As riders return to training and planning for the 2024 season this mon⭕th, it's no surprise that numerous big name𒈔s are already scoping out the race routes for their biggest goals of the new season.
Wout van Aert and Jumbo-Visma have recently 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:carried out recons of the Dwars door Vlaanderen and Tour of Flanders courses, and now 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Tom Pidcock is exploring the gravel stage of the 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Tour de France.
The Briton, currently world and Olympic cross-country mountain bike champion and former cyclocross world champion, is no stranger to the rough roads. He checked out the gravel roads around Troyes with his 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Ineos Grenadiers teammate, Belgian climber Laurens De Plus, on Thu♛rsday.
The stage, which runs 199km beginning and ending in Troyes, will see the peloton take on꧋ 32.2km of gravel roads across 14 sectors with numerous hills thrown into the mix for good measure.
It's set to be one of the 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:key stages of the Tour de France, with the gravel strips 💟sure to provide GC action two days after the mid-race time trial. Pidcock, who has 16th and 13th places to his name at the Tour, figures to be a major player on the day given his off-road experience.
Pidcock hasn't commented on the inclusion of the gravel stage next July, though several others – including 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Jumbo-Visma CEO Richard Plugge and Soudal-Qu💃ickStep 𝓡contender Remco Evenepoel – have questioned the need for such a stage.
"Should gravel sections like that absolutely still be included in a Grand Tour or in other, normal, races?" 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Evenepoel asked following the Tour de France route presentaജtion. "I don't really think it's necessary."
Tour de France route designer Thierry Gouvenou said that "168澳洲5最新开奖结果:we had to come up 🐓with something clever"꧃ in order to break up what woulꦚd have otherwise been a procession of sprint stages during the middle part of the 2024 Tour.
"We made a promisꦓe never to h🙈ave more than one sprint stage in a row on the Tour," Gouvenou said.
"With the configuration of the 2024 route, we will ꧃find ourselves on the plains from the exit of the Alps on stage 4 to Cantal on stage 11. So𒁃, we had to come up with something clever."
The stage, which packs six sectors into the final 30k♐m, is set to🥃 be one of the highlights of the race next summer, with Gouvenou predicting, "if some of the big teams decide to go all out for their leaders then there'll be a lot of tension at the back and the elastic will snap, that's for sure."
Pidcock is sure to form part of the Ineos൲ Grenadiers squad a🌃t the Tour next year, though the team's planning for the race is still largely under wraps.
Last year's fifth-placed finisher Carlos Rodríguez has yet to announce his goals, while Egan Bernal looks set to target the Vuelta a España, and 2018 Tour winner Geraint Thomas recently said "it would be nice to go back" to the G💮iro d'Italia, while also noting thatܫ he missed t🗹he Tour in 2023.
