Team Rankings Giro 2015

A+  Lampre Merida
Lampre came into the Giro with very limited expectations.They didn't have an overall threat and in Modolo they have a capable but not spectacular sprinter. Yet, they finished the Giro with three stage wins (Polanc, Ulissi and Modolo) and a third place in the points classification. They will worry about the lack of an overall contender, the weight of GC success rests firmly on Rui Costa and Rafael Valls' shoulders, both of whom will be riding the Tour in July.

A+  Astana

Landa was just one of the Astana juggernaut which put Aru in
2nd

A Giro of surprises for the Astana team. Aru performed above the expectations of even the most rabid of tifosi and Landa delivered on his early career promise. Whilst the young Astana contingent were busy romping up the GC rankings and picking up stage wins the old man of the team, Paolo Tiralongo also jumped on the bandwagon and grabbed a stage win to leave Astana finishing with five stage wins and 2nd and 3rd overall.

A  Movistar
Another team who came to the Giro with minimal expectations but will leave with a strong haul of results. They entered the Giro with no real overall aspirations but they have left with a future Grand Tour podium finishers in Amador. They also took a stage win with Intxausti and the mountains competition with Giovanni Visconti. A solid performance from the Spanish team.

Amador was a very surprising 4th overall for the Spanish
team.

A-  BMC
Expectations were low for the American team. They had no real overall contender and stage successes seemed to be limited to breakaway success. However they've ended the Giro with a top 10 for Damiano Caruso and two opportunistic stage wins for Gilbert. There will be a little bit of disappointment that Rick Zabel seems to be a long way off winning a sprint although he is still young. The biggest concern will be for Atapuma who didn't ever look likely to finish high up overall or win a stage, he's only 27 so yet to reach his peak but he would've liked to have shown more in this race.

B  Orica GreenEdge
Orica continued their Grand Tour habit of dominating the first week before falling away for the last two. They bagged a win in the team time trial and another with Michael Matthews plus four stages in pink as a team. However the last two weeks were woeful, Matthews did nothing in the sprints until he retired before the time trial and their highest overall finisher was Esteban Chaves who came 56th, over 3 hours down.

B-  Cannondale Garmin
It's been an awful season so far for the Italian/American team but this Giro has been one of the few bright points. It was a poor first ten days for Hesjedal who seemingly lost time on every single day but the Giro was saved by Davide Formolo's excellent victory into La Spezia and further gloss was added by Hesjedal's excellent riding in the last week. His charge up the the overall standings was a point of interest in a final week which was largely devoid of interest after Contador galloped away on the Mortirolo.

B-  Katusha
It was looking rosier before the stage to Sestriere where Trofimov fell away to 10th from 6th position. That he had been riding so high was a surprise but a pleasant one for the Russians who sent a pretty ordinary team to Italy. The extraordinary season of Ilnur Zakarin continued with a stage win into Imola, all in all though it was a Giro that won't live long in the memory for the Katusha team.

B-  Bardiani CSF Pro Team
They did what Bardiani do, Pirazzi launched some ridiculous long range attacks and they picked up a stage win from a breakaway. Somewhat unbelievably, Nicola Boem was in the points jersey for three days after his stage win despite his previous stage highest being 110th! What will be disappointing for the Italian team is that despite his number of attacks, Pirazzi never really looked like winning a stage, he did come 22nd overall though, the highest of any wildcard team.

C+  Lotto Soudal
This was meant to be the Grand Tour where Jurgen Van Den Broeck re-found his earlier stage racing success. It was looking that way after the first week but he limply fell away to finish 12th, 25 minutes down. The best finisher for Lotto was Maxime Monfort who came one place ahead of Van Den Broeck who was over 7 minutes ahead of his Belgian teammate. The one thing that did save the Belgians was Greipel's sprint win on the 6th stage. Overall though, it was a disappointing race for Lotto-Soudal.

C  LottoNL-Jumbo
This has been a terrible year for the Dutch team. They have taken just one win the entire year, Moreno Hofland in stage 2 of the Tour de Yorkshire. After this Giro they have still only taken one win but Steven Kruijswijk did at least given them something to cheer about with his marauding ride to 7th overall. What was most impressive about this ride was that he did it almost all by himself with no help from his team. LottoNL have some serious issues to address for the rest of their season if they don't then this will be really embarrassing.

C  Tinkoff-Saxo
You might think that it's harsh to rank the team that won the Giro this low down, but, as a team they have really been terrible. Contador has been left without support for almost all the mountain stages this year. To illustrate how bad the team as a whole were, the second best Tinkoff rider was Roman Kreuziger who came 29th, just under two hours down. Five Astana guys finished ahead of Kreuziger! Contador hasn't had the hardest Giro so his Giro-Tour double is still very much on.

C  Trek Factory Racing
I would forgive you for not actually realising that Trek raced and if I could I would put them lower down. However, they did win the points jersey with Nizzolo - who bagged 6 top 10 finishes with no wins. Apart from that it wasn't a good Giro for the Trek boys, their top finisher was Fabio Felline who came 32nd, just under 2 hours down. They also won the lanterne rouge....

C-  Team Sky
The positives first, they won two stages (Viviani and Kiryenka) and Konig ghosted to 6th. Which sounds like a very positive race, were it not for the expectations they had with Porte. The race started incredibly well for the Australian who looked to be in a very exciting podium race with Contador and Aru. This all changed when he was, in my opinion, wrongly penalised for taking a wheel from Simon Clarke. The 2:45 he lost there probably put him out of contention for overall victory but then his head went and he basically gave up. If he had kept riding then he would've been favourite to complete the podium, even with the time loss, and he would've made a much better case to be considered Team Sky's leader in Grand Tours. He abandoned and was consigned to the "unfulfilled talent" box.

C-  FDJ
It was all very low key for the French. Alexandre Geniez took a page from the Zubeldia book of cycling and somehow got a top 10 finish despite never being seen on the TV. Kenny Elissonde showed moments where he looked like he might fulfil his promise as an excellent climber but in general he was disappointing. They finished with all 9 riders, so I guess that's a positive.

D+  AG2R La Mondiale

Betancur seemed to be finding some of his form back.

After Pozzovivo's horrific crash on the third stage it was always going to be difficult for the French team to get anything out of the race. Even with those low expectations AG2R were still disappointing. The one positive would be that Betancur looked less disappointing than he did last year and, most importantly, he looked thinner.

D+  Etixx Quick Step
They were saved from a much worse score by Iljo Keisse's opportunistic victory on the final day. That aside though it was an extremely difficult Giro for the Belgian squad. Rigoberto Uran's form was a worry in the first week but it looked as if he might come into form right at the point when Aru, Contador and Porte burnt themselves out and then he could stride into a podium place. Unfortunately for him, he just kept getting worse and worse until the final days when he found a bit of form to get into 14th position overall. Will Etixx now decide to send him to the Tour?

