For the last couple of weeks, Ive been testing the outlandish Factor One. It's an aero road machine that breaks not only the conventions of modern bike design, but bike fit and geometry too.Im not going to get into the Ones uniqueness just yet; Ill save that for my review good or bad. But what my time testing this aero bike reminded me was that in the three decades Ive been involved in reporting on bike design, its always, ultimately, been about the people.You can forget CFD, simulation, computation and, more recently, artificial intelligence. What has driven the biggest and best advancements in cycling is the designers and engineers, and Ive had the pleasure of meeting some of the best.Mike Burrows Chris Boardman riding the Lotus 108 designed by Mike Burrows. David Cannon / Getty Images Back when I was a young upstart, I had the pleasure of spending time with the late Mike Burrows. He was the visionary talent behind Chris Boardmans legendary Lotus bike. When I met Mike for the first time in his Norfolk workshop, he was vehemently pushing two design directions.Firstly, it was the wild world of recumbents. In Mike's mind, the melding of the man-based engine and the ultra-slimline recumbent bike shape resulted in the fastest bicycles on the planet. He wasnt wrong, but it was just too forward-thinking to gain any real traction. Mike Burrows and one of his beloved recumbent race machines. Plus, just as the UCI thwarted his radical design with the Lotus, theyd obviously never entertain anything as radical as a bike you effectively lie down to ride. The other project Burrows championed was cargo bikes. He saw them as a low-polluting urban solution, before the electric car, van or robotic Amazon delivery system existed. Now, cargo bikes are more commonly used to provide urban deliveries, ferry kids to and from school, or for me, take my dog to nicer walking spots.Graeme Obree Graeme Obree's superman position aboard 'old faithful', the bike he built himself. Mike Powell / Allsport / Getty Now, I dont think Mike Burrows would have delivered what he did with the Lotus without riders such as Chris Boardman driving him on, and that leads me to another icon of bike development I've met.I had the privilege of chaperoning the Flying Scotsman, Graeme Obree at one of BikeRadars live events at Brands Hatch back in 2010. Obree epitomised the kind of athlete who completely knew and sensed his own performance levels. He developed his time trial position through trial and error. He had the insight from his incredible cycling ability to feel what was faster.That all resulted in Obree's tuck position that emulated the stance of downhill skiers. Then, when the UCI banned his self-developed ride position, he came up with the superman position to stay within the rules and win the World Pursuit title. It was the same position Chris Boardman used to set his hour record.There was no CFD simulation or wind-tunnel investigation, just a rider who knew if he shifted his position hed go faster.Nick Larsen Nick Larsen worked with Airbus on the groundbreaking Fabric ALM saddle. Warren Rossiter/Future Publishing In more recent times, the designer Nick Larsen was so on top of the zeitgeist he changed the bike industry. Larsen worked as designer at the traditional British bike manufacturer Pashley, probably most famous for making Royal Mail delivery bikes. He also designed some very cool mountain bike trials bikes under the Pashley TV series banner.He then went on to create Charge Bikes, bringing the fixed-gear courier culture to the masses, and helping to make commuting by bike cool. Larsen then created Fabric with its advanced saddle designs from his talented team, incorporating 3D printing and tech from the likes of Airbus into cycling.He also has the uncanny ability to be both a progressive bike and component designer, and seriously good at marketing.Larsen's spell at Cannondale modernised the brand, and hes now doing great things at Leatt.Chris Dodman Cannondale's Hooligan: lots of Chris Dodman's enginnering skill on show here. Cannondale British engineer Chris Dodman is another figure who played a big role at Cannondale. Chris started out with the British engineering company Middleburn, masterminding its incredibly sought-after (and beautiful) cranksets. The 2014 Cannondale Synapse set the template for the racy endurance bike. Russell Burton / Immediate Media At Cannondale, he has been part of some very innovative designs. Those included the radical Saeco CAAD bikes through to the groundbreaking 2014 Synapse, and numerous mountain and urban bikes. Chris created the engineering solutions that made those bikes work.He holds more patents than he has fingers and has an almost unique ability to think outside the box to implement the dreams of designers and engineers.Szymon Kobyliski The Rondo Ruut was one of the most interesting gravel bikes of 2017. Ben Healey / Immediate Media Szymon Kobyliski was originally part of the Polish band Blenders, who notched up more than 100,000 album sales and had a huge following. While his fellow band members did the rock star thing, Kobyliski was a national mountain bike champion rider in his homeland. Kobyliski then started NS Bikes, and later 7Anna distribution. NS Bikes focused