.

Quite Frankly

dave milne wrote:

so the monster stage that takes in the peyresourde, aspin, tourmalet and the aubisque then ends in pau?

what a load of s*** that completely ruins it

Agreed. It spoils what was otherwise a good route.

Roscobob

Tusher wrote:

And no TTT?

I can understand why (Cuddles will be delighted for one) but I think the TTT is just the most beautiful thing.

Away to have a closer look at the flat stages. There are a couple of flat stages, aren't there?

+1

micron

Thank you kind cycling gods for taking out the farce that is the TTT - appreciate the spectacle but it has far too much influence on GC.

Contador will have to watch out for the stage that finished in the Arenberg, though, so as not to get done over on the cobbles like Mayo did.

disgruntledgoat

micron wrote:

Thank you kind cycling gods for taking out the farce that is the TTT - appreciate the spectacle but it has far too much influence on GC.

Contador will have to watch out for the stage that finished in the Arenberg, though, so as not to get done over on the cobbles like Mayo did.

Whilst Iban Mayo would love it to be remembered that he was defeated on the cobbles, it's not true. He was defeated in a silly crash on an A road about 30km before the cobbles and took about 5 imnutes to get up again.

teagar

micron wrote:

Thank you kind cycling gods for taking out the farce that is the TTT - appreciate the spectacle but it has far too much influence on GC.

Contador will have to watch out for the stage that finished in the Arenberg, though, so as not to get done over on the cobbles like Mayo did.

So will any out and out climber - Schlecks etc.


Maybe the riders should stop their tacit agreement that racing downhill is outrageous and dangerous and shouldn't be done. (apparantly Sanchez lost a lot of friends attacking downhill according to Gesink in an interview I saw in the Netherlands).

The Schlecks certainly could do with some practice, or else they'll either get rinsed or make for duller mountain stages than they should be.

Kléber

Sometimes the battle for position happens a long way away. By the time you reach the cobbles it's too late.

We'll have some theatre and I imagine this will suit some riders but it need not be a moment to change the race, the Tour visited the cobbles several times in the 1980s and it didn't make a big deal.

But a bit like the TTT, the cobbles could well see some riders lose time through poor team work. It will force some to attack to regain time.

Overall it looks like a nice route, a bit more classic with some flat stages at the start, some mountains, some transitions, a lot more mountains and then a final TT.

Cancellara won't be on a big weight loss programme for 2010, it's not a year to target the GC for him. The route will benefit the climbers although the final TT is going to be very long.

iainf72

I keep wondering if the lack of mountain top finishes is because a climb to the finish suits those who are tooled up.

I think it's an average at best route. Assuming the cobbles don't ruin their chances it's between Contador and Schleck.

avoidingmyphd

White Horse wrote:

Pretty much the same as 2009 then. Mountain stages that are neutralised by being downhill finishes and the mountain-top ones not going to be decisive enough.

The grand-bornand stage this year was not neutralised by being a downhill finish. And two of the stages I presume you don't like have a similar profile (st jean de maurienne and Bagneres de Luchon). If the GC contenders race, then these stages have selective profiles. (BUT I think they'll only race on the second.)

The stage to Pau obviously neutralises the Tourmalet as a source of direct, fighting it out, time gaps in the GC, so you're right there. But Kleber might have a point: its timing in the race and what comes around it will mean it will still be in the legs the next day, and will hurt anyone already carrying too much fatigue.

Philip S

I quite like the look of it.

The big stage to Pau does seem emasculated by the 50km run in, but it is a homage to Merckx and he showed what can be achieved by an aggressive ride. It is much later in the parcours than this year's Tourmalet-Lourdes stage, so there could be some riders who need to attack and make it stick. A concerted team effort could do some damage there, especially to any GC contenders who are looking weak on the Tourmalet.

The Marie-Blanc, Soulour, Tourmalet stage looks a beast though. It'll be good the see the finish line right at the summit - got to hope the riders don't go off the sheer sides up there with exhaustion (or the fans tumble off with booze exhaustion).

I like all the early pave stuff as well.

Tusher

Mmmmm.

I gather they've penalized Cav for winning so many stages in 2009. Initial reaction is that the Green Jersey is being sewn up in Thor's size.

moray_gub

disgruntledgoat wrote:

micron wrote:

Thank you kind cycling gods for taking out the farce that is the TTT - appreciate the spectacle but it has far too much influence on GC.

Contador will have to watch out for the stage that finished in the Arenberg, though, so as not to get done over on the cobbles like Mayo did.

Whilst Iban Mayo would love it to be remembered that he was defeated on the cobbles, it's not true. He was defeated in a silly crash on an A road about 30km before the cobbles and took about 5 imnutes to get up again.

Was it as much as 30 kms? i seem to remember when he crashed Disco and CSC arrived a the cobbles shortly after and hammered away on the front the result being 2 minutes suddenly became 4 or 5 .

iainf72

Looking at it again, it's better than this years.

The summit finishes are a lot more likely to have an impact than this year where basically only one of them was meaningful

disgruntledgoat

My recollection,as ever I stand to be corrected, was that Mayo had the crash, took an age to get up and was chasing with 2 teammates to get back up the bunch. So knackered were they, and exposed by the time they got to th cobbles that the gap went out to 5 minutes (as you say) as Hincapie etc hammered it up the front

I think they got the gap down to about 3 and a half minutes by the close of play, but it was the effort expended that killed them.

DaveyL

I think T-Mobile were also riding hard on the front that day. It's not only USPS that would've wanted one of the main contenders distanced...

afx237vi

13 km of cobbles, compared to 4 in 2004.

iainf72

28.4km in 83, when men were men and Spaniards were bricking it

DaveyL

Except for Mr Flecha. Did anyone ever check whether he's really Spanish, and not actually born in Flanders?

Cumulonimbus

iainf72 wrote:

Looking at it again, it's better than this years.

The summit finishes are a lot more likely to have an impact than this year where basically only one of them was meaningful

The stage to Ax 3 domaines looks good. 15km at 8.1%, then a sharp drop followed by 8km at 8.3%. Certainly potential there to get some time although two hard stages follow.

Kléber

DaveyL wrote:

Except for Mr Flecha. Did anyone ever check whether he's really Spanish, and not actually born in Flanders?

Born in Argentina, that must explain something.