l’Etape du Tour 2016
Comments
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They usually put up a marquee, or rather a whole village of marquees - they will need a very large carpark or field... They've not confirmed where this is yet to those exhibiting at the village...0
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akastana wrote:They usually put up a marquee, or rather a whole village of marquees - they will need a very large carpark or field... They've not confirmed where this is yet to those exhibiting at the village...
Cheers. Best place would definitely be the Palais des Sports as there is a large, flat carpark outside and it has easy access from all directions. I assume this is where the stage depart will be (it was where the Dauphiné was a couple of years ago).
The car park at Cote 2000 is not tarmacked, although there is a large meadow beside it; neither is particularly level and there is only one road in/out...0 -
as Bound4Glory correctly predicted - Etape Village is at the Airport - Cote 2000 they just sent exhibitors the plans0
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Me and a mate have a 3 bed room in a nice (4*?) hotel in Megeve for the 2 nights of the Etape, so may have a spare place.....0
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if you are stuck for getting back to Megeve on Sunday after the race it looks like trains run every hour from Cluses to St Gervais les Bains - that's a mostly downhill ride from Morzine to the train station and 20 minutes on the train along the valley...0
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Mostly downhill with about 400 metres of climbing!0
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I'm hearing rumours of a change to the route as Ramaz has a landslide. Down to cluse, up the joux plan then through morzine and up the lindarets climb to Avoriaz then back down to morzine. The lindarets climb is great with some killer steep sections0
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Would be a shame to miss out Ramaz, it's a great climb. Although that modification would make the logistics a lot easier as it would mean the main Taninges - Les Gets - Morzine road could be kept open.
Is the road fixed on the descent from Joux Plane to Morzine? I'm sure I read something saying that it had got worse over the winter, ie almost completely collapsed.0 -
take a look at a morzine locals [url=bloghttp://blog.alpine-property.com/2016/05/19/col-de-joux-plane-open-closed/]bloghttp://blog.alpine-property.com/201 ... en-closed/[/url]0
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@ present the road over the Joux Plane down into Morzine is officially closed. There are extensive road works & it's not expected to open until July. However, it is passable to walk through carrying bike. I wouldn't do that however during the week though when it is under construction. The descent from the Col de la Ramaz, onto Praz de Lys/Col de la Savoliere is also officially closed. There is a minor landslide blocking part of the road (D328) & the whole banking is unstable. It should be ok by July. Furthermore, the Col de Ramaz is officially closed for all traffic but easily driven or ridden. They are waiting for the snow to clear before resurfacing the final 200m over the top of the Col. Might have to walk, take cleat covers.0
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Anyone got their race numbers yet? Seems a bit late this year......?0
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Great course this year... bit envious... :-)left the forum March 20230
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bernithebiker wrote:Anyone got their race numbers yet? Seems a bit late this year......?
Race numbers seem to have gone up on the ASO site this evening.
Mine's a 5 figure number, not that I deserve any better as I will be in the category of "trying to get round in the time allowed".0 -
JS14 wrote:bernithebiker wrote:Anyone got their race numbers yet? Seems a bit late this year......?
Race numbers seem to have gone up on the ASO site this evening.
Mine's a 5 figure number, not that I deserve any better as I will be in the category of "trying to get round in the time allowed".
I'm absolutely gutted - 8055. Seems they didn't recognise my login, and my top 500's of previous years weren't taken into account. I've asked them if I can move up a bit and they said speak to someone on the day with proof of previous performances and 'maybe' but no guarantee. As I'm getting older, I reckon this was my last chance to finish in the top 300.
Even my mate, who is a fair bit slower than me has 2685!
Anyone with a sub 3000 number want to swap? Could be a Cyclespeed T-shirt in it for you!!0 -
I've moved up to 7050 from 13050 last year, I rode last year's event but was also a bit more bolder with my prediction for my finishing time, which I think has helped.0
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8050 for me.....0
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don't think it really matters where you start off Im in the 4000s and have been in 2000s and 9000s before, it makes no difference what so ever. anyone who is going to do a decent time will be seeded up front anyway !0
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torico wrote:don't think it really matters where you start off Im in the 4000s and have been in 2000s and 9000s before, it makes no difference what so ever. anyone who is going to do a decent time will be seeded up front anyway !
It makes a world of difference.
If you start up the front with fast riders, you will be pulled along any flats at high speeds without much effort on your part.
If further back and looking to ride fast, you will constantly overtaking riders, doing all the work by yourself.0 -
bernithebiker wrote:torico wrote:don't think it really matters where you start off Im in the 4000s and have been in 2000s and 9000s before, it makes no difference what so ever. anyone who is going to do a decent time will be seeded up front anyway !
It makes a world of difference.
If you start up the front with fast riders, you will be pulled along any flats at high speeds without much effort on your part.
If further back and looking to ride fast, you will constantly overtaking riders, doing all the work by yourself.
