After all the TDF route analysis, this edition of EuroTrash answers the question: Who’s that route actually good — and bad — for?
Not that the Tour de France route was the only one unveiled last week: The women’s route is now clear as well and its reviews have been…mixed. At best. But TrashMan Mike says: Bring it on! Because mixed-terrain racing is exciting racing. And we don’t want the women’s scene to become like the men’s.
Not much racing going on this time of year, and honestly, we can’t yet bring ourselves to comment on cyclocross. So let’s dive deep and dream longingly about next July.
TOP STORY
- Pogačar-proofed? ASO’s 2027 Tour Winners and Losers
RACE NEWS
- A Classic Every Day: the Femmes Finally Get a Real Rider’s Route
TEAM, RIDER AND RACING NEWS
- Castelli Becomes Official Tour de France Jersey Sponsor — and the White Jersey Becomes…White and Blue?
- Remco Kicks off Annual WT Riders’ California Swing
VIDEO
- Inside Cycling’s Most Famous Church
Pogačar-proofed? ASO’s 2027 Tour Winners and Losers
You’ve already read the suggestions that the 2027 Tour de France has been “Pogačar-proofed.” We say: adding TT kilometers and limiting mountaintop finishes Pog-proofs the Tour about as much as adding a rail to the deck would have iceberg-proofed the Titanic. (Too soon?)
What the recently unveiled route does do, though, is potentially make for a more entertaining Tour. The parcours, with a huge 71km of time trialing, the most since Wiggins won in 2012, and just three summit finishes, should make for very entertaining viewing — especially with Montmartre back for a third straight year.
Winners
Pogačar: Because he’s (practically) always a winner. Every route is good for Pogi. He’s no slouch against the clock, he won on the Grand Colombier in 2020, and he won on the Col du Portet in 2021. We’re all assuming he’ll be back in full form, and hungrier than ever. TDF ’27 is his to lose.
Remco: The Tour finally has the time trials he’s been asking for, 38km at Chambord and 33km at Toulouse. Notably, these TTs are mostly flat — a key feature for the aerobullet. But note the cruel timing. Toulouse comes right before the Pyrenees, and the Pyrenees end on the Portet, 16km at 8.7%. That’s a climb where Remco can’t tuck in behind other riders and ride them like a TT. We’ve seen him flounder when the road kicks up, which begs the question: Will he train (and eat) like he does for the one-day and big time trial contests, or for acute extreme-elevation focus?
Paul Seixas: After Lombardia, it’s tempting to write similarly about Seixas as I just did about Pogačar: Every parcours is good for him. He took bronze in the World TT Championships; he descends like a junior Pidcock; and he can certainly go uphill very fast. This route moves him ahead of del Toro — see below — in our early prognostication.
Tom Pidcock: Fewer summit finishes means descending matters more next year. Plus the race starts in his home nation of England. A double bonus.
Mathieu van der Poel: Montmartre survived the rumors. And the early punches suit him. A stage 4 Maillot Jaune for the flying Dutchman?
Matthew Brennan: Another Brit, the young “versatile sprinter” dominated the Vuelta and appeared poised to break through to the top ranks of the fastmen. This punchy parcours could put him in position to earn — and keep — the Green Jersey.
Cycling Fans (and PEZ): A year ago, here at Pez we wrote with some dismay about Tour ’26’s many summit finishes and relatively few flat ITT kilometers: The former made for fewer thrilling plunges to the finish line, while the latter threatened to tilt the results even more towards Pogačar. Tour ’27 appears to be a fan-favoring response, and I’m already looking forward to next July. (We’ve also been writing beseechingly that the organizers keep the electric Montmartre route on Stage 21. Mission accomplished!)
Losers
Vingegaard: He can descend, but how many crashes can a rider carry into a descent before they start to feel heavy? Plus, he typically rises to summit finishes — of which there are relatively few next year — and recent TT performances have been wanting.
Isaac del Toro: This isn’t to say that more TT kilometers certainly dash his hopes at a higher finish next year. But the second tier of GC contenders is tight, and he could easily lose a couple of minutes over those 71 kilometers to Evenepoel or even Seixas. Looks like another superdomestique year for del Toro.
Pure sprinters: Nothing new here: pure sprinters have been given short shrift by Tour routes for years now. I count five “flat” stages, but see those peppered with many vertical meters. One possibility: while Montmartre will feature, my guess is that they’ll move the finish further still from the last trip up and over, given teams more time to bring Jasper, Merlier, Milan and others back to the puncheurs and GC guys.
The verdict
ASO built a Tour for the story that’s been brewing since late July — and answered the pleas of many a fan, including this one. I’m counting the days.
