Stage 2 complete.  If you have nothing else to do in quarantine, this is just beautiful scenery.

If I understand correctly, they did not change the route.  But they did change the order.  So it's unusually hard early in the race.

Not really a big "cycling" fan.  But I love the TdF for the panaromas.

The route changes every year??

The route changes every year??

Edit: That was a statement posed as a question.

I watched every stage of Lances 7 in arow.  

Dont watch it that much anymore

Very interesting race so far.   The first week usually doesn't sort things out, but we already had 3-4 mountain stages.

And we've seen the emergence of 1-2 Americans as potential GC contenders in the future...

Also - always love watching the race.  The scenery never disappoints.

posted by Laley23

The route changes every year??

Yes.  At a high level, every Tour is a mix of mountain brutality, sprint finishes, and long mostly flat stages with chances for non-contenders to win.

There are common finishes at classic points of interest.  The overall race generally doesn't change, although in past races interesting things happened with teams and time trials.

posted by gut

Yes.  At a high level, every Tour is a mix of mountain brutality, sprint finishes, and long mostly flat stages with chances for non-contenders to win.

There are common finishes at classic points of interest.  The overall race generally doesn't change, although in past races interesting things happened with teams and time trials.

I misread your initial post I think. I was pointing out the route always changes. I think you meant they didn’t change this years route with the pandemic, just the order of stages.

I’ll never forget having to fly into Belgium a few years ago to set up for the TDF and thinking WTF am I going to Belgium when this race is in France lol. Had no idea it often starts in neighboring countries.

posted by Laley23

I misread your initial post I think. I was pointing out the route always changes. I think you meant they didn’t change this years route with the pandemic, just the order of stages.

Right.  Usually the first week is kind of like a "preseason" for the GC contenders.  But this year they threw tough mountain stages in early in order to sort things out if the race had to be called off.  I think they said it's a minimum of 10 stages to declare a winner.

It's also kind of weird because I'm not sure all the contenders really know how good their form is, so no real attacks so far.