D  Androni-Giocattoli
Well, they turned up. Franco Pellizotti was once again the best performer by finishing 24th an hour and a half behind Contador. He also got two top 10's on stages which is a decent return for the 37 year old. The other eight riders came along so Franco didn't get bored on the team bus.

D-  Nippo Vini Fantini
After the first two weeks it looked like Damiano Cunego might be re-discovering some of the form that he had back in 2004. Then he crashed out on the 18th stage and their highest ranked GC rider was 50th placed Alessandro Bisolti who lost just under 3 hours.

D-  CCC Sprandi Polokowice
9 orange clad eastern European cyclists rode around Italy for 3 weeks. The single interesting point in the whole Giro for the CCC team was when Slovenian hard man sprinter Grega Bole came 19th on the Mortirolo stage to Aprica.

Proof that IAM, Southeast and Giant-Alpecin actually rode
the Giro.

D-  Southeast Pro Cycling
If you're going to wear a white and grey kit then you really have to make sure that the riding is exciting. It wasn't the case for Southeast. Petacchi rode around but pulled out on the penultimate stage thus meaning he didn't finish his last ever Giro.

E+  Team Giant Alpecin
Giant Alpecin showed solidarity with Marcel Kittel by riding like he has been all season. Luka Mezgec was the one high point, he got 6 top 10 finishes with a high of 3rd. Their highest finisher was Tobias Ludvigsson, 83rd, 4 hours back.

E+  IAM Cycling
Apparently they showed up although it's understandable that you might have missed this. Haussler came 6th on one stage after hauling himself around for 2 weeks looking nothing like the Tour de France stage winner of old. Sylvain Chavanel finished 2 and a half hours behind Contador and managed 2 top 5s as a beaten breakaway member.

Tour de France 2018 - Stages 6-8

Introduction
The riders have yet to face a serious mountain test at the Tour so far but that will all change with these three stages. All three are set in the Vosges and Jura region and will be a huge shock to a peloton which has so far avoided the mountains. There are no Alpine giants in these stages but the continual climbing and descending will be too much for a number of riders who will find themselves losing hours before they've even hit the high Alps.

Stage 6 - St Dizier - Vittel - 160.8km
There's only one categorised climb on this stage, a fourth cat, but it climbs almost all day up to a high point just 8km before the finish. From there it's a fast descent followed by a grippy rise which takes the riders into Vittel. The final kilometer is all straight but it's certainly not simple, the first 500m is up a gradual rise so the lead out men will have to be careful to leave enough in reserve for the last 500m. The difficulty is that the last 500m are all downhill so expect someone to take a flyer before the top with the hope that they can just hold off the sprinters for the win.






Stage 7 - Ronchamp - La Planche Des Belles Filles - 24.1km 

This is going to be an ultra difficult stage for everyone. The first 17km are largely flat but they do rise up by 180m in that time so it's a gradual rather than significant climb. The last 7km are horrific. The Planche Des Belles Filles isn't overly long but it is seriously steep and will be ridden after almost thirty minutes at lactic threshold. The other issue is that it's too long to use a conventional time trial bike on so expect to see riders switch to their standard road bikes, if they set off on the climb too fast then expect to see them losing chunks of time in the last few kilometers. It's also going to be a difficult stage for the pure climbers, they will want to save enough for the final climb but if they keep too much back then they will have such a deficit at the bottom that they will never bring it back. Expect to see the main contenders come to fore on this stage, the last time trial of the Tour.

Stage 8 - Morteau - St Cergue - 190.3km

To use a boxing analogy, there will be no knock out blows on this stage but there will be a succession of body shots. The climbing starts immediately with the second category Col Sarrazins which should provide an excellent attacking point for a breakaway to form on. At the summit there's a false flat for the best part of 10km before a descent and an immediate climb up the next second category climb of the Col des Etroits. Neither of the opening climbs are overly troublesome but what is troubling is that the peloton have ridden 50km and bagged 1,000m of ascent - there's 2,500m to come. Another fast descent followed by some valley riding and it's into the village of Juriens for the start of 13km of uncategorised climbing. At the summit it's just under 20km to the foot of the Grand Fuey (6.8km @ 7%). This is a hugely testing climb but anyone in difficult will know that at the top it's easy riding to the foot of the Faucille so expect to see riders clinging on towards the top. The stage has been leading to this, the Col de la Faucille, arguably the most beautiful climb in the Alps. The climb starts comfortably enough and the ending isn't overly taxing but the mid section is seriously difficult. If someone drives the pace here then it will be goodbye to any rouleurs who were hanging on in the hope that they could make it over with the bunch and go for the stage win. At the top there's 24km to go but it's almost all downhill, expect to see a very fast chase into the beautiful ski town of St Cergue.

Profiles are created using Plotaroute.com

Tour de France 2018 - Stages 3-5

Introduction
After a very tough opening three days it's back to the standard Tour opening week with three flat stages. Stages 3 and 5 hold very few surprises and should be a physically easy but mentally stressful couple of days. Stage 4 is much harder but could still end in a bunch sprint, albeit with a reduced field. With relatively few sprint stages on offer in this Tour the sprinters teams will definitely not want to miss out on these three stages.

Stage 3 - Lille - Charleroi - 181.5km
This is a long stage for this race but coming just four days in it won't cause the riders many difficulties. There is only one categorised climb out on the route and that's only ranked at cat 4 so it will be a straightforward day. One slight difficulty might be the final 3km which rises all the way to the line, it's not steep at all though so expect to see all the sprinters make it, the biggest difficulty will be for the lead out guys who will have to measure their effort on the grippy run in.










Stage 4 - Charleroi - Charleville - 135.7km
There's just under 2,000m of climbing packed into the 135.7km long course. With all four categorised climbs coming in the last 90km it's going to be too much for the pure sprinters who will be left spread throughout the Belgium countryside. This is a stage for the classics riders like Kristoff or Degenkolb, depending on how it's raced though it might be too difficult even for them and it might be a stage for the Ardennes classics riders. If it's wet then the finale will be treacherous, there's a steep descent from 6km to go until just under 2km to go. Immediately after the red kite there's a 90 degree corner and then a dead straight with a slight rise to the finish.




Stage 5 - Charleville - Chalon-en-Champagne - 140.8km
There won't be much intrigue on this stage, it's almost entirely flat with the exception of a couple of rolling hills at the start of the stage. The one minor issue might be the wind blowing over the Marne which, if it's strong enough, might split the peloton apart. Apart from that though it's going to be a relatively relaxing day for the GC contenders who will be facing their first major test, the time trial up Planche des Belles Filles, in just two days time. The run in is quite technical so, again, if it's wet expect to see the GC teams come towards the front.

