Redesigning a Nice finale for the Tour de France 2024

The route of the Tour de France 2024 has been presented and one of his major problems, together with the lenght of the stages, above all the mountainus ones, is the design of the last two stages, around Nice. The purpose of the article is to show that simply changing those two stages, the whole route would be considerably better. I will present three different options for three different scenarios that will be explained later.

Tour de France 2022 route stage-by-stage

Can anyone beat Pogacar? That’s the question of this year Tour de France (I would say only something, not someone), but whatever your answer is and how it will play out, the organizers decided to follow what I would call the populistic way. What do I mean? They wanted an insurance that even if Pogacar will be untouchable (like last year for example), the race could still be enjoyable for the viewers. And that insurance is called “mythical climbs”: Galibier (from both sides), Croix de Fer, Alpe d’Huez, Mende, Aubisque and Hautacam all in the same edition and in key positions. Pogacar fight could switch from 2022 peloton to the historic records, like a crazy fast time on Huez. In addition, a good amount of ITT km (53,9) following the right pat after last edition (58 km) after 6 disastrous years from 2015 to 2020. But yet again, the position of the long time trial (to Rocamadour) is a nightmare, coming in the penultimate day, after all the mountains, while its purpouse would be to make the climbers lose time in the early part of the race and force them to attack hard when the road goes uphill and make the mountain stages entertaining. When it’s not up to GC riders, then ASO wanted some opportunity to see hard sprints or breakaway days, giving a nod to the two fenomenons named Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel. That’s what I call populistic. Could still be nice, almost every day of the 21 of race, but that’s easy and short show, not something complex and planned, not in an original way. This said, the lenght of the mountain stage is a total disgrace for the world of cycling, something that is become more and more usual nowadays, with the longest one not even reaching 180 km. Up to the riders then.

Giro d’Italia 2022 route stage-by-stage

Two and a half years and a world pandemic after the original presentation, the Giro will finally come to Budapest for its Grande Partenza. Fascists always cry about the politics have to be left out of the sport, but then this year Corsa Rosa will start in Orban’s Hungary, with the first stage finishing in Visegrad, a well-know city that gives the name to a group of altright-wing countries, will pass through Salò, the capital of the fascist Republic born in Italy in 1943, and will finish in Verona, the most fascist city of the whole Peninsula. Fortunately, Piazzale Loreto is big enough. Politics has always been part of the sport, used by every type of regime, above all in cycling, a really scenic and geographical (and so geopolitical) sport. Just think about the first editions of the Tour de France where the organizers went to Alsace and Lorraine now and then, even before WW1. Just need to use sport for better political instances. On a more technical note, the route is pretty bad, with a ridicolous amount of ITT km (26,6 km, the lowest number since 1962. Just to give an idea, the average since 2000 was 59,88 km – data from @ammattipyoraily), a bad design of some of the stages, and a bad order of these above all, together with their lenght. In fact, the medium mountain is great this year (Potenza, Torino and Castelmonte routes are brilliant), the problem is usually its position in the race, possibly leading the riders to wait and waste those opportunities. Still, not everything is bad and a great show is possible. Hope the riders will help.

Le bici del World Tour 2021

Dopo aver presentato le biciclette dei campioni del cross, ecco a voi le specialissime dell’élite della strada (alcuni dei quali padroni anche dell’inverno…) passate in rassegna!

Le bici del ciclocross 2020-2021

Dopo un anno di assenza, scusandoci con i nostri lettori, eccoci di nuovo a passare in rassegna le Specialissime su cui pedalano i campioni. Per iniziare, a ormai pochi giorni dalla rassegna iridata di Oostende, in questo articolo presenteremo le biciclette di coloro che sono attualmente i veri unici protagonisti, abituati a correre al freddo, nel fango e talvolta pure nella neve: l’élite del ciclocross.

A talk with… Demi Vollering!

Fortunately, there is not only road male cycling. We love all the various aspects of cycling and women are an important one. As for males, every season has its confirmations, delusions and revelations, so we thought it would have been nice to ask something to one of the best surprises of 2019: the young Dutch Demi Vollering!

Potenziali corridori TNT 2019

Dopo un anno di assenza per problemi organizzativi, torna l’annuale articolo sui corridori che potrebbero esplodere durante la stagione. Come sempre, non ho voluto mettere chi ha già avuto grandi successi o chi sarebbe stato troppo ovvio. Mi scuso per il notevole ritardo della pubblicazione, idealmente l’avrei dovuta fare a gennaio

A talk with… Benjamin Declercq!

Perhaps many of you know his brother Tim that ride for Deceuninck- Quick Step, but within Declercq family there’s another guy that rides at the very high level: the younger one, Benjamin Declercq! He rides for the Belgian (Flemish) Professional Continental team Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise.

Le bici del World Tour 2019

Anche quest’anno, in vista della partenza ormai prossima del Tour Down Under, per tutti gli appassionati di tecnica (o anche per i semplici curiosi) ho voluto fare il punto della situazione mettendo insieme tutte le specialissime con cui i team del massimo circuito mondiale andranno a gareggiare nella stagione 2019.

National Championships’ routes 2019

As we did in the last three seasons (2016 – 2017 – 2018), I would like to try to find infos about the routes of the national championships, particular and really interesting races. I will start from the beginning of the year, with the Oceanic events in the first instance. I will update the article constantly, putting the championships in reverse chronological order. As for World Championships‘ article, I will use three editors: cronoescalada, openrunner, and ridewithgps.