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.