With one month to go the 2022 Tour de France guide is online now, complete with stage profiles, a quick comment on each day’s course and reference material on all the useful rules like the points and mountains competition, time cuts and more.
Just go to inrng.com/tour
A couple of extra points…
- The points competition is already something to look forward to as it promises to be more than “the sprinters’ jersey” as both Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel have said they want it. Now the sprinters will of course try but this year’s route sees stages with uphill finishes like Longwy and Lausanne offering full points, a place where these two can score and others cannot
- The mountain summit time bonuses of 3-2-1 seconds are gone, they weren’t much use to start with and in a race with 53km of solo time trials, even less useful
- The mountains competition in recent years has seen any hors catégorie climbs at the end of a stage be worth double points (last year on Ventoux, the Col du Portet and Luz Ardiden it was 40 points for first place, not 20) but this is binned for 2022, all HC climbs are treated equally and this helps the raiders on breakaways who can take points on the earlier HC climbs during a stage and if they’re caught by the GC contenders later on they still have a good chance at getting the jersey.
Anyway, see for yourself at the permanent page of inrng.com/tour , desktop browsers will see the “Tour de France Guide” link at the top of the page, mobile browsers can use the drop-down menu to access this.
This Tour de l’Avenir looks harder than usual, indeed 😉
Fair, some of those guys are still very young, albeit stronger than ever ^___^
Is it a tour avenir because all the best veterans – nibali, pozzovivo, valverde and cavendish – went to the giro?
The Giro was indeed a Giro dei ricordi (o dei ricorsi), this has U23 stage length in the mountains.
I see what you mean about stage length. The nature of the race and what it tests in athletic terms is changing. I don’t think Lauren fignon would be impressed.
Yes! Excellent, can’t believe we are almost there!!
So that’s why MVDP kept riding the Giro the way he did – he was preparing for the points battle at the Tour! 😀
I do wonder how many GC contenders will still be in the hunt by the time the race gets to Arenberg, lots of finger crossing for dry & calm weather.
Some interesting stages with two classic alpine stages in the high mountains. A decent amount of TT stages.
Not sure I like, the lack of “proper” sprint stages after leaving Denmark, overuse of La Planche des Belle Filles, the continuing fashion for “short” mountain stages. There is a risk that the race will be all but over by the finish line in Alpe d’Huez.
However the Tour is always worth watching, it might not always be the best racing but it has a magnificence all of its own, It isnt “just” a bike race but a reflection on France itself, no other sporting event is quite like it.
Why?
We want wind, and then rain for the pave.
Otherwise it’s going to be a Slovenian procession.
Pogacar could get separated by a peloton split and / or come a cropper on the cobbles but still be in with a chance with the second TT.
In the same way that Le Tour anti-Froome’d the course, so they’ve compiled a similar test for Pogacar.
The difference could be, however, that he may not have the team mates around him to guide him through safely as Froome (in the very main) did?
And that’s where the intrigue lies.
I meant the riders. Crosswind stages are often the best stages, Cav’s win into St Amand Montrond was pretty much my favourite Tour stage. What should have been a “boring” sprint stage turned into an epic. Agree about the team thing, Chris Froome had Luke Rowe / G / Michał Kwiatkowski to look after him.
Not sure about difficult cobbles, too much randomness, the race shouldnt be decided by a punture or similar.
Why should Pogacar have problems on the cobbles? Have you seen him riding cobbles this spring?
It doesnt matter who you are punctures and accidents are inevitable at Paris Roubaix or similar courses. This introduces a much larger element of luck than normal. No problem for Paris Roubaix, that is an element in the race but for a leading rider to be ruled out of winning the Tour simply because of an ill timed puncture does not seem ideal. Sure it is good for the TV audience numbers though.
We have had a few cobble stages in the last few years and it has not been much of a problem. There probably have been more puncture problems but i can only remember lance Armstrong being badly affected by them. And even on that occasion i can think a teamate “accidentally” didn’t see him and rode by.
There have been crashes but not to many. Again probably some i don’t remember. Andy Schlek comes to mind. Froome but he crashed before the cobbles began.
For any GC hopeful who is not great on cobbles they can practice and will lijely have many riders on there team who are better to shepard them. For any who are good and want to take time they have to put in the effort themselves. So its not just a follow until the last km or 2 sort of stage.
Plus its makes great TV and competition and that’s very important because TV pays the bills and can’t be overlooked as a reasonable reason.
Its a bit more dangerous than a flat stage but less likely to end in death or really serious injury than a mountain top decent becasue of lower speeds.
“We have had a few cobble stages in the last few years and it has not been much of a problem.”
Good point: Nibali was found to be a natural on the cobbles in 2014 and built a good lead during stages 4 and 5.
Bad point: Froome abandoned early in st5 after crashes in st4.
Whether the Grands Tours should be borrowing from the one day classics has only become a question since they started doing this to such good effect. The latest Giro’s just offered up what most agree would be a fantastic Worlds course in stages at Turin and Naples, too.
GC riders have to be good all-rounders. I’d prefer to have no TTs beyond stage 7 and keep the cobbles, ribou/strade bianche, mountaintop goat roads because these are much better to watch and to ride.