RACE NEWS
A Classic Every Day: the Femmes Finally Get a Real Rider’s Route
The lead story today argues that the 2027 men’s Tour isn’t truly Pogačar-proof, because…there’s no such thing, other than 21 straight sprint stages. It has a Pyrenean finale, a double-header of Tourmalet and Portet on the queen stage, and a 33km time trial in Toulouse. Tadej may feel a bit more pressure than in recent years, but…only a bit.
Now look at the women’s route. It has no Alps, no Pyrenees and no individual time trial, and the pundits are already grumbling. But there’s no template for anyone to dominate. That may be the best news we fans have had all winter.
Start with the Peak District. Stage 2 has seven categorized climbs, including Winnats Pass and Snake Pass, on what’s been called a mini Liège-Bastogne-Liège. That’s a day for puncheurs, tacticians and riders who can read a race, not just a gradient. Then comes the first-ever team time trial in London: 18km from Westminster past Tower Bridge and St Paul’s to The Mall. A TTT turns GC into a team sport on day three, so a strong leader with a weak squad pays for it.
This is where Demi Vollering comes in. She’s the benchmark for the pure climber-and-time-trialist who wins stage races by being better at everything that matters. Take away the long Alpine and Pyrenean grinds and the individual time trial, and her advantage shrinks. She’s still the favorite, having shown she can win on a variety of courses, but she can’t just ride away from the field on a 25km climb.
Who benefits? The versatile riders. Longo Borghini, who is always there at the end — unless there’s a climb of more than 500 vertical meters. Or — my pick — Puck Pieterse. I’m expecting a breakout performance from her.
Plus, of course, Marlen Reusser, a power rider if ever there was one. With Paula Blasi adding firepower for the TTT and support throughout the race, 2027 could be the year she earns a Grand Tour win.
Of course, there is a significant climb on this parcours: the Puy de Dôme. The famed volcano crowns stage 9: 170km with 3,840m of climbing. It’s where Anquetil and Poulidor went elbow to elbow in 1964, and where Merckx was punched by a spectator in 1975. It’s the one true mountain stage, but it’s also short, steep and brutal enough that someone who’s been fighting all week could still take the yellow jersey from a pure climber.
The critics do have a point. The queen stage could flop if it turns this TDFFAZ into a one-day watts-per-kilogram contest — and it may be contested without fans present, potentially a relief to riders, but certainly diminishing the stage’s drama. And without an ITT, the time-trial specialists are left with a lot less to play for.
But the men’s route asks the same questions as always. The women’s route asks new ones, every day, of a lot more riders. I’d rather watch that.
Bring on the volcano.
TEAM, RIDER AND RACING NEWS
Castelli Becomes Official Tour de France Jersey Sponsor — and the White Jersey Becomes…White and Blue?
A few years ago, the Tour de France’s iconic sprinter’s jersey shifted from the only shade of green I’d ever known — I’d call it a vibrant Kelly; the riders evidently deemed it “Kermit” — to a dull, mossy version that fit with sponsor Skoda’s color scheme.
No offense Mads, but…ugh.
For a moment, after hearing that Castelli would return as the Tour’s jersey partner, I wondered if we might return also to tradition. Alas; much to the contrary.
Castelli doesn’t determine the color scheme; that’s indeed dictated by each jersey’s sponsor. So green will remain Skoda’s olive/sage tinged with turquoise.
Meanwhile, the maillot blanc for Best Young Rider will also get a refresh — and I’m afraid I find it anything but refreshing.
I loved the old version, redolent with youthful simplicity — even when checkered with sponsor logos, and especially when set next to the maillot jaune.
But the jersey has a new dedicated sponsor, French pharma giant Sanofi, so now it must fit their brand, including hints of…blue?
But in a sport that’s struggling to find an economic model that works, you take what you can get, I suppose.
Remco Kicks off Annual WT Riders’ California Swing
Last winter Southern California welcomed rivals Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel. The ‘crossers-turned-road-heroes pedaled with normies and went for jogs; a friend held MVDP’s bike while he changed a flat.
This year it’s Remco Evenepoel who’s arrived in SoCal first, starting with a jog along the strand in Santa Monica at sunrise, evidently having awakened too early, thanks to east-to-west jet lag. (Cycling stars — they’re just like us!)
A couple of days later he made use of his LA visit by conducting an early recon of the LA Olympics TT course.
As of this writing, he hadn’t ridden the road course. (Early prediction: he’ll have a very tough time defending that title.)
California PEZ readers, keep an eye out for Remco — and anyone else who visits!
PEZ VIDEO: INSIDE CYCLING’S MOST FAMOUS CHURCH
No proper season end wrap up is complete without a look at the coolest sacred space in cycling – the Madonna del Ghisallo church atop the climb of the same name that features in the Giro di Lombardia. Pez takes us inside…
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