Tour de France 2024

[eth-dog]

I watched the Presentation. Most of it was pretty s**t, the Mayor of Nice talked I swear to Goda for 20 minutes. Was terrible.

Basic outline:

2x ITT's totaling 60 km worth of time trialing
4x hilly stages
7x mountain stages
8x flat stages

It's a terrible route quite frankly. 8 flat stages is a legitimate joke. Most of them are long and boring too. I don't see MVDP riding this, reckon he's going to the Giro instead. There are only 2 mountain stages in the first 13 stages. Going to be a bore fest up until that point. Very disappointed that stage 7 is an ITT instead of a TTT as well.

Obviously the big 4 (Vingegaard, Pogacar, Roglic and Evenepoel) will target this. The interesting thing will be whether teams like Bahrain, FDJ, Trek, Movistar, DSM, Jayco and EF send their front line stars to try to win this or target the Giro.

 

[yaco55]

It's a better route than the Giro - A variety of riders will get the chance to strutt their stuff - I am interested in what Jayco do ? Think S.Yates will do the TDF but it's a toss up which sprinter does the TDF - What i do know is that the sprinter that does the Giro will also be at the Vuelta.

 

[eth-dog]

It's a better route than the Giro - A variety of riders will get the chance to strutt their stuff - I am interested in what Jayco do ? Think S.Yates will do the TDF but it's a toss up which sprinter does the TDF - What i do know is that the sprinter that does the Giro will also be at the Vuelta.

I still think that would be a mistake. You ride Yates to be a contender for the podium at a minimum and this year the Tour course worked out perfectly for that as well as not having Roglic or Evenepoel riding it. With all the Big 4 (in the past 4 years, the only Grand Tours they haven't won are the ones they haven't finished) he's not a great chance at a podium.

In addition, this course is perfect to attack it primarily for a sprinter with so many flat stages. Split the Giro between Yates and Groenewegen, who are used to riding in tandem and give Ewan a good lead out train with Bling, Stewart and O'Brien and have Eddie maybe having one climber to support him (Zana)

 

[Vader]

I still think that would be a mistake. You ride Yates to be a contender for the podium at a minimum and this year the Tour course worked out perfectly for that as well as not having Roglic or Evenepoel riding it. With all the Big 4 (in the past 4 years, the only Grand Tours they haven't won are the ones they haven't finished) he's not a great chance at a podium.

Assuming you mean Rog, Jonas, Pog, and Remco as the big 4... none of them won the most recent GT, and 3 of the 4 finished it. Rog, Jonas and Remco were all present, and all finished behind Kuss.

In addition, this course is perfect to attack it primarily for a sprinter with so many flat stages. Split the Giro between Yates and Groenewegen, who are used to riding in tandem and give Ewan a good lead out train with Bling, Stewart and O'Brien and have Eddie maybe having one climber to support him (Zana)

Good - the Tour should have something for every type of rider. It shouldn't all be pan flat, for the sprinters. Nor should it all be hilly and/or mountains, for the mountain goats.

 

[eth-dog]

Assuming you mean Rog, Jonas, Pog, and Remco as the big 4... none of them won the most recent GT, and 3 of the 4 finished it. Rog, Jonas and Remco were all present, and all finished behind Kuss.

Good - the Tour should have something for every type of rider. It shouldn't all be pan flat, for the sprinters. Nor should it all be hilly and/or mountains, for the mountain goats.

I keep on forgetting that Jonas didn't end up winning the Vuelta. But yeah, the 4 are really the dominant riders of GC riding. Prior to that the only times someone else won one of them was Geoghegan Hart, Bernal and Hindley at the Giro, only one of which any of them rode with Remco in 2021 and he abandoned during stage 17 IIRC.

The perfect parcourse for me would be having:

1x ITT
1x TTT
6x flat
6x hilly
7x mountain

Spread over the three weeks. 3 flat in the first week, 2 in the second and one in the third.

I do like the finishing ITT though. But it's so flat, there should be at least one less flat stage and one more hilly stage at a minimum as having more flat stages than mountain is ridiculous.

 

[Over The Post]

'I'm in shock': Nice Tour de France finish masks 'very hard' route

The Tour de France will miss Paris for the first time in over a century due to the Olympic Games, as organisers set the stage for a repeat of the race's most heartbreaking finish in history.

www.abc.net.au

 

[eth-dog]

Cav, it's the flattest Tour in years.

Also lol at suggesting Groves is any chance of riding the Tour barring a Phillipsen injury

 

[yaco55]

At the end of the day, Jayco want Yates and Dunbar to ride GC and neither parcours suits Dunbar with the amount of ITT km's, so you send your best rider to the TDF. Anyway, Yates and Pena have spent the week in Taiwan for their sponsor Giant and do the Taiwan KON tomorrow.

 

[Orange Agent]

The climbing is earlier than normal, I think that's what Cav is getting at. I actually think this is better, sprint stages with some fatigue in the legs likely end up being a bit safer. Cav has only ever cared about his own interests.

For Jayco, IMO Yates can chose his races and Ewan needs to fit in around it. Teams racing has changed, nobody is going with 5 man lead out teams or sole GC leader with a whole squad of mountain domestiques. You need multiple options.

Whether there is interest in the Olympic RR could be a factor in starting here or the Giro for some. Trade teams probably don't like it but bike sponsors would value it high and for some riders the once every 4 years chance could be the clincher. I think Remco given the team he now has should go Giro/Olympics. The Olympic TT looks very flat and fast which should suit him.

 

[Over The Post]

I'll just leave this here. TdF 1962, back when they did things properly:

View attachment letour2.mp4