on the (then) small dirt/gravity market and ended up making some of the most successful jump frames of all time, which dominated slopestyle competitions for years.The company also produced downhill bikes that flew of the cliffs at Rampage and introduced the radical NS Synonym RC 1cross-country bike, with geometry numbers unheard of at that time but a standard in XC today. The Rondo HVRT CF01: a race bike, endurance bike and gravel bike in one. Robert Smith Later with Rondo, Kobyliski and his team decided to build a company focused only on gravel, which at that time (2016) was considered a 'niche of a niche' by most industry people.Rondo disregarded the norms of bike design and adopted a no-rules attitude, making whatever it wanted.An aero race bike that could become an endurance bike or gravel machine? Rondo did that with the HVRT. A gravel bike that could be both racer and endurance bikepacking bike? How about the RUUT? Want an off-road focused speedster for rough terrain, with geometry unlike anything on the market? I give you the MYLC.Szymon built Rondo around bikes he wanted to ride and I respect that. The brand may have faced financial woes after the pandemic, but Rondo is back and Im excited to see what Kobyliski and his team comes up with next.Graham Shrive The Bugatti edition of the Factor One: data-driven design, but formulated by a human idea. Factor This trip through some of cyclings most daring and innovating design engineers brings me back to the Factor One, and the man behind it: Graham Shrive.Graham started out as an ambitious engineer at Cervlo. I first encountered him at a launch way back in 2014. At the time, most of the Cervlo crew Id met had been knowledgeable, polite, mild-mannered Canadians. Graham was different. He was driven and extremely outspoken. At the time, I described him as the angriest man in cycling. Now I see how he had a vision to improve bicycle design and was committed to bringing that vision to life. On that launch, he presented the S5. It had increased stiffness, a lower weight, tweaked geometry and a radical integrated cockpit. It was an epically good bike: light, very fast and for an aero bike very easy to ride over longer distances especially on the climbs.Over the years, Ive seen Shrive present everything from the lightest bike in the peloton through to gravel race bikes, and even the most advanced triathlon bike of its era, the P5X.Now he is at Factor, and his ideas have been unleashed. Its a receptive brand, with an ambitious design team (which he leads), and that means hes been able to take radical ideas from sketches to production, with lots of research and of course development.Bike design has always been driven by visionaries, be it Tullio Campagnolo and his revolutionary quick-release or Ernesto Colnago and his drive to develop race bikes. There is also Bob Parlee and his vision in pushing carbon fibre forward. In a world where we are being told AI will solve all our problems, I still think visionary humans will drive the future of bicycle design. And maybe theres a lesson there for other creative fields, too.

The transfer season for next year has been in full swing for well over two months. Over that period, each team has approached a different approach; some like UAE Team Emirates - XRG have wasted little time and announced its full roster weeks, or even months ago. Others like Netcompany INEOS prefer t...

DCC Beta the Dublin City Councils testing labs is trialling organised play streets to give space, for a limited time, back to childrens play.Play streets are residential streets that are temporarily closed to through traffic so children can play safely outdoors in cities, often where children once played before cars dominated streets. The modus operandi of DCC Beta is to basically take concepts such as Bike Bunkers, art on utility boxes, and cargo bike share and test them within their local physical, legal and administrative context. As always, they are looking for public input during every stage of the trial process. Today, DCC Beta said: The #PlayStreetsBETA trial began today. To help us learn more widely, there will be various phases to the project. We wont begin to use the gates until a few weeks time (shown below from the inside of the space).We would very much appreciate your questions, feedback and suggestions throughout, DCC Beta said. In a recent update, on the same Bluesky thread, DCC Beta said: This morning, we began the onsite work for a #PlayStreetBETA trial in Stoneybatter, aiming to go live over the next few weeks.The photos show barriers for the play street trial, which were made by the councils joinery workshop, and fold into planters.During pedestrianised hours, people can walk through as usual on the footpaths or can cycle/scoot through using the gap between gates (with the gates providing some visibility through), DCC Beta explained. During non-pedestrianised times with the gates folded back they look and act like regular planter boxes.The play street trial also includes testing the use of gas keys, a common triangular key, to hold the gates in position. DCC Beta said one of the councils metal fabricator staff members created the prototype.MORE: Dccbeta.ie/project/article/play-streetsIMAGE: DCC Beta.

