So yesterday Tukh asked me! I think he mentioned it before already, and I think the only other interested designer (Roby) said he wasn't interested anymore. So if I remember all that correctly, let Tukh do it. But I think at this point others can still raise their hand!
Tukh also asked me about designing tips, so whoever designs it, here are my tips:
Most important tip: Keep the spirit of the founder of the Campeonato Cerro Torre RT: Extreme long and difficult climber tour with special highlights.
Extreme long and difficult climber tour
A) Usually min. 50% of the stages are classified "Mountain/HC" for good reason.
B) Usually there are some stages with up to ~250km.
C) Best rider type should have High Mountain & High Reg
Special Highlights (be creative!)
Can be
A) Dirt road climbs (like Camino de la Muerte)
B) Long TTT or ITT with special features (e.g. Mountain ITT or Dirt road ITT like on Salar de Uyuni)
C) pavè (like in the City of Valparaiso)
D) Super long climbs (like Cristo Redentor de los Andes)
E) Exciting stories (like visiting the home house of Nairo Quintana)
F) Exciting locations (like Galapagos Islands)
G) Some other cool ideas. Be creative!
But don't exaggerate. Not every stage can be a special highlights for 14/15 stages.
In addition, some facts:
- Normally a 16 days tour (incl. 1 or 2 rest days)
- It is fantasy but all roads should be real.
- Travel should be realistic if possible (so not too many flying all around South America)
- It's nice if you can present a map in addition to the profiles (In general, a nice presentation will be welcomed)
How I defined KOM and IS
Mountains:
HC-Cat.: 2000hm >=Ø6% OR 2500hm
1-Cat.: 1500hm >=Ø6% OR 2000hm
2-Cat.: 1000hm >=Ø6% OR 1500hm
3-Cat.: 500hm >=Ø6% OR 1000hm
4-Cat.: 250hm >=Ø6% OR 500hm
Sprints:
3 IS on Flat stages
2 IS on Hilly stages
1 IS on HC stages
Andes Design Tips:
- South America has bad roads
- Google Street View can give an impression for city areas
- Satellite Images (Google Maps) can help if no Street View is available
- Check road surface already while planning the route, to avoid bad surprises when doing the details
- GPS-Data for climbs is often imprecise, so should be researched and corrected if possible (A passage +6 -3 +7 can in reality be +3 +3 +4)
- Try to finish and present before October 31, for form settings
General Design Tips applicable to Andes, too
- RideWithGPS for building the route
- Having other websites for route building can help, too (some areas are better in other tools)
- Google Maps Satellite and Street View for checking road surface
- "Recalculate elevation" to make sure, the total height is correct
- No Downhill Pavè steeper than -2 (can cause bugs)
- No Pavè and KOM/IS on same Kilometer (can cause bugs)
- Race Name and City Name only use letters A-Z (special letters can cause bugs)
Some recent things from my last 3 editions
- 2018 & 2019 did not have the legendary "Camino de la Muerte" so you can think about including it
- 2017-2019 all had balanced TT (some TT but not too much), but you can of course put a lot of TT or no TT how you like
- Be prepared for toxic players, who blame you for the race, no matter how you design.
- You may want to quit December Tour 2020 contest. I designed Andes 2017 & Dec Tour 2017. That made me feel bad about winning Dec Tour. Others want a chance, too
- It's an expensive off-season tour. IS and/or KOM and/or Half Stages can be good for managers.
- Something for smaller non-mountain teams can be good for participation. (escape stages, sprint stages, hill sprint stages)
- Have fun designing! It's a lot of research, but you can get a really unique route in the end.
Anything I forgot? Just ask