Profiles are designed using Plotaroute.com.

Oscar Landa - "The U23 World Championships - I have a shot at actually winning it"

Fresh from Tour of Norway duty where he looked at home driving a break made up of World Tour riders before turning in an excellent sprint effort the next day I speak to Norwegian talent Oscar Landa as he prepares for his home race at the Tour des Fjords. We discussed breakaway regret, why Norway is such a cycling hub and World Championship bands.

Bike Route Hub: You've had a fantastic May winning the GP Viborg, 20th in the Tour de Berlin and getting away in the break in the first stage of the Tour of Norway where you wore the mountains jersey, how happy have you been with your performances?

A victory salute that will be honed over the coming years.

Oscar Landa: I'm quite happy. I've proved to myself and the people around me that I have the ability to be a good rider and I've shown that I am a good rider at the moment so I am quite happy. But, I always have blood on my teeth so I don't feel comfortable with my situation I want to prove more of course.

BRH: In the first stage of the Tour of Norway it looked like the peloton were going to mistime the catch and you were going to stay away, can you talk us through that stage?
OL: I went in the early breakaway. I didn't want to go in the breakaway because I felt really good and I liked the finish. I think I would have a good shot in the sprint because it was an uphill sprint with a technical circuit at the end which suited me really well. But the team wanted everyone to help each other to get in the breakaway and that day it was me and that was okay. There was only one climb so I took the climber's jersey pretty easily, there was a small climb and I have a good sprint so I went for it and it paid off of course. Later in the race, about 50km from the finish, two guys from Lotto Soudal came up to the breakaway and we started working together. With 15km to go there was a small climb and the break split into two pieces and I was in the first group and we pulled together and kept the pace up and we thought that maybe we could hold it to the finish line. On the final laps though they stopped telling us the times so we didn't know how far behind the peloton was so I didn't know how much I should help the Lotto guys because I didn't want to go first in the sprint and I stopped a bit and that was a bad mistake. When there was 2km to go I didn't know where the peloton were until they were right behind us so I was pretty disappointed then.

BRH: The GP Viborg is almost 200km long with gravel road sections, plus you're quite a big rider with a good sprint, do you see yourself focusing on the classics style races in the future?
OL: Yeah, I see myself as a one day race/classic type rider. The Tour of Flanders and Roubaix are two races I really want to do in the future and of course Omloop and E3 Prijs.

BRH: Can you tell us what happened in the GP Viborg?
OL: There was no wind and I think everyone knew that it was going to happen on the gravel sections so everybody prepared for the gravel sections. I sat in the front with the team, I wasn't the captain so I was there to sit in the front and help the others to get near the front for the gravel sections. Between the gravel sections I also worked in the front so the guys who dropped off couldn't get back on. Then on the last gravel section a lot of my team mates had flat tyres and I felt good so I was in the first group and we were 23 guys. There was a lot of attacking and I went with the dangerous guys and finally me and four guys got clear. To be honest I was disappointed with the riders in the front group they were pretty tired. The guy from Valkenburg (Bob Schoonbroodt) didn't work because he had his whole team in the group behind, so he told me and the other riders were really tired. When I saw that we only had 20 seconds I thought that I had to do something so I attacked with the Valkenburg rider with me so I screamed at him to help me, I said you have a second place guaranteed if you help me, so then he did help me but I did most of the work. But I was really confident of the sprint, I'm always confident of the sprint in small groups. So I beat him, 8 seconds before the group behind us.

Driving the break in the Tour of Norway

BRH: You're racing the Tour des Fjords this week which is flatter than the Tour of Norway, what are yours and your team's ambitions for this race?
OL: My plan was not to race the Tour of Norway because I just finished the Tour of Berlin so I was told to only do 3 stages of the Tour of Norway to have the best preparation for the Tour des Fjords. Our team is from that area of Norway so it is really important for our team to do well there. I think we want to have a guy in top 10 in GC that's really important and, hopefully, go for a stage victory. It's really hard to have a stage victory especially when Alexander Kristoff is really motivated. I think we proved in Tour of Norway that we're good enough to take a stage victory. I was pretty close in the first day and Frederik Galta was second in stage 5 so I think we should have something to look forward to.

BRH: Your team have produced a number of excellent young riders, yourself, U23 World Champion Sven Erik Bystrom and current Norwegian national champion Tormod Jacobsen, what is it about the team that has enabled it to produce such talent do you think?
OL: Everybody says it's the environment and of course environment is really important. The riders are always chasing, you don't earn much money here or get any luxury so we always have something to reach for. We have Stein Orn, the trainer of Alexander Kristoff, and he is maybe the main source of success. Alexander Kristoff and Stein Orn started the cycling environment in the city of Stavanger and we've grown from there. I think as well, how we train, we train to win. We train mentally to win, when we are in a position to win we want to be the best.

BRH: After 30th position in the National Championships last year what are your hopes for the race this year?
OL: This year I think it's maybe too hard for me, there's a lot of climbs. If I'm able to win anything it will be the team time trial and the U23 race. I think with Boasson Hagen and Nordhaug and these climbs the senior race will be really hard to win.

BRH: Can you tell us a bit about the racing scene in Norway?
OL: Cycling in Norway has been growing a lot these last couple of years. We produce better and better riders and I think a few years ago the national sport was skiing and if you look now there are a lot more people cycling than skiing in Norway. Maybe it's turning into a new national activity.

BRH: Why do you think it is that Norway produces so many good riders but Sweden and Finland are falling behind?

In Coop-OsterHus colours

OL: That's a good question, I'm not sure. I think of course it's guys like Thor Hushovd. Everybody is watching the Tour de France in Norway I think in Finland and Sweden most of their focus is on Ice Hockey and not cycling. I think it's what people are watching on the telly and people want to see themselves as Thor Hushovd. I think also it's important to have the races in Norway because if there were no races then there would be no riders also.

BRH: After your performances so far this season do you have any contract offers for next year?
OL: No, actually not. I think the Continental teams know that I'm not going to change to another continental team because I have a really good position in Coop-Osterhus and I think I need to prove more if I'm going to make a step up to a bigger team. But I know that Katusha are watching us all the time and I talked with the Lotto-Soudal riders in Tour of Norway and they were pretty impressed so I was happy with that. But I hope maybe I can do the World Championships this year as U23. That is one of my big goals this year and I think it suits me really well so I think I would have a bit of a shot at actually winning it.

BRH: Have you raced in America before?
OL: No never. I think it will be a big opportunity and adventure.