The 2027 Tour de France Femmes will follow the suit and introduce a new iconic ascent to the women's race. At the route presentation this week, it was revealed that, after Mont Ventoux in 2026, Col de la Madeleine in 2025 and Alpe d'Huez in 2024, it'll be Puy de Dome's turn to make a debut next year...

The 2027 Tour de France route has been revealed this week. Compared to previous editions, it's quite an intriguing one. Fewer brutal summit finishes, very few hilly stages, and more than enough time trial kilometers. From quick look it seems like a great opportunity for Jonas Vingegaard to break Tad...

CyclistWinners and losers of the 2027 Tour de France routeIts time to get your calendars at the ready because the 2027 Tour de France route is finally out in the open.Get the macaroni pies and Buckie while youre at it because the 114th edition will begin in Scotland for the first time, with a send-off scheduled in Edinburgh on Friday 2nd July 2027. From there, the route cuts down through England and Wales before meeting the races homeland, where the fight for the yellow jersey will no doubt take shape. The Grand Colombier, Col du Portet and Col de Marie Blanque are among the big mountain passes to feature, but all the talk after yesterdays route reveal seems to be centred on the 71km of time-trialing sprinkled into the first and final week of racing.So, what are the takeaways from this parcours reveal? Who looks to benefit the most, and who is already booking their flight to Italy after seeing next years Tour route for the first time?Winner: Remco EvenepoelXavier PereyronAfter finishing second at the 2026 Tour de France, Evenepoel has been considered to be Tadej Pogaars closest threat.This can be seen in the parcours, which features 71km of individual time-trials, the largest sum in 15 years. That should be enough to not only guarantee the four-time world champions participation, but also secure him as a shoo-in for the final podium.Along with the potential for two stage wins, Evenepoel has the chance to gain yellow after Stage 7s time-trial to Chambord. Its an open goal wider than the English Channel, and as long as he stays close enough to Pogaar in the Welsh hills, the Belgian will be in prime position to take the maillot jaune.If he moves into yellow, Evenepoel could end up leading the race for a few days. The position of the second time-trial before the Pyrenees could also slot him into a healthy GC position coming into the final mountain stage. Given hes never worn yellow before, I presume hell be sure to seize the moment when it comes next July, potentially handing us our first genuine challenger to Pogaar in several years.Winners: The sprintersXavier PereyronThe 2027 Tour de France will give the sprinters much to think about.The chance to fight for the yellow jersey comes early on, not once but twice on British roads. This is because Stage 1 looks to be a sprint-friendly finale, albeit with a false flat arrival in Carlisle, while Stage 2 looks to favour the sprinters again by Liverpools Pier Head. So if you dont manage to get yellow on day one, you can always pick it up after Stage 2 if the bonus seconds are on your side. In that case, we could have the rare chance that two sprinters end up in yellow during the Grand Dpart.The green jersey battle was by far the most compelling contest to follow at the 2026 Tour. However, the way in which it was fought was somewhat atypical, with riders heading off into the breakaway instead of relying on sprint results. The outcome was a green jersey winner, Mads Pedersen, who failed to crack the top five in a bunch sprint.On the whole, Id say the 2027 route leans more toward the traditional sprinters, given there are seven flat stages. Many of them come early on, so theres an even higher chance of them ending in a sprint and thus the green jersey points going toward a traditional sprinter instead of a fast rouleur like 2026 green jersey winner Mads Pedersen. I say this, but Tim Merlier has already said that hes going to the Tour solely to win stages instead of fighting for the green jersey. The sprinting field is also more fragmented than ever, evidenced by the fact that four different sprinters won stages at the 2026 