And once again we finish with an introduction of the People’s Grand Tour, a race that celebrates the not-quite-world class: The Tour of America.
The 2022 Tour once again puts the Americas into the Tour of America as Uruguay and Argentina host the opening week before the race moves north to its traditional stomping grounds in the USA and finally Canada, where the race wraps up in Montreal.
Last year Zero’s Geroge Bennett added his name to the race’s list of winners, managing to just limit his losses on the final time trial enough to take the GC victory. This year that will be a lot harder for the pure climbers, as after last year’s race featured only 6 flat TT kilometers this year’s includes 70km across two stages (the most since there were 78k of Flat TTs in 2019). In addition, the first TTT since 2017 sees the teams explore Salt Lake City.
Once again, this introduction can note that the Tour of America has never been won by a rider from the Americas. Perhaps there are teams interested in changing that?
Week 1: Where Fútbol is King
The race opens with a simple 145k sprint stage finishing in the Uruguayan capital of Montevideo. The winner will take the first jersey, but whether they can hold it will depend on whether they can hold on to the front of the race on the short finishing climb that wraps up Stage 2 in Piriapolis. The climb is just 2k long with an average of 5.6% but even if doesn’t create gaps it seems likely to produce a different winner than stage 1 and maybe a new race leader.
After another flat stage in Uruguay the riders move into Argentina for the first defining stage of the race, a 49.5k flat time trial around the streets of Buenos Aires. Coming early in the race the stage seems likely to go to a time trial specialist, who could easily be the fourth different race leader in four days.
That rider will get to enjoy the jersey for a day as the sprinters get a third chance as the peloton moves west away from Buenos Aires. But on Stage 6 the race will take decisive turn towards the GC contenders with a massive 242k stage. While it features little climbing before the end, it ends with the brutal 16k climb to Sierras Comechingones. The climb averages 7.3% and by the end the main GC contenders should have emerged (while multiple leaders are likely in the first few days it is possible that the rider in front at the end of this stage could carry the jersey all the way to Montreal).
The riders finish the first week with another flat stage in the San Luis province of Argentina.
Week 2: Where the Mormons are King
Stages 8 and 9 see the peloton wrap up their time in Argentina with two hilly stages. While Stage 8 seems one for the break or a punchy sprinter, Stage 9 from San Francisco del Monte de Oro to Carolina is 217k and includes two ascents of the Cerro del Amargo (9.4k at 7.7%) and while large gaps in the GC seem unlikely seconds could definitely be gained or lost.
During the rest day the riders will travel north to their second area of operations, the State of Utah (motto “Industry”). The first Utah stage is the second mountain stage, 146k from Cedar City to Brian Head. The main climb to Gooseberry Point (17k at 5.6%) is tackled for the first time in the opening kilometers. The riders then loop back around and tackle it a second time but this time at the top they turn right at tackle a 2.4k climb up to Brian Head and the finish. Again, the stage seems unlikely to cause big gaps but any contender distanced on the 2nd climb to Gooseberry Point could lose a lot of time before the finish.
The riders then continue across Utah with two more stages that are classified as mountainous but with neither featuring a major summit finish, they may be good opportunities for the breakaway. After three days of industry in the Utah Rockies the riders then face the second defining mountain stage, and probably the queen stage of the race. Stage 13 goes 163k from Park City to Cottonwood heights and concludes with two climbs of Empire Pass (double ascents are theme this year). The first cuts off just before the top leaving it at “just” 11k at 8.4% but after the descent the rider tackle it a second time this time continuing up to Cottonwood Heights, a total of 13k at 8.8%.
The next day the riders get to tour Salt Lake City in the TTT. It is essentially flat and at 24k it isn’t tremendously long. Coming 14 days into the race managers will have to decide whether to prioritize TT power or stick to more well-rounded stage racing domestiques.
Week 3: Where Maple Syrup is King
Week 3 opens with one more stage in Utah a 143k circuit that includes 3 ascents of North Ogden pass with the third ones serving as the finish. The climb is just 5.1k long but with sections up to 15% it is probably the best opportunity for the punchier contenders to do some damage to their rivals.
After that the race moves into its final phase in New England and Canada. The GC contenders get a day off on Stage 16 as the sprinters should dominate the stage into Portland. But the next day the GC is back on with a 15k mountain time trial up Mount Equinox. The advantage of the pure climbers might be more limited than normal as the first half of the stage is on flat ground, but it isn’t all bad news for them, as the final 6.7k averages 11%.
And any rider suffering after the MTT will have no time to recover as Stage 18 is the race’s third and final defining mountain stage. The stage finish is 13k at 10% up Mount Washington. Riders who have a history at the Tour of America will probably recognize this climb as it has featured on multiple occasions, most recently in 2019. But this year the organizers built a much more challenging route prior to the finishing climb, with 9 categorized climbs across about 200k, none of them is that big but every one will hurt 18 stages into the tour.
After that the GC riders will get a break as the race’s penultimate flat stage takes them to Vermont’s capital Montpelier. While the stage is classified flat it includes a lot of ups and downs so the sprinters might choose to let the breakaway take this one
The race then moves to Montreal for its final act. For the GC riders it is a second flat TT. While the TT guys will hope to control the first-time trial this one looks likely to go to the stage racers with their deep powers of recovery. And while the pure climbers might have made up enough time to be big players in the GC by this stage, they could lose it all here. At only 21k it isn’t that long, but as Bennett showed this year a lot of time can be lost in 20k of flat if you aren’t great on the TT bike. And this time there is no climb at the end to make up ground.
The final act for the sprinters is Stage 21 a flat circuit around Montreal. Like last year’s final stage in San Francisco there are a lot of small bumps so their domestiques will have to be at their best or another stage could be lost to the breakaway. Regardless of the outcome, afterwards the rider will be able to enjoy a night out in the beautiful city of Montreal to celebrate surviving another Tour of America.
Recap:
7 Flat
2 Flat TT
1 MT TT
1 Flat TTT
3 Hills
1 Medium Mountain
6 MT (4 summit finishes)
Acknowledgements: Once again I pulled from a bunch of stagemakers. The Uruguayan stages are pretty much straight from Il Lince’s Tour of Uruguay. The first two Argentinian stages are mine but the remainder are adapted from Roturn’s Tour of San Luis except Stage 8 which comes from HijoDelDiablo’s Argentine national championship route. The first 3 Utah stages are adapted from VMBW’s 2013 Tour of Utah, the remainder are adapted from Selwink’s 2016 Tour of Utah. The Northeastern US stages are all from either from the Tour DuPont by Choupinou or historic mangame ToA stages (which may have come from the same source originally). The two Montreal stages use Leon40’s Montreal ZCTS. Thanks also to BBL for tracking down a number of the source zcts files used as well as a few I didn’t end up using.
