Skip Madness
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The Tour de l'Aude starts in six weeks' time. The official website still hasn't got stage profiles for this year's event up, but they have put up stage timetables from which the parcours can be deduced. Whisper it, but it actually looks like the best route for some years and a considerable improvement on last year's. Still no return for any mountain-top finish, though. Most stages start and finish in the same town - stages seven and eight are the exception.
The prologue individual time trial in Gruissan is 3.9km and flat.
Stage one is the longest of the race (117km), and is pretty much made for the sprinters.
Stage two will begin to develop the GC. It's a team time trial, and a pretty decisive one at 34.5km.
Stage three sees a couple of second category climbs tackled half-way through a stage which otherwise shouldn't worry the sprinters.
Stage four, starting and finishing in Osseja, is where things get interesting as the climbing begins:
Chaos de Targassone (uncategorised) - 6.9km at 4.9% (finishes with 82km to go)
Col de Calvaire (hors category) - 2.0km at 11.3% (68km to go)
Col de Creu (hors category) - 3.0km at 6.8% (44km to go)
Col de la Llose (hors category) - 10.0km at 4.3% (30km to go)
Yeah, they shouldn't be hors category climbs, but we're used to that with the Tour de l'Aude by now. A nice little chain, though. And on top of that, although uncategorised, the final four kilometres are a gentle uphill run (2-3%) which could invite late attacks.
Stage five features more climbs. The first is the most severe, but the latter two could provoke a bit of damage:
Col de Corsavy (first category) - 7.0km at 7.4% (95km to go)
Col Xatard (first category) - 20.0km at 2.6% (38km to go)
Côte de la Borne (second category) - 5.5km at 3.1% (3.5km to go)
That final climb isn't much to shout about in and of itself, but coming so close to the end (and at a point when the group should have been quite depleted by the first two climbs) it's not the worst way of setting up a good finish.
Stage six is more like breakaway material, I think - the very steep Fanjeaux comes about 30km from the end, but most of the favourites should find each other on the way home if they lose touch on the climb:
Côte de Fanjeaux (second category) - 2.5km at 10.4% (28km to go)
Côte Puy de Faucher (second category) - 2.0km at 3.5% (17km to go)
Stage seven looks to be the toughest on paper, with the Dent certainly appearing to be the most decisive climb:
Col du Portel (first category) and Col de Coudens (second category) (classified separately but basically the same climb) - 13.5km at 4.4% (67km to go)
Col de Dent (hors category) - 14.0km at 5.8% (26km to go)
Côte d'Espezel (second category) - 2.9km at 7.2% (5km to go)
The remaining five kilometres after the Espezel are flat. Coming late in the day, off the back of the Col de Dent, and having a fairly sharp gradient for its admittedly short duration, the Côte d'Espezel could split apart any riders still together.
Stage eight is a little more serene. The Col du Font de Razouls might kick a few off of the back, but shouldn't be of much significance with 50 mostly flat kilometres still remaining, and a bunch sprint (or at least a partial bunch sprint) isn't out of the equation:
Col du Font de Razouls (first category) - 8.8km at 4.0% (50km to go)
Côte de Villardebelle (third category) - 1.0km at 8.0% (40km to go)
Stage nine finishes the race with a turn in the countryside and a couple of climbs of little importance before five laps in the beautiful walled city of Carcassonne for the sprinters to fight over.
I think this race could be won more traditionally than in recent editions - ie. with the strongest rider emerging over the course of the toughest stages rather than winning via a well-timed breakaway or two as has been the case at times. Certainly, if Claudia Häusler fancies going for the double double then she's unlikely to see a more favourable Tour de l'Aude to start it off than this one. That long TTT is likely to restrict it to either HTC or Cervélo, and I reckon Emma Pooley probably won't fancy some of those quite descent-heavy stages, so will probably put aside any quandaries over team leadership, until the Giro at least (oh, that's going to be great!).
Anyway, I know it's a bit early for a race thread, but I thought I'd draw the parcours to attention now it's out in case anyone wants to pore over it.
The prologue individual time trial in Gruissan is 3.9km and flat.
Stage one is the longest of the race (117km), and is pretty much made for the sprinters.
Stage two will begin to develop the GC. It's a team time trial, and a pretty decisive one at 34.5km.
Stage three sees a couple of second category climbs tackled half-way through a stage which otherwise shouldn't worry the sprinters.
Stage four, starting and finishing in Osseja, is where things get interesting as the climbing begins:
Chaos de Targassone (uncategorised) - 6.9km at 4.9% (finishes with 82km to go)
Col de Calvaire (hors category) - 2.0km at 11.3% (68km to go)
Col de Creu (hors category) - 3.0km at 6.8% (44km to go)
Col de la Llose (hors category) - 10.0km at 4.3% (30km to go)
Yeah, they shouldn't be hors category climbs, but we're used to that with the Tour de l'Aude by now. A nice little chain, though. And on top of that, although uncategorised, the final four kilometres are a gentle uphill run (2-3%) which could invite late attacks.
Stage five features more climbs. The first is the most severe, but the latter two could provoke a bit of damage:
Col de Corsavy (first category) - 7.0km at 7.4% (95km to go)
Col Xatard (first category) - 20.0km at 2.6% (38km to go)
Côte de la Borne (second category) - 5.5km at 3.1% (3.5km to go)
That final climb isn't much to shout about in and of itself, but coming so close to the end (and at a point when the group should have been quite depleted by the first two climbs) it's not the worst way of setting up a good finish.
Stage six is more like breakaway material, I think - the very steep Fanjeaux comes about 30km from the end, but most of the favourites should find each other on the way home if they lose touch on the climb:
Côte de Fanjeaux (second category) - 2.5km at 10.4% (28km to go)
Côte Puy de Faucher (second category) - 2.0km at 3.5% (17km to go)
Stage seven looks to be the toughest on paper, with the Dent certainly appearing to be the most decisive climb:
Col du Portel (first category) and Col de Coudens (second category) (classified separately but basically the same climb) - 13.5km at 4.4% (67km to go)
Col de Dent (hors category) - 14.0km at 5.8% (26km to go)
Côte d'Espezel (second category) - 2.9km at 7.2% (5km to go)
The remaining five kilometres after the Espezel are flat. Coming late in the day, off the back of the Col de Dent, and having a fairly sharp gradient for its admittedly short duration, the Côte d'Espezel could split apart any riders still together.
Stage eight is a little more serene. The Col du Font de Razouls might kick a few off of the back, but shouldn't be of much significance with 50 mostly flat kilometres still remaining, and a bunch sprint (or at least a partial bunch sprint) isn't out of the equation:
Col du Font de Razouls (first category) - 8.8km at 4.0% (50km to go)
Côte de Villardebelle (third category) - 1.0km at 8.0% (40km to go)
Stage nine finishes the race with a turn in the countryside and a couple of climbs of little importance before five laps in the beautiful walled city of Carcassonne for the sprinters to fight over.
I think this race could be won more traditionally than in recent editions - ie. with the strongest rider emerging over the course of the toughest stages rather than winning via a well-timed breakaway or two as has been the case at times. Certainly, if Claudia Häusler fancies going for the double double then she's unlikely to see a more favourable Tour de l'Aude to start it off than this one. That long TTT is likely to restrict it to either HTC or Cervélo, and I reckon Emma Pooley probably won't fancy some of those quite descent-heavy stages, so will probably put aside any quandaries over team leadership, until the Giro at least (oh, that's going to be great!).
Anyway, I know it's a bit early for a race thread, but I thought I'd draw the parcours to attention now it's out in case anyone wants to pore over it.