I'm with bernithebiker on this, last year I started at the back as it was my first etape and got caught up in an accident on the descent of the first climb. This delay meant that the broom wagon swept up a lot of riders which may have finished had it not been for the delay. Also the feed stations, where really busy and overcrowded so much so they had ran out of still water at the feed station at the foot of the Col du Glandon which meant I had to fill up with fizzy water - not a pleasant experience!0 -
There's not many places where there's any drafting on this route, I can't see me getting in a group, possibly to the base of the joux plane but it's not particularly far. The flat before the Ramaz is not exactly flat once you leave marignier0
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I can see at least 40km of fairly flat riding where being in a good group will definitely help big time. And also, being in a good group whilst climbing helps too; slightly less from a drafting point of view (although not negligible), but also psychologically (not wanting to get dropped).0
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believe me if theres a group forming and its riding a tad slower than I would like I will be hanging on the back! Ive never found a group in the etape apart from the start at Annecy but that was short lived and possibly going too fast for my liking. the start this year will be the same as its down hill for 8km. the little bit of flat through the valley before marignier will be over in a blink and ill be whacking some food in most likely. from marignier to the base of the ramaz climbs quite a bit and as I usually ride to heart rate, Ill be mindful of pushing hard here bearing in mind the sting of the joux plane. From taninges theres a flat through town ( possibly 2 mins) then theres a short climb up to the back road ( possibly gains 60 m) and then its fast all the way to samoens. this is really the only part where you might find a group, the chances the group is going the speed you want is pretty hard to determine and to be honest it will have no relation to the start pen you have been given. I reckon theres less than 30 mins of group riding potential. you might find a nice group at the top of the joux plane which could be useful to drag you up the ranfolly(70m) but by then the adrenaline should kick in and its a great descent to morzine ... my friend has the KOM for the descent ...not sure hes going to keep that!0
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torico wrote:the chances the group is going the speed you want is pretty hard to determine and to be honest it will have no relation to the start pen you have been given.
Start numbers are handed out according to previous performances (even though it seems to have gone a bit wrong for me!)
The front 1000 pen (2 x 500 normally) is full of very fast riders, so if you can hang on to them you're doing well. (I know the French guy that won last year's Etape, semi-pro, lives down the road from me in Brittany).
Generally speaking, the slower riders are at the back - this makes sense, as noone wants Cat 1 racers threading their way through 'cyclo-touristes'.
But clearly the system isn't perfect and fast 1st timers for example, may be back in the 8000's+ and finish in the top 1000.torico wrote:I reckon theres less than 30 mins of group riding potential. you might find a nice group at the top of the joux plane which could be useful to drag you up the ranfolly(70m) but by then the adrenaline should kick in and its a great descent to morzine ... my friend has the KOM for the descent ...not sure hes going to keep that!
There's a good 40km that I can see - in a fast group you could hope to do that at 40km/h or so. Solo, and dodging cyclotouristes, more like 35.0 -
nope the system is far from perfect and I feel sorry for the guys with high numbers who seemingly are the slowest and have the harder job avoiding getting scooped up by the broom wagon. I tend to enjoy passing people at the end of the ride so am happy with my start number. I do normally find that lots pass me at the start though!. it should be a great day and am looking forward to it more than most years! In reality I think its only the top 500 that are accurately seeded, the rest is a bit of a lottery! you do also see a load of people with low numbers that seem to have bought their low number - I recall at Annecy seeing some very out of shape riders with trek travel with seriously low numbers. Fair enough I suppose, its not like they get in the way!0
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oh by the way the flat bit from taninges to samoens is about 10km with about 100m of height gain0
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Indeed - I have seen some in the sub 1000 pen, who look distinctly out of place, and uncomfortable with it! Pretty outrageous to think that some tour companies are buying their way into the front. If this can be proven, those responsible should be named and shamed. Needless to say, Cyclespeed would never stoop to such a thing!
I know that Taninges to Samoens section well as we used to live in Geneva and owned a chalet in Samoens (Verchaix). I wasn't big into road cycling then, but often did that 50km or so journey. What our French friends would call a 'faux plat'!
I know the Joux Plane well too - that is a tough col; there will be some casualties there.0 -
If anyone is still looking for accommodation (unlikely but you never know), our next door neighbour has just had a cancellation for their cosy 1-bedroom apartment. It can sleep up to 5 people. We're 15km from Megeve and the route comes right past our front door, on the first climb to the Col des Aravis. PM me for details if you're interested.0
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I am guessing Bernie just wants to use the 'borrowed', low race number just to get in a better start pen and then he plans do the replace it with his real number. Otherwise he won't get any credit for a good performance this year when it comes to allocating numbers next year.
ASO Challenges keeps your past EDT times going back several years, so it should be easy for them to cross check the info on past performances, even if different ASO accounts were used by the same person in different years. If Bernie can find his previous logins (assuming that's what went wrong), I would try emailing ASO again with the info and politely asking them to reconsider in your best French.0 -
This is what they said;
Vous ne vous êtes pas inscrit avec le même compte que l'année dernière, c'est pour cette raison que nous n'avions pas votre historique pour l'attribution des dossards.
Nous vous invitons à vous présenter au moment du retrait des dossards avec un justificatif de performance de l'année dernière pour voir s'il est possible de vous avancer. Nous ne vous garantissons néanmoins aucun changement de sas.
Which basically means that I used a different account (not sure how/why?!) so they couldn't acccess my past data.
They suggest I show my past performance data (Strava?!) when checking in, to MAYBE move up a bit - but with no guarantees!!0