edition.Winner: Mathieu van der PoelXavier PereyronThe Tour de France route designers have every reason to give Mathieu van der Poel a leg-up. Hes hugely popular domestically and abroad, and he has a star quality that seems to transcend the sports usual borders.In that case, its not shocking to see several Van der Poel-friendly profiles in week one. In particular, there are a pair of finishes that come back-to-back on Stages 4 and 5. The finish to Cherbourg was last used in 2016, when a reduced group made it to the line. Watching that stage back reinforced my belief that Van der Poel could be in with a shout there. Thats the same for Stage 5s finish to Plumelec, which boasts similar stats to the Mr-de-Bretagne, where he won his first Tour stage back in 2021. Its worth remembering that Marianne Vos won on the same climb when the Tour de France Femmes visited last year, and we all know the similarities the two Dutch riders share.If hes brushed up his climbing legs, as he did in preparation for the Worlds in Montral last month, then he could even be in with a chance for a stage win and yellow jersey in Cardiff. Hes a former winner of the Tour of Britain, after all.Winners: Polka-dot puristsXavier PereyronAll too often we have seen the winner of the Tour de France end up in the polka-dot jersey without even trying. It happened in 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2025, when either Jonas Vingegaard or Tadej Pogaar won the polka-dots without ever wearing it on the road.However, the 2027 Tour de France will feature just three summit finishes. Thats the smallest number of mountaintop finishes since 2017, when the Tour de France removed the prospect of endless Chris Froome victories in the mountains.A byproduct of this summit finish shrinkage could be a return to proceedings for the polka-dot jersey. The GC monopoly in the mountains classification has typically been a result of the summit finishes, which yield high returns in the fight for the polka-dot jersey. If you remove the opportunities for Pogaar and Vingegaard to score points, the traditional breakaway candidates gain an advantage.Another advantage of this route is the early placement of several key mountains. On the stages to Sallanches, Mende and Laruns, the breakaway should have free rein to contest the bulk of the days points. That should favour their chances in the overall contest rather than having UAE and Visma domestiques rake in the points by default.Loser: Lenny MartinezXavier PereyronThe race organisers have often been accused of creating routes that favour French riders. However, those accusations fall short when discussing Lenny Martinez who finished fifth at this years race, dont forget.Why is this parcours unfavourable for him? Well, hes far from a natural on the TT bike. At this years Tour, he shed almost three minutes in the 26km time-trial. In a Tour with over double that, we could see Martinez struggle to replicate his top five finish next July.To add insult to injury, Martinez wont benefit from a parcours littered with summit finishes either, his usual terrain for success.If I were him, Id go for the polka-dots instead of a top ten overall. Just dont go grabbing any sticky bottles this time, Lenny.Losers: Anyone who thrives at high altitudeXavier PereyronSorry to all the riders born in the Andes or Rockies. This Tour is not going to give the high-altitude babies any advantage. In fact, the Tour only passes the 2,000m marker on one stage, Stage 18.This is the lowest-altitude Tour de France in a long time and thats judged by several metrics. The 2,115m summit of the Col du Portet is the lowest highest point used since the 2013 Tour de France. The 2027 race only goes above 800m altitude on six occasions. So if anyone was planning on acclimatising to 2,000m altitudes, its not worth bothering.We used to talk about how Colombians thrived on high-altitude finishes, but perhaps that line of thinking is dmod in an age where riders born in Scandinavia and Benelux climb among the best in the world. 