BRH: So, as with all my interviews I'm ending with a cycling nerd quiz to see just how much of a cycling nerd the interviewee is. First question, In 2006 Thor Hushovd cut his arm on a cardboard hand at the Tour de France but do you know what city that was in?
OL: Ooh, is it something like Vascaro? Something like that? (It was actually Strasbourg 1-0 BRH)

BRH: Who is the current British National Road Race champion?
OL: It's Peter Kennaugh, of course (It is Kennaugh 1-1) 

BRH: In 2014 you came 16th in the Ronde Van Midden-Nederland, one of the riders who finished ahead of you is currently riding the Giro, can you name him?
OL: Okay, he's riding for Lotto Jumbo I think?
BRH: He's actually riding for Nippo-Vini Fantini
OL: Vini Fantini? Ooh, that's a good question I don't think I can name him. (It was Eduard Grosu BRH wins 2-1)

BRH: Thanks a lot for your time Oscar.
OL: Thank you

2020 Vision - Liege-Bastogne-Liege

Introduction
Who knows what will happen to the Liege-Bastogne-Liege route in 5 years. I hope that they move the finish back to Liege from Ans and return it to a flat finish. Currently it's far too similar to Fleche and Amstel Gold and there's not much incentive for riders to attack before the final climb. However, after those caveats it's time to pick the four riders who I think will big the main contenders for a victory in 2020 in La Doyenne.

Julian Alaphilippe
Age in 2020: 27
Current Team: Etixx - Quick Step
Best LBL Finish: 2nd 2015

Alaphilippe getting airborne in a cyclo-cross race

Admittedly predicting that Alaphilippe will feature prominently in Liege in 2020 is a bit of a waste of my crystal ball's powers. Of course he will be a significant rider in 2020. The only question is whether he'll be riding it prior to a shot at Tour de France glory or as the crowning race in an Ardennes triple.
Alaphilippe has been performing consistently ever since he turned pro. In 2012 he scored a second place overall and a stage win in the Coupe des Nations Ville Saguenay, an U23 race in Canada. 2013 was another step up for the young Frenchman. He joined the Etixx feeder team and proceeded to get top 10s on stages in the Istrian Spring Trophy and the Circuit des Ardennes. His first win came in a stage of the Tour de Bretagne, he also got two second places in that race, he got 3 more wins that season; GP Sudkarnten, a stage of the International Thuringen-Rundfahrt and a stage and points jersey in the Tour de l'Avenir.
His step up to the elite level has been astonishingly seamless and well managed. He was largely kept away from the hardest races despite racing for 63 days. His biggest results were 3 top 5s in Catalunya, 3rd in Prudential RideLondon, 5th in Quest Plouay and 4th in Tour de l'Ain including a stage win and 2 top 5s. If 2014 was good then 2015 has been nothing short of mind blowing. Julian got a top 10 in all the Ardennes classics he then kept his form through the first 3 stages of Tour de Romandie get 2 top 5s and into California where he came second overall, to the brilliant Sagan, and won the Queen stage to Mt Baldy.
To be honest, it's hard to see anything stopping Alaphilippe from winning Liege-Bastogne at least once before 2020. If you have a spare £5 lying around it might be worth putting it on Alaphilippe to win LBL in the rainbow jersey, if such a bet can be put on.

Louis Meintjes
Age in 2020: 28
Current Team: MTN - Qhubeka
Best LBL Finish: 11th 2015

Meintjes going clear in the South African champions jersey

He might look like he's riding Jose Rujano's bike but he also, luckily, looks like he's riding it as quickly uphill. Meintjes is gradually building a palmares that is pushing him towards the elites of the sport. Although he may not grow into a classics rider his sheer ability over climbs means he cannot be overlooked for Liege glory in the future.
2011 was a big year for Meintjes, he didn't get a win but he did announce himself on the international stage with 18th in the World Championships Junior time trial and 2nd in the African Championships time trial. After that success 2012 was more of the same but with better performances in the mountains. He kicked off the season with two top 10s in the South African national champs road race and time trial. He followed that up with 3 top 10s in mountain stages in Tour de Savoie, Giro Valle d'Aosta and the Tour Alsace. He turned pro in 2013 with MTN - Qhubeka where he raced for 74 days. His best result was winner of the South African road race and time trial national championships, he also finished the season well with 2nd in the U23 World Championships and 2nd in the mountainous Tour of Rwanda. In 2014 he was again the South African national champion before an early season which contained a 2nd in the very hill Mzansi Tour in South Africa and 5th in the Giro del Trentino. His mid season was average but again he stepped up in the late season, he completed the Vuelta and finished 5th on a mountain stage and then came 8th in the World Championships time trial.
Meintjes is such a talented climber that it's hard to see how he won't be at the front of the peloton whenever it turns skywards for the next decade. He might not look like a LBL winner but after 11th this year his results make him look like a future winner of cycling's oldest race.

Simon Yates
Age in 2020: 27
Current Team: Orica GreenEDGE
Best LBL Finish: 39th 2015

Yates winning the Tour of Britain stage to Haytor in 2013

Predicting that Simon Yates will win races in 2020 is not the most risky of strategies. The Yates brothers have been a revelation since turning pro and it seems inevitable that between them they will have won at least one grand tour and one classic before they retire.
Yates' career really started in 2011, he came 13th in the Senior British road race championships at just 18 and then won a stage of the Tour de l'Avenir at the end of season. In 2012 he made a step up in competition and achieved 7 top 10s throughout the year, his best result was 7th on the Queen stage of the Tour of Britain into Caerphilly. 2013 was a massive year for Simon, he again got top 10s throughout the season but this time he supplemented that with 3 wins; two stages of the l'Avenir and the Queen stage of the Tour of Britain to Haytor, he also came 3rd overall in the Tour of Britain. Understandably he made the step up to World Tour level with Orica GreenEDGE in 2014 and his first season was promising but not spectacular; 12th overall in Pais Vasco and 3rd in the National champs along with a Tour start were probably the highlights.
2015 has been exceptional so far for Yates; he came 5th in Pais Vasco and 6th in Romandie. Another Tour de France appearance has been pencilled in and you would expect stage wins are the aim. With Orica lacking a GC contender I imagine that they will be pushing Yates towards that role which would limit his chances of LBL glory in 2020. However, whichever role they decide for Yates he is destined for cycling glory.

Louis Vervaeke
Age in 2020: 26
Current Team: Lotto Soudal
Best LBL Finish: DNF 2015

Vervaeke's climbing is his main strength.

