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