Tour de France 2015

Allez!

Ou?

And this, you wally.

Netherlands (ITT, flat stage) then Belgium.

Grand Depart: Utrecht

I hope that's an elaborate hoax. 6 uphill finishes and just 13 kms of individual time-trialling.

I thought ASO took over Unipublic, not the other way round.

Fuck having a TTT midway through a grand tour. Really annoys me. No chance of any time gains. Like having a crit halfway through the Vuelta this summer.

However, I think there will be some great racing across Belgium and northern France in the run-up to that.

I'm going to get four or five stages in.

Mountain finishes... Meh.

UCI rules state that a TTT must take place in the first third of the race, which means the first week, to ensure teams are as close to full strength as possible. The leaked route breaks that rule.

We'll find out properly today, but I do hope some of the leaked details are deliberately false, and that the route is a bit more balanced.

I don't particularly see what's unbalanced. Maybe its short on an ITT. We all know every GT is going to produce a winner from one of four names at the moment anyway and only Froome has anything to gain from a time trial.

There should be gravel in the high mountains again.

But the entire point of a GT is it tests many facets of a rider's abilities, not just uphill finishes. Having a TT at the tail end of the race means the climbers have to gain more time on the more well rounded GT contenders, making for a more attacking race.

This route, which I hope is wrong, looks far too weighted in the favour of the climbers who specialise in late bursts to win stages and bag time bonuses. I bet Joaquim Rodriguez can barely believe his luck.

He probably did a fist punch.

The Tour hasn't had time bonuses for a few years.
It's live on the internet now.

The opening bit about Utrecht has been written by the LCC.

^^ What now? In October? Steephill or Cyclingfans?

At least Sinatra sang a few songs when he made his frequent comebacks.

Rumoured to be returning in 2015.

Let's see.

I'm a Nancy boy.

Lost the accent though.

Wasn't a hoax then…

That was interesting.

dubtap was right of course from what I remember

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That route has Frank Schleck written all over it.

Stage 4

more cobbles!