|   TdF Route Changed due to Lance's Domination | Heckler
Oct 25, 2001 11:53 AM | | Lance will still win.
Shortest ever Tour de France to save best for last
By Michael McDonough
ASSOCIATED PRESS
October 25, 2001
PARIS Tour de France organizers unveiled the shortest route ever for next year's race, with hopes of fighting drug use and saving the suspense for the end.
The route announced Thursday covers 2,034.8 miles over 21 stages, including the prologue. This year's race was 2,141½ miles long.
But four of the six key mountain stages next year will take place in the last eight days, making the outcome uncertain almost until the finish in Paris.
This year, Lance Armstrong wrapped up his third straight title with a whole week to go thanks to his domination in the mountains, leaving little suspense for the rest of the race.
"We were criticized because nothing happened in the final stages," Tour director Jean-Marie Leblanc said. "(Next year) the suspense will be maintained as far as possible until the finish."
Armstrong had been due to attend Thursday's news conference but withdrew "because of the Sept. 11 attacks," Leblanc said. He didn't discuss details
Leblanc also said security for the race had not been reassessed but "We will wait to see how the situation evolves."
The race director said the 2002 Tour was made shorter to help fight doping in what is one of the world's toughest sports events. The endurance drug EPO was at the center of the doping scandal that nearly wrecked the 1998 race.
"You can't say you're fighting doping and impose a heavier work load for the riders," he said.
The 2002 Tour starts July 6 in Luxembourg and takes riders through Germany, the flat planes of northern France, the Pyrenees mountains, the southeastern Provence region and the Alps. There is one more mountain leg than last year.
The race finishes with the traditional ride down the Champs-Elysees in Paris on July 28, three days after a grueling mountain stage between Aime and Cluses in the Alps.
Other difficulties include a 136.7-mile stretch through Provence that ends with an exceptionally difficult climb up Mont Ventoux, one of cycling's toughest challenges. Armstrong finished second there in the 2000 Tour, taking a big step toward his second title.
Mont Ventoux comes after two mountain stages in the Pyrenees and before three straight Alpine stages, with a rest day in between. A 110.98-mile leg between Les Deux-Alpes and La Plagne will be key to deciding the winner.
Despite the changes, Leblanc said he expected an outcome similar to this year's.
"We will have the same leading riders as this year," he said. |
| The route in Flash. France surrenders. | Shiva
Oct 25, 2001 12:04 PM | | Click here then mouse over L'Orient and read the last sentence.
Shiva (Ooh la la) |
| Wow--I need to study up on geography [nm] | Fiver
Oct 25, 2001 12:16 PM | | nm |
| Britain as in "Brittany" | Red Ascent
Oct 25, 2001 12:32 PM | | While that part of France has long cultural ties to England, "Britain" isn't "Great Britain". Each state in France has a name, and Britian is the name of that one. Don't make me go into a long, "overbearing" European history lesson here...
Phil |
| She's racing now? | Pete.
Oct 25, 2001 1:15 PM | | She should stick to sappy girly pop, IMO.
Pete |
| She's singing now? | Fiver
Oct 25, 2001 1:39 PM | | She should stick to physics, IMO.
http://www.britneyspears.ac/lasers.htm |
| lol! nada, zip, zero, zilch message | Spike
Oct 25, 2001 5:03 PM | | 0 |
| "We will have the same leading riders..." | DeRanger
Oct 25, 2001 1:15 PM | | "...as this year" - awww, now they've gone and spoiled the surprise! Zut alors! Quelle horreur!
It may dictate some interesting changes in tactics - the collected "kings of the mountains" will need to stay a bit closer to the leaders in the flats so that they don't have to have a superhuman effort to make up time late in the race. I'll bet the competition in the TTs preceding the mountain stages will be much more intense, and I wonder if that will take something out of the riders attacking in les Alps.
DeR (One rule: when the going gets tough, the sprinters fade...) |
| Can you say, "Free Agents!" "Contract Negotiations!" | ScubaCruz
Oct 25, 2001 1:33 PM | | Surely (yea, I'm talking to you Shirley) the team rosters will be shuffled between now and then to try and fight a different battle. Just as the Posties did to get stronger year after year!
Saw a full page IMBA / Lance Armstrong ad in an old bike mag earlier today and said to myself, "That guy is my hero."
ScubaCruz
(anxious to be a rodie next year... to kick Sport Class butt) |
| My boy Levi... | DeRanger
Oct 25, 2001 1:53 PM | | ...is going to command top-dollar in the re-shuffle after his Vuelta performance. Maybe USPS should make a more concerted effort to hang on to him after all.
Should be an interesting off-season.
DeR |
| they changed this years for the same reason.. | sskb
Oct 26, 2001 5:03 AM | | this years was a course to make Lance loose plus
they had 8 team from france and only 1 american team.
Too bad america can't have a great race and we could
just not go to france! |
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