Richie Porte, Julian Alaphilippe and Tony Gallopin are among the riders who took to Twitter to discuss the 2017 Tour de France route
The route for the 2017 Tour de France was revealed on Tuesday morning in Paris and most of the riders seem pretty happy about the variety on offer.
For the sprinters there are possibly nine stage that could end in a bunch finish, while there are mountain finishes in all three weeks for the climbers.
And there’s even a few stages for the Classics specialists, with a couple of uphill finishes on lumpy stages. Here is what some of the riders had to say about the 21 stages next July.
1. Dan Martin, who finished ninth overall in his first season for Etixx-Quick Step, seems to be keen on the possibilities for attacking cycling next year.
Excited to look deeper into the route but the outline looks interesting. A lot of possibilities for a close, open and aggressive race
— Dan Martin (@DanMartin86) October 18, 2016
2. Richie Porte will be swatting up on the route over the winter break.
Homework and training starts now. 2017 @letourdefrance looks good! pic.twitter.com/NILx77z9a9
— Richie Porte (@richie_porte) October 18, 2016
3. Louis Meintjes finished eighth overall last year and was runner-up to Adam Yates in the youth classification and is motivated to improve on that next year.
Watching @LeTour presentation = offseason motivation.
— Louis (@LouisMeintjes) October 18, 2016
4. Meintjes’s former manager at Dimension Data, Doug Ryder, will be happy at the number of sprint stages available for Mark Cavendish next year.
Beautiful @LeTour 2017 route, will look forward preparing for it @TeamDiData @DeloitteAthlete @Qhubeka
— Douglas Ryder (@dougryd) October 18, 2016
5. Julian Alaphilippe could take his first Tour stage win next year, with the third stage to Longwy seemingly suiting his love for short uphill finishes.
.@alafpolak "sur le papier, plusieurs étapes pourraient me convenir." #TDF2017 pic.twitter.com/Z7ceTTvNyd
— Le Tour de France (@LeTour) October 18, 2016
6. Even if you don’t speak French you can probably understand what Tony Gallopin thinks of the route.
Superbe parcours du @LeTour 2017! #specacle pic.twitter.com/GJoCWhnDth
— Gallopin Tony (@tonygallopin) October 18, 2016
7. Bauke Mollema likes the route, although his chances of leading Trek-Segafredo with Alberto Contador joining the team look quite slim.
Nice course! #TDF2017 https://t.co/HcS6K12o0P
— Bauke Mollema (@BaukeMollema) October 18, 2016
8. And Dan Lloyd gets his bets down early…
I've only had a short time to digest the route, but it looks perfect for Sagan to take the green jersey.
— Daniel Lloyd (@daniellloyd1) October 18, 2016