It's an absolute abortion of a route. Apparently designed to make us pine for the 2009 route. Jesus.
The two big Pyrenean stages are very good, especially Luz-Ardiden, I'll give them that. The Alps however, are a disgrace. Pramartino (the
only mountain stage to have a descent to the finish...) is a nice little climb but the rest of that stage is too easy to make attacks significantly biting. Agnello and Izoard are an excellent double totally ruined by the false flat leading up to the Galibier (and seriously, what is the point of a mountain-top finish there?). Likewise, there'll be no serious attacks from afar on the road to Alpe d'Huez thanks to the flat section between the Galibier and the Alpe. Maybe if there was another climb before the Galibier it would be better, but it's just poorly planned.
41km of individual time trial? Even adding on 23km of team time trial, that paltry distance against the clock is the perfect ingredient for ruining a Tour. No worries about Andy Schleck and Joaquin Rodríguez finding themselves three minutes down going into the mountains thanks to an early ITT (with the prospect of losing another three minutes later in another ITT later on and so needing to attack as much as possible). Instead every mountain stage can come down to attacks in the last five kilometres safe in the knowledge that it ought to be enough to distance
Evans and Menchov. And what's the incentive to attack from afar anyway if riders who do get away on, say, the Izoard or Télégraphe-Galibier know that they'll quite probably get dragged back on the flat sections before the last climb of the day? YouTube cycling ahoy.
Well, like I said, Luz-Ardiden ought to be good. Plateau de Beille, too. What's the deal there? This is meant to be the centenary celebration of the Alps, yet the two Queen stages come in the Pyrenees.
shoot, shoot route.
