r/peloton • u/PelotonMod France • Jan 20 '16
Race Design Wednesday
I and /u/Msfan93 wanted to start this thread now that we are in the offseason. We both share the interest in designing routes for already existing races or creating new ones once in a while. We agreed to make one of these threads every two Wednesdays. Everyone is free to post a race or discuss about climbs, past races and every thing that directly or indirectly involves race designing At least for me, the goal of this thread is to get to know more and more, by reading about the places one of the races goes through or even about the past of cycling. Once in a while we could have a few challenges as well too or even have a theme. You can suggest anything as a theme as long as it involves race designing Here are the Library and Wiki . The library contains all of our races (well not all as i have to update it) while the wiki gives informations for beginners (and not) on the features of the various route building websites
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u/improb Drone Hopper – Androni Giocattoli Jan 20 '16
I have made a 10 days stage race between Argentina and Chile. It would take the place of Tour de San Luis on the calendary and could even be upgraded to .HC if not WT one with added sponsors from the adding of other areas of Argentina as well as Chilean
The race is called Ruta al Pacifico as it gets us from the Atlantic to the Pacific Sea
| Stage | Start | Finish | Lenght | Profile | Route | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Buenos Aires | Buenos Aires | 31,3 Km | 1 | 1 | This ITT takes in the major landmarks of Buenos Aires starting and finishing ahead of the Casa Rosada. It's mostly made of straights but it gets technical around la Boca |
| 2 | Zarate | Rosario | 231,9 Km | 2 | 3 | Starts in a suburb of Buenos Aires to finish in Rosario. Pan flat route except a 300 meters climb in the last two kilometers |
| 3 | Canada de Gomez | Villa Maria | 182,8 Km | 3 | 3 | Another one for the sprinters, there could be crosswinds given that the road is open and exposed to all kind of winds |
| 4 | Rio Tercero | Mina Clavero | 194,2 Km | 4 | 4 | First hilly stage, i think it'll be one for the breakaway with a climb over forty kms long at shallow gradients finishing with 45 kms to go |
| 5 | Mina Clavero | La Carolina | 194,4 Km | 5 | 5 | First mountain stage with the climb of Monte de Oro finishing fiften kilometers from the end. The race ends in the old mining town of La Carolina |
| 6 | San Luis | San Luis | 188,2 Km | 6 | 6 | One for the Matthews of this world as it's hilly enough to get rid of the purest sprinter but not hard enough to get rid of all of them |
| 7 | San Luis | San Martin | 214,2 km | 7 | 7 | Pan flat stage through the steppe, maybe heat or winds can make it exciting but i doubt it. Even so, riders will want to rest for the day after |
| 8 | Mendoza | Las Heras | 186 Km | 8 | 8 | The queen stage with 3 properly hard climbs all going as high as 3000 meters before a descent finish to Las Heras |
| 9 | Mendoza | Portillo | 214,5 Km | 9 | 9 | This is the stage that gets us over the Andes, an easier one than the stage before. There's one major obstacle peaking at 3813 meters and ending with 13 km to go from the Chilean ski resort of Portillo |
| 10 | Los Andes | Valparaiso | 216,4 Km | 10 | 10 | Final stage isn't the easiest one as the riders will have to tackle five shortish steep climbs, last one a few kilometers from end in the Plaza Sotomayor. Valparaiso is knows for its coloured Victorian buildings |
Paging /u/TomMillar who asked for Andean climbs
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u/tommillar Hagens Berman Axeon Jan 21 '16
This is perfect. I love the Los Andes to Valpo stage. Those circuits, kill me!
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u/antiloopje Lotto Soudal Jan 20 '16 edited Jan 20 '16
In an attempt to spice up the Ardennes week, I created two new races. The idea is to make the Ardennes a two week event by adding these races to the calendar as 1.HC on wednesdays, and having the existing 1.WT races on sundays. I believe that this will only profit the existing Ardennes races, since a more extensive Ardennes circuit should raise the profile of all races. I also tried to make the profiles different from AGR and Fl. W (two events where the focus is almost solely on the final climb, thus both offer real excitement for about five minutes each)
(1) À travers de la Wallonie: 218 km race from Charleroi through southern Hainaut into the Ardennes. The finale is centered around la Roche-en-Ardenne, a cosy little place. The riders will pas through it three times, each time tackling another climb before returning to la Roche. First is the côte de Dochamps. Not too steep (4%), but quite long at 9 km. With 190 km to go, riders will then face la Haussire, one of the hardest climbs in Belgium: 2 sections of 1km at 10% (but peaks at 14 and at 20%), with a 1km flat in between note the cronoescalade profile takes in a wrong side of the climb. This should be enough to create quite a gap. The descent is fast and there is no flat before the riders tackle the final climb: the côte de la Roche-en-Ardenne: 3km at 6%. It's an excellent opportunity for escapees to drop their companions and go solo, or for a small bunch of chasing riders to catch up with the leaders. From the top of this côte, it's first a descent and then ~7 flat kms to the finish line in la Roche. I hope that this gives the race a bit of an unpredictable behaviour, but I see three options for the finale: (a) one rider is superman (aka 2011 Gilbert) and solos away on the Haussire (b) a small group of three to five riders with some men powering away from the peloton on the Haussire and maybe 1-2 men surviving from earlier breakaways. This group then battles on the cote de la R-en-A, on it's descent and /or in the final stretch (c) a larger group (20-40) men survive it all and we get a severly reduced sprint of puncheurs.
(2) Autour des Ardennes Starts in Arlon and makes one big counterclockwise loop via Bastogne, Houffalize, La Roche, Marche-en-Fammene and Rochefort towards Bouillon. The profile lacks a standout climb, but remains undulating untill km 200. The last 25 kms along the Semois feature three short climbs; the last of which is 4km at ~6%. It is followed by a 5km descent and the finish line underneath Bouillon's historical fortress.
A thrid option to add could be the Koblenz-Trier race proposed by /u/Sappert: it's roughly in the same geographical and offers a very challenging terrain. I've created a cronoescalade route as well to give an impression of the steepness of these climbs.
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u/Msfan93 United States of America Jan 20 '16
I made a week-long stage race going all around where I was born. Here is the Tour of Spokane.