We have this idea of a GC winner as needing a good final TT only because that’s what provided an individual objective measure of strength back in the day when specialist TT bikes were not a thing. The concept hung on because the manufacturers liked it so much, but really it’s become an aptitude further outside the norm than riding cobbles or dirt.
Bring it on.
How do you pronounce Longwy? “Lahn-wee”?
Didn’t Sagan also unclip in his Worlds win in the US?
I like the idea of a points competition that will be hotly contested between two of the best…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g72ZqBrBfco
You can advance to 6 minutes in and see for yourself. I was there!
Nice rewatch. Was there too. Peak Sagan.
Me three
Best weekend ever !
Lonwee, but the ee is not elongated.
And thrilled that the Tour is coming to my neck of the woods again. The penultimate climb from Réhon (Pulventeux) is brutal with the final climb to the finish in Longwy Haut slightly less so. The Longwy/Réhon area was the centre of the French steel industry and the site of violent protests during the 1980s closures. Among the relics are a fallen blast furnace and rolling mill equipment decorating the golf course.
Thank you.
Before any of this cranks up we get to see how Sagan goes in the Unbound Gravel. He is only doing 160 km but his presence will be interesting just the same.
I think i saw flobikes is covering the last 20 km live plus a 7 hour “highlights package”. I love watching high level cross and gravel type stages so its a great development.
If this becomes the norm expect to see more professional teams going as sponsor clamour for the exposure. If the gravel crowd can cope with there private sport getting more professional it could really develop (some whining expected). I wish they had this sort of event in Australia when i was racing (extremely amateur only) as its the type of thing that i loved. Its sort of like an audax event but timed.
Gravel is not a sport. It is, like roubaix, just riding on a shit road.
Unsure whether this makes much sense given the events of 1989 and 2020, but I’m not a great fan of the final (meaningful) day time trial. If Roglic and Pogacar are still both in the race, it could at least lead to some genuine suspense (as in 2020), but I think it provides a more compelling race if it’s placed before a series of tricky mountain or “classic-like” stages, especially given the time gaps that will appear over a 40 km TT. This at least provide the chance for the weaker TTers to try some last gasp efforts, or for Roglic/Pogacar to attack the other if time needs making up. Imagine the fun of watching Roglic/Jumbo try everything they could to gap Pogacar in a mountain stage after that surprise 2020 TT result. I appreciate that the reality is that some riders will be so far down or tired that they’ll probably want to protect their 4/5/6th place rather than try something crazy, but there’s always a 2015 Vuelta or 2018 Giro to dream of.
I remember it happening once where they had a big mountain stage the day before the finish but i think it makes for a big transfer if they want to finish in Paris.
Not sure that’s quite true – a transfer from somewhere like Planche des Belles Filles would be shorter than this year’s transfer from Rocamadour, and was obviously the location of the stage 20 TT in 2020. Or a dip into the Ardennes for a hilly classics stage.
Getting rid of double points for end of stage HC’s is a good shout. Hopefully we’ll see a proper competition for the jersey this year.
‘proper’
Unless Pogacar is on truely nuclear form (in which case this race could be over after a week), it seems we’re in for a re-run of the Giro. Instead of Hindley, Carapaz & Landa locked together until the TT, it’ll be Pogacar & Roglic doing 150 m sprints on hill top finishes. Nice touch to have a flat stage before the TT so the GC contenders are raring to go.
Ha.
If Roglic manages to stay upright and in good health, it’ll be interesting to see if / how this affects Pogacar’s approach to the race.
Last year Pogacar just went off on his own, seemingly from anywhere he chose, and mangled everyone else.
Perhaps he’d be more conservative or wary if Roglic and a strong Jumbo team were on his case?
The only time Pogacar has lost time is when the wind blew and he missed out getting in the front group. Back in 2014 Contador lost so much time on the pavé that the GC was as good as over. That could happen to Pogacar or Roglic. If both are close on GC when we get to stage 6, then I would expect both to try to get more time before the TT. Roglic to probably use the team – as per Bora in the Giro, and have other JV riders up in the GC, Pogacar seem to have the ability to just follow and attack when he feels good. JV to use multiple guys to try to wear down Pogacar seems their best hope.
Is it just me, or is anybody else feeling a bit blue about the GC battle for the yellow jersey this summer?
I cant really see anybody fighting for it apart from the two Slovenians.
I really hope Im wrong, who else might be in the mix?
After seeing the awesome fight for Pink at the Giro, I do hope we get some mixed action for yellow this summer.
Hold on – don’t discount Froome. He’s coming into form at just the right time to stick it to the Slovenians and land a glorious 5th victory (dreams are free) 🤣
Come on! The Giro was like Forest versus Huddersfield, this is going to be like Man City v Liverpool…
Oh yeah. I’ll get me coat…
The Tour de France is not just a bike race, it’s An Annual Miracle !!!
It’s amazing it happens at all, yet it happens every year.
The number of KOM points awarded is really small compared to the Giro I think. Do the mountain top finishes give double the points or did they change that?
Thanks for the great guide!