2,000m also insinuates longer climbs. If that means more space for Pogcineration, the less the better.Losers: Weekend viewersXavier PereyronThere are a few confusing choices at this Tour de France and Im not talking about the choice to send the riders to deepest, darkest Cardiff.Weekend viewership is almost always higher than it is during the week. Thats the races chance to get the race on more eyes, and potentially capture new audiences channel hopping on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon. In that regard, it should be in the races best interest to have exciting stages on Saturdays and Sundays, of which there are eight at next years Tour.Fair enough, the opening weekend will attract viewers regardless, but there are two sprint stages scheduled for the second and third weekends. For new viewers, the prospect of seeing the peloton roll as one big blob will probably look rather boring. Not to mention the lack of jeopardy these stages hold in the GC.The final weekend is a particularly lucrative window for viewership ratings. The Montmartre finish has helped to increase viewing figures in France, as revealed during the route presentation yesterday, but the decision to make Stage 20 a transitional stage feels rather silly. Chances are, the stage will be fought out by a fatigued breakaway or a peloton just wanting the race to be done and dusted. I mean, the same happened in 2025, when a slightly more interesting profile was chucked in to keep the Ain and Doubs dpartements happy.I understand the choice to minimise transfers to Paris especially after the Tour committed to using rail instead of flying domestically but Stage 20 should be a GC showpiece. Why not move the route around to have the final Pyrenean stage then?Losers: Tougher sprintersXavier PereyronWhile sprinters like Tim Merlier and Olav Kooij have a right to be happy about this route, there are few reasons for the likes of Mads Pedersen and Biniam Girmay to feel overlooked. Similarly, its hard to see the likes of Paul Magnier or Arnaud De Lie having a breakthrough Tour de France either.Thats because there arent many stages suited to a reduced bunch sprint, or any that suit a tougher sprinter of the Pedersen type. The finish to Cherbourg could prove too steep, as is the finish up to Plumelec upon the races return to France. A lot of the early chances for the fast men look like out-and-out sprints. The hillier stages, on the other hand, look too difficult for a sprinter to get their hands on victory.If youre Pedersen or Girmay, the most appetising profile is Stage 15 to Albi. With it coming so deep into the race though, its likely a breakaway ends up contesting the win anyway. Knowing Pedersen, hell try his damn hardest to get into the days escape group, however.Losers: Fans wanting to go to the Team PresentationXavier PereyronThis one isnt quite related to what we heard yesterday morning, but rather the events around the Grand Dpart.This morning, tickets went on sale for the Team Presentation of next summers Tour de France, which is set to take place just outside Edinburgh Castle. The setup will feature a stadium-like setup just like the Edinburgh Tattoo instead of the usual town square rig that the Team Presentation has adopted in previous years.Tickets started from 27, but the pre-sale already sold out this morning due to high demand. More tickets are due to go on sale next week, but I have certain reservations about this approach.I say the fans in Edinburgh are losers here because you dont usually have to get tickets for this. Whats more, you dont usually have to pay to access the event. Its just as free as the rest of the Tour. In fact, this is the first time since 2014 the last time the UK held the race that tickets have been required.I understand the need to organise crowds and generate revenue, but it feels a shame to have paid-for tickets at an event with free access at its essence. If tickets were required for safety/logistics reasons, then they should have been free, just like at screenings for BBC shows or National Lottery events.That said, theres still a chance that youll be able to see the riders for free as they roll around Edinburgh that same evening. Insider tip: they have to park up somewhere nearby for the obligatory rider photoshoot and press conferences before the presentation begins.The post Winners and losers of the 2027 Tour de France route appeared first on Cyclist.