The first three riders were basically sure fire picks so I have decided to go a bit left field with Vervaeke. However, when you see his junior palmares you'll understand that he's on exactly the same path as Yates, Mentjes etc.
He first really appeared on the international cycling scene in 2012 with 15th in the Giro Valle d'Acosta behind winner Fabio Aru but ahead of Meintjes. He backed this up in 2013 with 4th in the Tour de Savoie and 4th in the Valle d'Acosta. He turned pro with Lotto-Soudal in August 2014 but his performances that year as an amateur were sensational; 1st GC Ronde de l'Isard, 1st GC in Tour de Savoie and never finished lower than 5th on any stage, 5th overall in the Tour de l'Avenir and winner of the stage to La Toussuire. Since turning pro he has achieved decent not sparkling results but he is currently riding the Giro so it will be interesting to watch his progress after that experience. He's the youngest guy on this list and has arguably the best amateur results so it will be very interesting to see how he progresses, expect to see him on your TV sooner rather than later.
Vervaeke projects as more of a pure climber/GC type so it will be interesting to see whether he does ever give the Ardennes classic his full attention. If he does decide to go down the stage race route then it looks like Lotto have a replacement for the ageing Jurgen Van den Broeck.

Tour de France 2018 - Stages P-2

Introduction
From now on I will be posting in depth previews and analysis about each of the 21 stages of my 2018 Tour de France route. I will also be including local knowledge from either professional riders or club riders who have trained and raced on the roads I am using. At the end I will be sending the complete racebook to some pro riders, race directors and journalists to get their views on it.

Prologue - Edinburgh - 7.9km
We all know how prologues work - you hop on your bike for a quick 8/9 minute burst and then it's back onto the team bus to await the next 20 days of hell. This one will follow a similar routine however anyone who wants to wear the first yellow jersey will have to put in a lung bursting effort around Scotland's capital. The first kilometre is all uphill and features some rough cobbled sections before the riders turn right onto North Bridge and cross into the new town for some flat riding before crossing back into the old town via the Mound, featuring in the finish of stage 1. Stick it in your highest gear and grind around the next 4.4km and you might just be standing under Edinburgh Castle in the yellow jersey.



Stage 1 - Edinburgh - Edinburgh - 133.2km
Having never been visited by the Tour de France before I have made up for it by giving them 3 stages and this one just might turn into a classic. Taken in isolation there's not much difficulty on this stage, there's only 2 categorised climbs, both cat 4, and it's only thanks to the final 2km that it breaks the 1,000m total elevation mark. The first 90km are a gradual rolling introduction to the Tour but they are very exposed and if the wind blows then there could be huge time gaps by the end of the day. Most of the second half of the stage should be into a headwind but with 25km to go there is a left turn and 12km of coastal road, if there's not a strong wind blowing then it will be a first for Scotland.

Congratulations to any sprinters who are still in the bunch at this point but it's going to be in vain. This is not a sprint finish. The 800m climb up Dundas Street at race pace will split apart the bunch before the finish into the castle which will make the final selection. Expect to see a classics rider such as Gilbert or Gerrans atop the podium.




Stage 2 - Glasgow - Glasgow - 167.5km
It might not be hard enough to prevent a bunch sprint finish but this is still going to be a stressful day for the overall favourites. If the peloton decide to ride on Dukes Pass then the race will tear apart and it will be a very select group who fight it out on the streets of Glasgow. Wind shouldn't be an issue on this stage but the rain may well be and if it does pour then watch out on the run in to Glasgow, the favourites will all want to be at the front and this jostling is likely to lead to a number of crashes.
When the riders jump on the planes that will take them to France they will have completed just 3 of the 21 stages however how many Top 10 hopes will be left in tatters on the roadside? This is certainly not a straightforward start to a Grand Tour and I imagine there will be a number of riders breathing a sigh of relief immediately after take off.

William Bjergfelt: "Without cycling I'd be another one of these obese statistics"

William Bjergfelt is a name that you probably haven't heard of unless you're a follower of British cycling but he's a regular top 10 finisher in the British elite races and a top 20 finisher in the British National time trial championships, as impressive as this is the most impressive thing about Will is how he fits his training and racing around a 9-5 job. I talk to him as he heads to Aberyswyth for the 3rd round of the Tour Series and we talk racing full time, British Championships and drunken bets.

Will in the SportGrub Kuota colours

Bike Route Hub: William, how pleased have you been with your own performances and your team's performance so far in the Tour Series?
William Bjergfelt: It's been a bit of a mixed bag really. I was unhappy with my own performance in the first event at Ryde, Isle of Wight. At the same time the team's performance was good we took 5th in the criterium but we didn't take enough brave pills for the team time trial so we lost positions and time on that one so we were all a bit disappointed there, but it was good not to crash because the other round was in the evening.

BRH: With the Aberyswyth event featuring a hill climb and crit, how are you finding these split events?
WB: It's really interesting actually, you have to leave a little bit in the tank for the evening. For me personally I don't mind it quite so much because part of my training is incorporated in riding to work and back so I'm used to doing a split day.

BRH: What are your expectations for the event both personally and as a team?
WB: Well as a team we have some very strong climbers like Dan Fleeman, if he can make it from his crown court date as a witness, who is ex World Tour and that puts us in a very good position and I would hope that we would be mixing it in the top 5 positions. Personally I'd like to see myself up there as well, I tried to lose some weight over the winter as well as including some track work in my routine which I haven't done before and I'm hoping will make a difference in the Tour Series.

BRH: You've been at the sharp end of a number of races this year, making the break in the Jock Wadley Memorial and Rutland Melton, how much encouragement can you take from these performances and your performances against former World Tour riders like Steele Van Hoff?
WB: I'm really encouraged by it to be honest. I've said this for a number of years now, the level in the UK is incredibly high and you see riders every year come across like Steele and like Karol Domagalski (Raleigh GAC) and they don't instantly come into the UK and win every single race they ride. So for me, as a working man, to be at the sharp end with them in these races is really encouraging. The dream, for me, is to take a years sabbatical and have a year as a full time professional and really see what I can get out of myself because at the moment I'm trying to fit racing my bike around a 35 hour work week.

BRH: That must be incredibly difficult to do?
WB: It's never easy for me but I love the sport so much and everyone in it that I give the sport everything I possibly can. In many ways I owe it so much because when I was younger I was very overweight so had it not been for me falling into cycling I would be another one of these obese statistics by now. I was the kid in secondary school who was forging notes from his mum to miss PE because I didn't like sports. I'd always liked cycling though and messing around on my mountain bike and a mate invited me to a mountain bike race and with no real fitness I was able get round and enjoyed myself and it just went from there.

BRH: So how did you get into the racing?

WB: Well I started racing when I was 16 but it was just because I loved riding my bike. But it happened when I was 20 ish and down the pub with a mate after a couple too many pints and he bet me that I wouldn't ever make it to be a professional rider and I'd had a few too many so I said "yes of course I will" and it's all gone from there really. In the first part of my career I had a lot of people to look up to, I'm good friends with Oli Beckingsale (multiple British mountain bike champion) and I learnt a hell of a lot from him in my early years as a mountain biker and we used to go riding because we lived within a couple of hundred meters of one another. I had someone to look up to as a young person and who really inspired me to be the best.

