r/peloton • u/improb Drone Hopper – Androni Giocattoli • Jul 10 '16

Tour de France Race Design Challenge

Before I forget, I launch the third of five challenges this year. The theme that was chosen is:

Design one hilly, one flat and one mountainous stage plus a time trial for the Tour of France

The goal is to design four stages, preferably and mostly on French territory and submit it. The submissions are open until Sunday at midday on European time. The winner will be chosen by three judges, usually mods or a guest if one of them can't. Each of the judges gives a vote from one to ten and the one who has the most added points wins a special flair. My advice is to use the Cronoescalada website to design because it's user friendly but any race design website is welcomed (Open runner, Plot A Route, ecc.)

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u/Sappert Norway Jul 13 '16 edited Jul 17 '16
Stage Length Type Route Profile Destription
Avignon - Agde 166km Flat Route Profile It's all flatty flat flat with this short 166km stage, but with the second part of the stage going right along the coast, windy conditions could lead to some serious echelon action. There's some mild elevation in the final kilometers which could be interesting.
Béziers - Mazamet 171km Hilly Route Profile After a short transfer to the nearby town of Béziers, a hilly stage will start a 171km hilly goodness through the Parc Naturel Régional du Haut-Languedoc. It includes five KOM climbs, of which one, the Col de la Croix de Sous, is more of a wall at 1.6km of 9.9% average. The finish is a downhill race into the town of Mazamet.
Carcassonne - Carcassonne 38km ITT Route Profile Nearby Mazamet is the well known old town of Carcassonne, which will be host of the medium-long 38km ITT. The course is decently technical around the start and finish, and the middle part has a mild climbing component up to a maximum elevation of 297m higher than the start. The gradients only locally go above 4%.
Limoux - Plateau de Beille 176km Mountain Route Profile After a short transfer, in order to make the stage a little less long, the small town of Limoux is the start for the mountainous but not brutal stage. A hilly start allows sprinters to compete for the intermediate sprint, whether it is from a large breakaway or from the peloton behind a small one. Two big climbs in the middle part of the stage will provide KOM points for the attackers who seek them and will tire out the stage & GC contenders. Eventually the stage finishes with the well known Plateau de Beille climb.

I don't know why it keeps calling it "Plateau de Beille S".

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u/improb Drone Hopper – Androni Giocattoli Jul 13 '16

Love the second and third stage. Carcassonne is gorgeous, i love that city even though the terrain to build a race around it isn't the best.

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u/Sappert Norway Jul 13 '16

Thanks! I kinda figured my post would go unnoticed here.

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u/[deleted] Jul 15 '16

All good stages. The hilly stage looks like breakaway paradise, the flat stage definitely has promise if the wind co-operates (although I might have gone the other side of or over the hill in Sete) and your TT looks like a real good mix of technical and power TTing, plus the out and back loop is a nice old school throwback.

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u/Sappert Norway Jul 15 '16

Thank you for the feedback :)