Three Fast Takeaways: Tour de France 2024 Route Reveal: The recently-released 2024 Tour route teases a showdown between the game’s greatest GC riders, whereas additionally doubtlessly making a race the place the highest contenders lay in wait till the ultimate week. Spencer Martin offers us his 2024 Tour de France breakdown and takeaways.
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The route of the Tour de France 2024
The Tour de France organizers, ASO, revealed the route for the 2024 Tour de France yesterday in Paris at a shiny occasion with among the sport’s largest stars in attendance. Main highlights just like the inclusion of a international begin in Italy, a big quantity of gravel on Stage 9 (condolences to Jumbo-Visma GM Richard Plugge), the Col du Galibier on Stage 4, and a serious departure from custom by ending the race with a mountainous time trial between Monaco and Good as an alternative of the standard dash stage on the Champs-Élysées in Paris have many followers pundits buzzing and pouring over each obtainable element in an effort to forecast how the race will play out. Nonetheless, one thing to bear in mind is simply how little the route reveals to us about how the race will really unfold on the highway come July. The route is a superb information, however since issues hardly ever play out as anticipated, seemingly benign levels can explode the race, and extremely anticipated Queen levels can flip into action-less stalemates, you will need to stress that it’s the riders and situations, not the route, that makes the race.
2024 Tour de France map
2024 Tour de France Route Overview:
As talked about above, the highlights for 2024 are the international begin in Florence, Italy, an early Alpine day with the peloton tackling the brutal Col du Galibier on Stage 4 on the highway again to France, a gravel problem on Stage 9, the tough third week and the end with an especially robust time trial in Good as an alternative of the standard procession in Paris (because of the 2024 Olympics taking up town). Notably, the areas within the Northwest of the nation, just like the cycling-mad Brittany, have been utterly excluded for the third consecutive 12 months.
Full Stage Checklist:
Stage 1: Florence > Rimini (205km)-hills
Stage 2: Cesenatico > Bologna (200km)-hills
Stage 3: Piacenza > Turin (225km)-flat
Stage 4: Pinerolo > Valloire (138km)-mountains
Stage 5: Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne > Saint Vulbas (177km)-flat
Stage 6: Mâcon > Dijon (163km)-flat
Stage 7: Nuits-Saint-Georges > Gevrey-Chambertin (25km)-ITT
Stage 8: Semur-en-Auxois > Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises (176km)-flat
Stage 9: Troyes > Troyes (199km)-Gravel
July ninth: Relaxation Day #1
Stage 10: Orléans > Saint-Amand-Montrond (187km)-flat
Stage 11: Évaux-les-Bains > Le Lioran (211km)-mountains w/summit end
Stage 12: Aurillac > Villeneuve-sur-Lot (204 km)-flat
Stage 13: Agen > Pau (171km)-flat
Stage 14: Pau > Saint-Lary-Soulan Pla d’Adet (152km)-mountains w/summit end
Stage 15: Loudenvielle > Plateau de Beille (198km)-mountains w/summit end
July fifteenth: Relaxation Day #2
Stage 16: Gruissan > Nîmes (187km)-flat
Stage 17: Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux > Superdévoluy (178km)-hills
Stage 18: Hole > Barcelonnette (179km)-hills
Stage 19: Embrun > Isola 2000 (145km)-mountains w/summit end
Stage 20: Good > Col de la Couillole (133km)-mountains w/summit end
Stage 21: Monaco > Good (34km)-ITT (mountainous)
Breakdown by Stage Kind:
- 7 mountain levels
- 8 flat(ish) levels
- 4 hilly levels
- 2 time trials
Emilia-Romagna Grand Départ – TourdeFrance 2024
Three Preliminary Takeaways
1) On this floor, this can be a balanced route, however dig somewhat deeper, and main eccentricities emerge
- One of many main headlines popping out of Wednesday’s reveal was how a lot this route has discovered a steadiness between particular person time trial and climbing.
- For instance, the 59 kilometers of particular person time trialing is essentially the most since 2013, and properly above the 2010-2013 common of 46.4kms.
- And, on the flip aspect, the estimated 53,095 of vertical meters gained is lower than final 12 months, which takes the BTP Problem Score (whole vertical meters gained over whole TT kilometers) down from 2023’s insane 25.4 to a extra cheap 9.0.