BRH: In 2011 you raced for Team Motorpoint competing in a number of European events, how did you find that experience?
WB: I was still working at the time and I took off quite large amounts of time to do some of the European Tour events and that was on unpaid leave so basically it hit me quite hard financially but I did it in the hope that I would step up a level. I didn't step up quite enough really to earn enough money to go full time the next year so I took a step back and cleared some of the debts from that year. I absolutely loved the experience though and it was probably one of the best periods of my career for just pure enjoyment. I was rooming with team mates; Ian Bibby, Jonathan McEvoy, Tobyn Horton etc and they're just such a great set of lads. I'm one of the older guys in the peloton but my wife always says that I'm 36 going on 17 and I owe a huge amount of that to hanging around with those younger riders. But I'm now at the stage of my life where, maybe next year, I could take a one year sabbatical to race full time.

BRH: Has there been any contract offers so far?
WB: Not yet, but anything is possible as long as you're getting good results in the right places.

Flat out in the Tour Series TTT

BRH: After Aberyswyth you have 6 events left, what do you expect from your team in those events?
WB: Well hopefully better performances than we've seen so far. We have a clear aspiration that we want to finish in the top 5 overall and whilst that's never a given it's something that we're going to be working hard towards. We've had a 7th in the TTT, 5th in the Ryde Criterium and a 6th in Redditch. So we're 6th overall at the moment but we're certainly in touching distance of 5th.

BRH: And what about your own personal aims?
WB: In the Tour series I'd really like to get a handful of top 10's. After the Tour Series I have the National Time Trial championships and the Road racing Championships. Then there's the National Elite Circuit series where I'll be peaking for virtually all the events. So I won't really be slowing down until September. For the National Championships I'd really like to be in the top 20 for both the time trial and the road race and that would be a very significant result for me.

BRH: What would be your main tips to those guys reading the blog who are full time workers and are trying to fit cycling around this?
WB: Definitely structure your training and try and set yourself a goal and then structure your training around your work and targeted at that goal. Remember everyone who rides a bike hurts as much regardless of how hard the effort is and it's just about training your body to deal with that effort.

BRH: Who would be the young riders on the circuit that you think we should look out for?
WB: Rory Townsend has really impressed me for Pedal Heaven. He's just been absolutely amazing and I know he's very young but he's been insane. Likewise my training partner Tristan Robbins who's just moved up from being Junior last year and this year rides for Madison Genesis he's very very good as well. Those guys are going to come to the fore over the next few years and will really be a force to be reckoned with.

BRH: I like to think that Bike Route Hub is written by me, a cycling nerd, for other cycling nerds so after all my interviews I will be doing a 3 question quiz to work out how much of a nerd you are. First question, you rode the National Championship in 2014 but in what position did your current teammate Dan Fleeman finish,
I'll give you a couple either way?
WB: It was in the teens, I'm 100% sure of that, 16th? (It was 14th, 1-0 Will)

BRH: What is the name of the Columbian sprinter who will be joining Etixx Quick-Step this year after beating Cavendish twice in San Luis?
WB: This is one that I feel like I should definitely know. He's a mega track sprinter........No it's not going to come to me. (It was Fernando Gaviria, 1-1)

BRH: Who is the current French National Champion?
WB: I'm stumped, the French riders I tend to follow are Voeckler and the Europcar guys....ermm....Demare? (It is Demare 2-1 Will wins)

BRH: Is there anything you'd like to add Will?
WB: Just a massive thank you to my sponsors really; SportGrub Kuota which is made up of Andy Swain, Chris Dunkley and Kuota UK as well as all the sponsors who put money into it because without them I couldn't do what I'm doing so a massive thanks to all those guys.

BRH: Thanks a lot Will!
WB: Thank you

Richie Porte's Wheel Change

As regular readers will know I don't generally write pieces about up to date race news and results however I feel like today I should make an exception. Richie Porte's wheel change, Wheelgate for short, is an example of what I both love and hate about cycling. I'll start with the hate first:

The UCI will have you believe that they aren't fans of grey areas and in the case of Wheelgate they were right to apply rule 12.1.040 which states that riders shouldn't receive non-regulation assistance from a non team member. I'll explain why I think that that rule cannot be concrete later on but for now let's deal in facts and they were right to add 2 minutes onto Porte's time. However it does leave you wondering where was the disqualification of any riders from Paris-Roubaix earlier this year? At least 20 riders passed under closing train barriers and there wasn't a single disqualification. Why was that? How about the following laws that are inexplicably in the UCI rulebook:

• 2.3.031 - No equipment for riders may be prepared or held ready outside the following vehicle. Persons riding in vehicles shall not reach or lean out. When has this rule ever been enforced? Watch any race and you will see mechanics leaning out the window.
• 2.3.034 - It shall be strictly forbidden to cross level crossings when the barrier is down. Apart from risking the penalty for such an offence as provided by law, offending riders shall be eliminated from the competition by the commissaires. See above!
• 2.2.025 - Riders may not, without due care, jettison food, bonk-bags, feeding bottles, clothes, etc. in any place whatsoever. Riders may not jettison anything on the roadway itself but shall draw to the side of the road and safely deposit the object there. Is this the least adhered to rule in the entirety of sport? When have you ever seen a rider ease to the side of the road and shove his energy gel wrappers in the bin, maybe then washing his hands in the local toilettes? 

The UCI prove time after time that they are willing to turn a blind eye to their own rule book if the rule is too hard to implement or will impact on too many people. But why, why oh why UCI, would you enforce a 2 minute penalty against a man, who through no fault of his own, had already lost 47 seconds? Before the UCI can shout down from their pulpit that "rules are rules" they might want to look at the Giro GC, 2nd, 3rd and 4th are populated by Astana riders, that's World Tour team Astana. 

I'm going to end on a positive however! I love cycling, I love almost everything about it. One thing that I love more than any other is the camaraderie and even if Simon Clarke's assistance did lead to Porte's almost certain elimination from the top spot of the Giro imagine the impact it will have on any Australian kids, or for that matter, any kids watching this stage. They can see riders shaking hands after day long breakaways. They can see riders handing each other bottles even when they are not on the same team. They can see sprinters congratulating each other after they've just raced elbow to elbow at 70kph. They can see videos of Jens Voigt refusing to pass Garate in the 2006 Giro after he'd sat on his wheel for the entire length of the final climb. That is the real cycling and no matter the amount of unjustified meddling by the UCI or wilful ignorance by the UCI it's the team work and sportsmanship which means we have an endless stream of young boys and girls coming into the sport.

Chapeau Simon Clarke!

Chapeau Cycling!

