Tour route 2020

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  • davidof
    davidof Posts: 3,032
    Anyway, enough of this women's cycling stuff, what of the Loze, well I went to ride it yesterday but not with the Madeleine and it is a pretty hard end to the climb. Here are some impressions

    https://youtu.be/Zg0bGb9LEWc
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  • dodgy
    dodgy Posts: 2,890
    Nice job David, reminds me more of Lakeland (UK) type climb profiles than the Alps!
  • davidof
    davidof Posts: 3,032
    dodgy wrote:
    Nice job David, reminds me more of Lakeland (UK) type climb profiles than the Alps!

    Yeah, it is a bit like that. :-).

    I guess all the favourites will wait for the Altiport before putting in a few digs.
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  • amrushton
    amrushton Posts: 1,249
    It's getting bigged up as if it's some wall. On the day there will be the usual line out with everyone marking each other then a couple of chancers will take off and if required Froome/bernal maybe thomas and other contenders will close the gap subject to who is out front and what the time gaps are.
  • Dorset_Boy
    Dorset_Boy Posts: 6,873
    Chapeau David. I didn't ride it when I was there in the summer, but the locals were saying the new road is a real brute.

    Having worked for 5 winters in Meribel, i found riding up through the village significantly easier than walking up! In fact the climb from the valley to the Ronde Point, and even Altiport is really nice.

    It may be too steep for anyone to attack?
  • davidof
    davidof Posts: 3,032
    Dorset Boy wrote:

    It may be too steep for anyone to attack?

    That's what worries me (and obviously some of the other posters) - that the racing will just be neutralized. It doesn't happen as much in the other GTs but seems the way of le Tour.
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  • DeVlaeminck
    DeVlaeminck Posts: 8,718
    awavey wrote:

    at least Annemiek van Vleuten has called it out as a glorified crit race which she says she really has no interest in competing in and that shouldnt be on the world tour calendar, as neither should the Ride London classique fwiw imo for the same reason.

    Good on her, both races boring as hell and I am one who enjoys watching the women's racing.
    [Castle Donington Ladies FC - going up in '22]
  • davidof wrote:
    Anyway, enough of this women's cycling stuff, what of the Loze, well I went to ride it yesterday but not with the Madeleine and it is a pretty hard end to the climb. Here are some impressions

    https://youtu.be/Zg0bGb9LEWc

    Awesome insight, thanks.
  • mididoctors
    mididoctors Posts: 16,645
    The lack of progress if not regression of women's cycling is the elephant in the room... The women should boycot it?


    For the men it's quite the parcours this 2020 tour.
    "If I was a 38 year old man, I definitely wouldn't be riding a bright yellow bike with Hello Kitty disc wheels, put it that way. What we're witnessing here is the world's most high profile mid-life crisis" Afx237vi Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:43 pm
  • gsk82
    gsk82 Posts: 3,439
    The lack of progress if not regression of women's cycling is the elephant in the room... The women should boycot it?


    For the men it's quite the parcours this 2020 tour.

    Its one race.

    If ASO aren't interested in putting on women's races they shouldn't have to. If women's racing is to grow, they need to stop acting like a charity case and stop trying to piggyback off the men's races. All the whining about not having a women's tdf does nothing but devalue their other races.

    Who cares if there's a race in France or not?
    "Unfortunately these days a lot of people don’t understand the real quality of a bike" Ernesto Colnago
  • RichN95.
    RichN95. Posts: 27,137
    gsk82 wrote:
    The lack of progress if not regression of women's cycling is the elephant in the room... The women should boycot it?


    For the men it's quite the parcours this 2020 tour.

    Its one race.

    If ASO aren't interested in putting on women's races they shouldn't have to. If women's racing is to grow, they need to stop acting like a charity case and stop trying to piggyback off the men's races. All the whining about not having a women's tdf does nothing but devalue their other races.

    Who cares if there's a race in France or not?
    The ASO aren't interested but I wonder if one of the big French women's stage races could licence the Trademark from them. Because that's all the women actually want - the name

    I've often thought that a Women's Tour could run alongside the Dauphine (with a couple of extra stages). The stumbling block would be the French Open tennis restricting TV options
    Twitter: @RichN95
  • cal_stewart
    cal_stewart Posts: 1,840
    Think the problem is there just isn’t the casual interest for women’s racing in general. It’s just not up to the same standard which is the elephant in the room. As a customer which we are a viewers, I don’t fancy watching a sub par product for years waiting for it to get better.
    eating parmos since 1981

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  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 72,218

    Think the problem is there just isn’t the casual interest for women’s racing in general. It’s just not up to the same standard which is the elephant in the room. As a customer which we are a viewers, I don’t fancy watching a sub par product for years waiting for it to get better.