- Whereas this may increasingly make the course seem balanced, if we glance deeper, the opening weekend in Italy, which options three levels over 200 kilometers, together with a big quantity of climbing, and the passage of the Col du Galibier en path to France on Stage 4, are extraordinarily uncommon and can create a tough opening few days of racing.
- For reference, the complete 2023 Tour de France solely featured two levels over 200 kilometers, whereas the 2024 will characteristic that within the first two levels, and finish with a complete of 5 200+km levels.
- Along with a considerable amount of gravel on Stage 9, these lengthy, tough levels contained in the opening week virtually actually gained’t be onerous sufficient to create vital daylight between the key GC contenders however shall be robust sufficient to weed out anybody not on the extent essential to compete for the win, complicate the race for the highest contenders, and in the end, have them racing extremely conservatively (See: Takeaway 3).
The White Roads on stage 9 – TourdeFrance 2024
2) Apparently, these course particulars will probably have little impact on the eventual winner
- The open secret concerning the Tour de France is that it doesn’t matter what the course seems to be like and what number of time trial kilometers and vertical climbing meters, the race performs out extremely equally, and the winners are virtually at all times the identical kind of rider.
- For instance, since 2015, regardless of all kinds of problem scores, all however two editions have been gained by the rider who’s each an especially sturdy time trialist and climber who, for lack of deeper evaluation, is solely the strongest rider throughout each kind of terrain.
Previous Winner Checklist, Specialty & Course Problem Score:
2010: Alberto Contador, climber, 8.32
2011: Cadel Evans, hybrid climber/time trialist, 11.98
2012: Bradley Wiggins, time trialist, 5.03
2013: Chris Froome, hybrid climber/time trialist, 7.8
2014: Vincenzo Nibali, climber, 9.41
2015: Chris Froome, hybrid climber/time trialist, 34.7
2016: Chris Froome, hybrid climber/time trialist, 9.88
2017: Chris Froome, hybrid climber/time trialist, 13.27
2018: Geraint Thomas, hybrid climber/time trialist, 15.48
2019: Egan Bernal, climber, 19.36
2020: Tadej Pogačar, hybrid climber/time trialist, 16.36
2021: Tadej Pogačar, hybrid climber/time trialist, 8.90
2022: Jonas Vingegaard, hybrid climber/time trialist, 9.22
2023: Jonas Vingegaard, hybrid climber/time trialist 25.4
2024: ?, 9.0 - This predictability of racing fashion and winner kind is because of the extraordinarily excessive stakes of even minor outcomes on the Tour creating an all-out kind of racing that neutralizes highway levels by limiting the time gaps on even the toughest levels and locations a serious emphasis on time trials, even when the uncooked quantity is extraordinarily small, since TTs are one of many solely items of the course the place the strongest rider can pull away from the others.
Maillot Jaune LCL – TourdeFrance 2024
3) The back-loaded nature of this course may, sadly, make the racing extra harking back to the slogs of latest Giros than the early motion of latest Excursions
- With one much less summit end and fewer total climbing than the 2023 Tour, the 2024 version might seem to characteristic a milder course, however the truth that it’s so weighted in the direction of dash levels within the first two weeks, and so loaded with mountains within the closing one, together with the ultimate time trial, will create a tough race that may probably produce extremely cagey and conservative racing till the ultimate few levels.
- For instance, seven of the eight potential dash levels happen within the first two weeks, and 4 of the 5 summit finishes happen within the closing week, with no vital uphill end earlier than stage 11.
- It is going to be a terrifying prospect for anybody who carefully watched the 2023 Giro d’Italia, however this route has the potential to reflect the near-absurd lack of GC motion via the primary 3/4ths of race as all the principle contenders notice that Primož Roglič’s tactic at that race of sitting tight for practically the complete race earlier than banking every little thing on the ultimate few uphill finishes and the ultimate time trial is the perfect path to profitable this Tour.
The Tour’23 podium
# Spencer Martin is the writer of the cycling-analysis e-newsletter Past the Peloton that breaks down the nuances of every race and solutions huge image questions surrounding group and rider efficiency. Join now to get full entry to all of the obtainable content material and race breakdowns. #
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