2020 Vision - Paris Roubaix

Introduction
We continue our look to the future and this week its the turn of the 2020 Paris Roubaix. Predicting what will happen in Paris-Roubaix is almost impossible on the day so trying to predict it 5 years in advance is very unwise. But, you'll have to wait 5 years to see whether I got these right.

Tiesj Benoot
Age in 2020: 26
Current Team: Lotto Soudal
Best PR finish: 100th 2015

Tiesj is at home on the cobbles

Tiesj has been a pro since August last year and he has already recorded top 10's in Tour of Flanders, Dwars Door Vlaanderen, Le
Samyn and the Handzame Classic. What marks him out as a potential future Roubaix winner more than anything else is his ability over long distances, as a trainee he came 16th in Paris Tours and obviously his 5th in Flanders suggests that he can handle extreme distances required to win Roubaix.
The thing that might stand in his way of Roubaix success is that he is incredibly talented at a number of different types of race. He has ridding incredibly well in Ardennes style races - 8th in the Liege-Bastogne-Liege espoirs race, 4th in the Circuit des Ardennes in 2013 and 4th in last years U23 World Championships. He has also shown flashes of ability in the high mountains with a 3rd place in the 2014 Pyrenean Ronde de L'Isard and a top 10 in the 2015 early season Trofeo Serra de Tramuntana, part of the Challenge Mallorca.
Tiesj is clearly a hugely talented young cyclist who, in five years, might have won Liege-Bastogne-Liege, Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix or even the Tour de France if he decides to turn his hand to that. For the purposes of this article I hope he continues to perform in the Northern Classics.

Luke Rowe
Age in 2020: 30
Current Team: Team Sky
Best PR Finish: 8th 2015

Rowe is building a strong palmares in the Northern Classics

Rowe turned pro with Sky in 2012 and after a strong start to his pro career, 2 top 20's in Post Danmark Rundt and Tour of Britain including a win on the first stage of the British race, he has stalled somewhat over the last 2 years. However 2015 has been a great year so far for the Welshman with strong performances throughout
the spring.
Rowe's first career victory came in his 4th race as an espoir, the ZLM tour, where he beat current superstars Kristoff, Degenkolb and Viviani. 2011 saw another step up, he won the ZLM tour, this time against less prestigious opposition, then took another win in the final stage of the International Thuringen-Rundfahrt. The 2013 season was Rowe's first exposure to the Northern classics and, in what was a disappointing season for Rowe and the British team, he failed to finish higher than 50th in any of the classics. He did however grab a top 10 in the early season Tour of Qatar which showed that with more luck he does have the skill set to do well in the northern classics. Rowe's career prior to 2015 has been a gradual improvement and 2014 will perhaps be seen as the turning point. He was 11th in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad in support of winner Ian Stannard, he followed this up with 31st in Paris Roubaix later in the spring. Although his results were unspectacular he did finish the Vuelta later that year and the extra kilometers almost certainly had a bearing in 2015.
2015 has been a career defining year for Rowe, top 10 in Het Nieuwsblad and Paris-Roubaix and a top 15 in E3 suggest that he's found his niche as a top domestique in the spring classics. I would expect him to stay at Sky and fulfil the role as the last support rider but Rowe might find himself with free reign in some smaller semi-classics. Luke isn't the finished article but with a career that has re-ignited expect him to have new found confidence in the Northern classics.

Florian Senechal
Age in 2020: 26
Current Team: Cofidis
Best PR Finish: 17th 2015

With Cofidis' support Senechal could
be a Roubaix winner.

If you wanted to predict future Paris-Roubaix success based purely on results in the Junior version of the race then Senechal would be your man. In 2011 he won the Junior Paris Roubaix and the came second in Junior Tour of Flanders, later that year he came 4th in the World Championships junior race. This was an incredibly promising start to Senechal's career and after a strong start to h
is professional career in 2014 it looks almost certain that at some point in his career he will win a spring classic.
Although Florian now rides for Cofidis he rode as a trainee for Quick Step in 2012 and although his performances were decent during this time, Top 50 Paris Tours and 30th World Ports Classic, they decided not to give him a permanent contract. It would've been understandable if Florian had been disappointed and his form taken a knock however 2013 was arguably his best year. He managed a top 10 in the Boucle de l'Artois, 6th in the Roubaixesque Tour du Finistere, 12th in Rund um Koln, overall winner of the Okolo Jiznich Czech and 4th in the Paris Tours espoirs race.
In his first pro year he was immediately thrown into the spring classics with top 20s in E3 and Dwars Door Vlaandaren and 49th in Paris Roubaix, second best Cofidis rider. He continued this form into the summer scoring 6th overall in the Four Days of Dunkerque and 11th overall in the Tour of Belgium and finishing the year with top 20 in Paris-Tours. In 2015 he was given an opportunity to race in all 3 Northern classics and Milan-San-Remo, finishing them all. He was top 20 in Ghent-Wevelgem and Roubaix and the best Cofidis rider in both races and followed it up with 3rd in the Tro Bro Leon.
If Cofidis realise what they have on their hands with Senechal then expect him to be their protected rider in both Flanders and Roubaix. If he arrives in the same form that he had this year and the backing of his team then he is perfectly capable of top 10s in both and at his age that would be hugely impressive.

Yves Lampaert
Age in 2020: 29
Current Team: Etixx Quick Step
Best PR Finish: 7th 2015

Lampaert is one of the seemingly endless super talented young Europeans on the Etixx team. He might not quite have the potential of Alaphilippe, who does?, but he's still an incredibly talented rider for the Norther classics. I expect him to build on this years results and he might be a winner of a semi-classic as soon as next year.

Etixx is stacked with classics talent but Lapaert could just be
the best of the lot.

Lampaert's career really started in 2012, he managed 2nd in the Paris-Roubaix espoirs race, 1st in the Belgium espoirs TT championships and 7th in the Paris-Tours espoirs race. Unsurprisingly he was then picked up by the Topsport Vlaanderen team for the 2013 season. He didn't race any of the spring classics in his first year but he had a strong mid-season with a win in the GP van de stad Geel and 5th in the Belgium TT championships, despite this it was a disappointing season for the Belgian. 2014 was a step up, after 4th in Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne, 5th in Ronde Van Drenthe and 11th overall in the Three Days of De Panne he was sent off to Roubaix and Flanders. Results there were a little disappointing but the experience is vital. His form continued throughout the year peaking in the summer with 9th in the Halle-Ingooigem and 5th in the Belgian national championships road race, he finished his Topsport career by winning Arnhem Veenedaal Classic.
After transferring to Etixx in 2015 Yves wasted no time impressing his new team. He came 5th in Le Samyn before winning the Tour of West Flanders, he then got 9th overall in De Panne and finished up the spring with a spectacular 7th in Roubaix. Being at Etixx is not always an advantage for a young spring classics rider, for example when Boonen returns next year for, perhaps, a final tilt at the spring races he will be fourth or fifth in the hierarchy. He will likely have to ride in support of the team for the next few years but with Boonen and Terpstra's time limited it won't be long until Yves rises to the top.