CyclistAdvantage, Evenepoel? The Tour de France 2027 route attempts to stop the inevitableAfter rumours, speculation and sleuthing, the parcours for the 2027 Tour de France was finally revealed in Paris yesterday in front of an audience that included former Tour winners, legends and esteemed local politicians.Starting in Scotland on 2nd July 2027, the race will spend three days in Britain before heading to France, where the GC will rip open. In total, next years Tour will feature seven sprint stages, six hill stages, six mountain stages and 71km of time-trialling. Between those numbers lies our first clues of where the GC could be won or lost, and who the route designers seemed to have favoured going into the 2027 edition.Its clearly been a tough ask to create a Tour that avoids a certain Slovenian from ending up with a bucket full of stage wins and building a winning advantage so large it looks like a timing error. But have Thierry Gouvenou and his band of merry men made any inroads into hampering Tadej Pogaar in 2027? Who has this course been created to benefit?Who would the race organisers be considering?Xavier PereyronHow do you stop a five-time Tour de France winner from what seems like an unchallenged sixth win? Not much, but you can try to help out the challengers. Jonas Vingegaard has been the runner-up to Pogaar on three occasions. The Dane was once said to be stronger on pure mountain stages, which perhaps motivated the mountain-heavy course in 2024 and 2025. That has since been dispelled, and now he just seems to be a bracket behind Pogaar in the mountains. He doesnt seem to have the time-trial legs to set him apart, neither is he a gifted enough puncheur to warrant several steep finishes in his name.Instead, the Tour could look to Remco Evenepoel as the possible challenger or at least the man to suspend Pogaars yellow jersey tyranny. The Belgian finished last years Tour over six minutes behind Pogaar, but the Red Bull rider seems to be growing in confidence and strength. Physiologically, he should be entering his best years too, as he turns 27 in January. He also has a distinct advantage, being the worlds best time-trialist.Then theres Paul Seixas. Its no secret that Gouvenou has tried to design routes that favour certain French riders in the past. Particularly in the age of Thibaut Pinot and Romain Bardets peak, the Tours route map seemed to favour the pair the race even visited both of their hometowns in 2019 and 2020.But how can you tailor a Grand Tour to Seixas? Its not clear yet. He seems to thrive on punchy parcours, but so does Pogaar. So at this point in time, you cant hand Seixas a huge advantage besides visiting his hometown (which wont happen in 2027).Historic levels of time-triallingXavier PereyronA noticeable feature of this Tour de France is the whopping 71km against the clock. The Tour de France hasnt featured this much time-trialling since 2012, the year they whacked in a bunch of kilometres against the clock in the favour of Bradley Wiggins around 100km on that occasion.The only domain Pogaar has genuinely felt behind his rivals is in the time-trials. That reason has no doubt motivated the big shift toward adding time-trials into the race, notably in the favour of Remco Evenepoel, a four-time world champion in the discipline.The Belgians team have already clocked onto this assumption. Its not bad at all for us, Red Bull boss Ralph Denk said after the route presentation yesterday. Remco is currently the very best time trialist in the world, so that is an aspect of this Tour we are certainly going to take into account. That he can gain time on Pogaar, Vingegaard, Seixas and co in those? In theory, yes.His confidence is justified. Evenepoel has won three of the five time-trials he has ridden at the Tour. The only ones he missed were considerably uphill, favouring stage winner Tadej Pogaar instead.Given the addition of a huge 38km flat time-trial on Stage 7, Evenepoel has been touted as the first serious yellow jersey wearer. Judging from recent performances, he has been handed the chance to make early inroads on Pogaar, potentially setting him up for a several-day stint in the race lead.For those tired of seeing Pogaar take yellow early, this would be an improvement. Plus, it would at least give the illusion that the race is more undecided than it was in previous years when Pogaar went into the jersey with ease during week one.Xavier PereyronThe time-trial in Toulouse could also fling Evenepoel closer to the GC lead if he is to lose it in the Alps. Again, its over 30km in length, so theres a chance for another 30 seconds to be picked up here. Combined, you could guesstimate that a total of 1 minute to 1 minute 30 seconds could be gained by Evenepoel in these two stages alone.There is an important caveat to be made here.We are assuming that Evenepoel will be much stronger, and thus, will gain a handsome amount of time. This is founded on his results at championship races like the Worlds, Olympics and Europeans. But when Evenepoel and Pogaar have gone head-to-head against the clock at the Tour, the gaps have been tighter than you might have thought.In a 33km flat TT in the first week of the 2025 Tour, Evenepoel gained just 16 seconds on Pogaar. In a 25km stage the year before, he gained just 12. Sure enough, he gained 28 seconds on a 