    Is there evidence to support this? only I think the evidence points to the opposite.
  • ddraver
    ddraver Posts: 26,348
    +1

    I really don't care what sex the riders are. There is no difference between mens or womens cycling that makes any difference to the viewer. That should be one of the best things about it.
    We're in danger of confusing passion with incompetence
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  • RichN95.
    RichN95. Posts: 27,137

    Think the problem is there just isn’t the casual interest for women’s racing in general. It’s just not up to the same standard which is the elephant in the room. As a customer which we are a viewers, I don’t fancy watching a sub par product for years waiting for it to get better.

    Is there evidence to support this? only I think the evidence points to the opposite.
    To be fair to Cal, he said 'casual interest' which discounts anyone who posts on a cycling forum. It's the sort of people who tune into the Tour de France and not much else.
    Twitter: @RichN95
  • My family tend to tune into the Womens Tour, which tends to go through their neck of the woods, but not the TdY, which goes through mine. Suggests that at least part of the battle for casual interest in France might be won by taking women's races across a wider geographical area and not by limiting them to a brief spin around Paris each year, regardless of who organises it.
  • briantrumpet
    briantrumpet Posts: 17,685
    term1te said:



    inseine wrote:

    Final stage starts a 15 min ride from my house :) They started Paris-Nice there a few years ago.


    A rideable distance from my house too :D

    Darn it, if I didn't have to work in the UK, there'd be a lot I could get to from my house in the south east.
  • briantrumpet
    briantrumpet Posts: 17,685
    Er, sorry, multi-quote fail there...
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 72,218
    RichN95. said:

    Think the problem is there just isn’t the casual interest for women’s racing in general. It’s just not up to the same standard which is the elephant in the room. As a customer which we are a viewers, I don’t fancy watching a sub par product for years waiting for it to get better.

    Is there evidence to support this? only I think the evidence points to the opposite.
    To be fair to Cal, he said 'casual interest' which discounts anyone who posts on a cycling forum. It's the sort of people who tune into the Tour de France and not much else.
    The crowds for women's only races seem pretty good from what I have seen. Much better than some of the big hitting World Tour races in the men's.
  • RichN95. said:

    Think the problem is there just isn’t the casual interest for women’s racing in general. It’s just not up to the same standard which is the elephant in the room. As a customer which we are a viewers, I don’t fancy watching a sub par product for years waiting for it to get better.

    Is there evidence to support this? only I think the evidence points to the opposite.
    To be fair to Cal, he said 'casual interest' which discounts anyone who posts on a cycling forum. It's the sort of people who tune into the Tour de France and not much else.
    The crowds for women's only races seem pretty good from what I have seen. Much better than some of the big hitting World Tour races in the men's.
    Our of interest such as?
    The only stand alone races I've seen that attracts decent crowds are the Italian ones: The Giro Rosa and the Trofeo Alfie Binda.

    Sure the crowds were big in Yorkshire and a lot of casual viewers will have tuned into the BBC's coverage, but you can't tell me that as a result of that turkey, new folks will be flocking roadside.

    "Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 72,218
    Women's Tour of Britain gets good turn out.
  • flite
    flite Posts: 219
    As a fairly casual viewer, this year I watched roadside the TdY, TofB, and a couple of days of the world champs (Men's TT and Women's RR), as they were all a reasonable distance from home.
    If the Women's Tour comes this way one year, I'll watch that. If the TofB doesn't, I'll miss that.
    Watching from the roadside, I think both are equally entertaining (though I do love a TT or even better a TTT, which the women don't often get a chance to race)
    On TV, I'll watch either men's or women's racing, and tbh, I find the womens is often more interesting, provided they are given good commentators, not second-rate ones. It's chicken and egg - good coverage will attract more interest.
  • Longshot
    Longshot Posts: 940
    ddraver said:

    +1

    I really don't care what sex the riders are. There is no difference between mens or womens cycling that makes any difference to the viewer. That should be one of the best things about it.

    Yes, agreed.
    You can fool some of the people all of the time. Concentrate on those people.