The Tour de France 2018

Mission Accomplished?
The aim was this; design a Tour de France route which had no stages over 200km and an average stage distance of less than 160km BUT keep the racing exciting and epic. I have now designed that route and it's up to you to decide whether I did a good job. Firstly though, a couple of points on the route and how I devised it:

• Despite aiming to keep the average stage length under 160km my average stage is actually just 140km. This was mostly because I only included 2 time trials (1 prologue and 1 short mountain time trial).
• My other requirement was to not include any stages longer than 200km - this was pretty easy in the mountains but when it came to the transitional flat stages in the Languedoc and Midi-Pyrenees you'll notice that I stretched them as much as I could.
• The number of pure mountain days is limited, there are just 2 in the Alps and 2 in the Pyrenees. I'm a lover of a Tour mountain stage so this was difficult however I've made up for it by liberally sprinkling medium mountain stages across all three weeks.
• This is not a Tour for time triallists, there is just 32km of racing against the clock and a substantial amount of that is up the Planche Des Belles Filles. The reason for this is that with longer time trial stages you get larger time gaps and that's not compatible with shorter mountain stages.
• Lastly, sprinters can get a lot from this Tour but only if they stay for the whole 3 weeks. There are 7 pure sprint stages but only 3 of those are before the first rest day, then 2 each in the next 2 weeks - this route looks a lot more like a Giro route than a Tour one.

The Royal Mile in Edinburgh will feature in the first
two days of the Tour.

Grand Depart

A Grand Depart in Scotland has been something I've been keen to see for a long time and given that I have carte blanche over this route I have decided to make it happen. The race starts with a 7.9km time trial around historic Edinburgh before and out and back rolling stage the next day and another out and back rolling stage, this time in Glasgow, the day after. It's the oldest cliche in cycling, but, nobody could win the Tour in these three days but with the winds, climbs and narrow roads there is certainly going to be fewer contenders by the time the race reaches France.

Points of Interest
Stage 4 - Coming so soon into the race this stage will be an early test for any overall contender. Staged in L-B-L territory it goes up and down all day with just 10km of flat roads, depending on how it is raced this could either end up as a select sprint or, alternatively, we might see a very small group of favourites battle it out for the win.

The beautiful view from the top of the
Faucille.

Stage 8 - One of the longest stages in the race at 190km and with 3,500m of ascent this will be a punishing day! The climb of the Col de la Faucille tops out 24km before the finish and then it's a gradual downhill to the village of St Cerque. Although the Faucille is not a hideously hard climb it comes after an incredibly hard start to the stage so it could well be the breaking point for most of the peloton.

The town of Briancon returns as a stage finish on Stage 11

Stage 11 - Despite starting at 2,080m and halfway up the Iseran this stage still manages to squeeze in 4300m of ascent. The Iseran, Telegraph and Galibier are all climbed in the stage before a final horrible climb to the finish line in Briancon. This is a stage for the pure climbers and will also go a long way to deciding the king of the mountains competition as well.

Stage 17 - It's been a long time since the Tour visited the Basque country and, although this visit is fleeting it will pack a huge amount of drama in the 97km stage. After 26km in the French Basque country it's over the border to Spain for the real racing. First up is the Alto de Jaizkebel, a favourite climb of the Clasica San Sebastian, followed by the Mendizorrotz, average 5% over its 7.7km length. Both, however, are merely warm ups for the last 14km tour around Aia where the peloton will have to deal with horrifically steep climbs and a hilltop finish. Expect to see big time gaps.

Pierre Saint-Martin in its winter plummage.

Stage 18 - The ski resort of Pierre Saint-Martin is being used this year in the Tour, albeit from a different route to the one I am using. The climb is incredibly long with a middle section which will blow apart the race sandwiched between easier ramps which aren't easy enough to allow recuperation. This year the race will hit the Pierre Saint-Martin after an entirely flat stage however, in 2018 the stage will start in Pamplona and will feature the 19km Port de Larrau as an appetiser before the finishing climb.

What next?
Over the next few weeks I will be releasing detailed descriptions of each stage and, hopefully, interviewing some cyclists, journalists, race designers and race watchers about whether they think that a Tour which is the shortest since 1904 could be one of the best!

Stage	Date	Start	Finish	Distance	Stage Type
Prologue	07/07/2018 Saturday	Edinburgh	Edinburgh	7.9km	Time Trial
Stage 1	08/07/2018 Sunday	Edinburgh	Edinburgh	133.3km	Rolling
Stage 2	09/07/2018 Monday	Glasgow	Glasgow	167.6km	Rolling
Stage 3	10/07/2018 Tuesday	Lille	Charleroi	181.5km	Flat
Stage 4	11/07/2018 Wednesday	Charleroi	Charleville	135.7km	Rolling
Stage 5	12/07/2018 Thursday	Charleville	Chalon en Champagne	140.8km	Flat
Stage 6	13/07/2018 Friday	St Dizier	Vittel	160.8km	Flat
Stage 7	14/07/2018 Saturday	Ronchamp	Planche Des Belles Filles	24.1km	Mountain Time Trial
Stage 8	15/07/2018 Sunday	Moreau	St Cerque	190.3km	Medium Mountain
Rest Day	16/07/2018 Monday
Stage 9	17/07/2018 Tuesday	Geneva	Annecy	139.1km	Medium Mountain
Stage 10	18/07/2018 Wednesday	Annecy	Val Claret	134.9km	Mountain
Stage 11	19/07/2018 Thursday	Tignes	Briancon	173.8km	Mountain
Stage 12	20/07/2018 Friday	Briancon	Grenoble	144.1km	Medium Mountain
Stage 13	21/07/2018 Saturday	Valence	Nimes	145.3km	Flat
Stage 14	22/07/2018 Sunday	Montpellier	Perpignan	189.5km	Flat
Rest Day	23/07/2018 Monday
Stage 15	24/07/2018 Tuesday	Perpignan	Pamiers	183.6km	Rolling
Stage 16	25/07/2018 Wednesday	Toulouse	Pau	199.7km	Flat
Stage 17	26/07/2018 Thursday	Biarritz	Aia	97.5km	Medium Mountain
Stage 18	27/07/2018 Friday	Pamplona	Pierre St Martin	172km	Mountain
Stage 19	28/07/2018 Saturday	Laruns	Ris	136.3km	Mountain
Stage 20	29/07/2018 Sunday	Versailles	Paris	93.7km	Flat