26km course in 2026, but these gaps are far from the minute-or-so margins we see him winning by at the Worlds.Based on average speeds and time gaps, the maths suggests Evenepoel may only stand to gain around one minute from these 71km against the clock. Thats if our sample of previous Tour performances is to be believed.Thats hardly an open goal when youre up against Pogaar, but it definitely hands Evenepoel a leg-up in his GC quest.Fewer mountaintop finishesXavier PereyronWhile time-trialling is in, summit finishes are out.In 2027, the organisers have included only three finishes atop mountain passes. Thats the lowest figure since 2017, when the Tour tried their best to stunt the Sky Train and natural climber Chris Froome. To some extent, it feels as though the same tactic is being employed here against Pogaar, who has seemed near unstoppable in the mountains over the past few editions, having developed a successful copy-paste approach to these types of finishes.On closer inspection, it looks like the route is trying to avoid big mountain days in general, particularly within the races opening week. Its a logical approach after recent editions at which Pogaar has forced race-deciding results in the mountains early on.That fear might have tempered the route organisers from delivering a blockbuster mountain stages filled with hors catgorie climbs after hors catgorie climb. Instead, the mountain profiles look tamer than in previous years. The thinking goes that this approach should limit the opportunities for big GC gaps to be created, as riders will have more teammates at their disposal and less mountain fatigue in the legs.Xavier PereyronThe stages in the Alps are noticeably less extreme than 2024, 2025 and 2026, when the riders would be served at least one stage with over 5,000m of elevation gain. In 2027, we have nothing of the sort. The stage to Sallanches ends with shorter climbs, while the stage to Les Saisies limits the usage of monster climbs before the final test.In fact, the length and altitude of many of the climbs selected seem to be much tamer. The Tours highest point will be the lowest its been since 2013, and the longest climb of the race is just 20km. These stages are shorter than before too, with few mountain days set to be above 170km.I guess thats one way to stunt Pogaar. Take out the mountains because hes too good at them. That approach, however, should place extra emphasis on GC gains elsewhere, notably the time-trials. And while Evenepoel might have won his first mountaintop finish at the Tour this summer, hes not the most gifted on these blockbuster days in the Alps. A move away from summit finishes, where the climbing is the ultimate variable, could therefore be seen as something else in his favour.Its impossible to Pog-proof a TourXavier PereyronWhile the Tour has done its best to give Evenepoel a leg-up and deter fatal Pogcineration before the end of week one, the race cant protect itself too much from what has felt like an inevitability for the past few years.Lets face it, its impossible to make a route that hampers Tadej Pogaar. Hes proven that he can take time on any and all terrain, from cobbled to time-trials, hills and Pyrenean passes. He also has the worlds best team at his disposal and a pre-Tour programme that is well-proven for French success.However, what we have learnt is that placing the mountains early on is a risk. When before it added a light dusting of GC intrigue, Pogaar has taken the opportunity to strangle the race early on. Thats been noted this year, and the mountain stages have been made much easier than in previous years. The placement of the time-trials also feels like a wise choice, giving purists like Evenepoel somewhat of a GC handicap coming into the Alps and Pyrenees.Pogaar will probably end up winning the Tour in 2027. But we just might have to wait until week two for him to take yellow and start putting minutes into his rivals. Thatll be an improvement at least on the 2021, 2024, 2025 and 2026 editions, when Pogaar seemed the winner-in-waiting already by the end of week one.In an age of five-minute winning margins and two-week stints in yellow, something needs to be done to change the current course of action. If long time-trials are the answer to that and I believe they could be as long as Evenepoel remains a contender then so be it. Lets throw them in and make the Tour feel more up in the air, even if it isnt really.Picture this. Evenepoel ends up in the yellow jersey after Stage 7, picks up a lead of maybe one minute, just to be dumped once the race reaches the Alps. Well get a second wind of optimism after the second time-trial, only for it to disappear once Pogaar reminds us of what dominance looks like in the Pyrenees. The outcome is the same, but the journey there has been engineered differently to the five Tour wins before.In that case, Remco, I am afraid you are ASOs Trojan Horse.The post Advantage, Evenepoel? The Tour de France 2027 route attempts to stop the inevitable appeared first on Cyclist.

Brandon McNulty could be capable of challenging for a Tour de France podium, but former American professional Bob Roll has raised the possibility of the newly crowned world champion leaving UAE Team Emirates XRG to pursue his Grand Tour ambitions elsewhere. Despite becoming one of the peloton's mo...