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.
And this year, ignoring complaints about pay offs to the organizing committee and impossibly long transfers, the Tour of America is going on tour . . . to Asia. The cycling band will play 18 dates, visiting 9 countries, going West to East across Asia before a quick hop over the Pacific for the final 3 stages in the USA, including finishing with the famous Mount Ranier stage.
Last year saw the first ever winner of the Tour of America from the Americas in Ryan Eastman. This year maybe the first winner from South America? Or will an Asian rider snatch glory on home roads? There have been two Asian winners of the Tour of America, Chen Shikai and Andrey Kashechkin, with the latter winning it twice. Shikai’s surprise win in the Giro this year makes him the only rider to win both the Tour of America and a snobby grand tour.
Week 1: UAE, Oman, India, Nepal, India, Nepal
Following a star-studded opening presentation at the top of the Burj Khalifa, the race opens with a straightforward 151k sprint stage around the streets of Dubai. Stage 2 finishes with the climb to Hatta Dam, one of the tougher sprinters should be able to grab the race lead. The stage is rated hilly and is the first of five hilly stages, as the punchier climbers get a chance to strut their stuff throughout the race.
Stage 3 sees the peloton move on to Oman where a flat stage is followed by two summit finishes. The first summit finish is a short 3.1k climb to Qurayyat, the climb averages 6.7% with gradients up to 10%. It is enough to rule out the sprinters but probably not enough to create any gaps. But the second summit finish, to Green Mountain, is the first mountain-rated stage in the race and should see the first real GC action. Although as the finishing climb is the only climb on the stage and is just 6.4k long it doesn’t seem like large gaps will emerge.
Which means the next stage could dictate GC positions, as the peloton jumps to India for an 18k team time trial in the city of Motihari. With the only flat time trialing being this stage, and a 19k individual time trial on Stage 20, managers will have a tough choice on whether to invest their time trial resources in this race. Over invest and you sacrifice opportunities elsewhere, under invest and you could lose big time on your rivals, as some competitors experienced this year.
Along with potentially important GC action this stage represents the man game peloton’s first ever venture to the world’s second most populous nation (at least I think it does).
The TTT could be decisive on GC positions because while the next two stages, the last in week 1 and the first in week 2, are mountainous neither of them is that hard. The stages cross between Nepal and India and the biggest test is likely the finishing climb up Chandragiri hill on Stage 7 which is 3.9k, at a brutal 10.9% with sections up to 17.6%. Stage 8 finishes after a long down hill and may be the first chance for the breakaway artists.
Week 2: Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines
After stage 8 completes the peleton's adventure in Indian and Nepal, Stage 9 sees the peloton move further east into Thailand for two stages. The first is another chance for the sprinters. The second is hilly rated, but much of the climbing comes mid-stage so if the sprinters can hang on, they might have another shot.
The race’s 6 mountain road stages can be divided into two groups, with the first three being relatively easy, and the last three likely to be the defining road stages of the race. Stage 11 is the first of the latter group. The riders move south into Malaysia, and perhaps to lure the mangame UCI to restore the Tour of Langkawi, the local organizers have created a 154 km stage featuring two ascents of the Genting Highlands. The first, from the West, sees the peloton tackled the full 19km climb, the second from the east, covers only the final 9k, but those kilometers average 9.1%. In between the riders tackle 3 smaller climbs.
The Genting Highlands are likely to separate the true contenders from the pretenders and once that is done the peloton gets two days to digest the new race situation as the next two stages are both pan flat. The first covers 150k in the south of Malaysia while the second sees the peloton move East to the Philippines for a 191k stage between Dinalupihan and Balanga.
The riders second day in the Philippines will prove more challenging as it is hilly rated and finishes on the 6.6k climb to Mount Samat. The GC riders might see this as a chance to grab seconds from each other or it might be a breakaway deciding the stage on the slopes of Mount Samat.
Week 3: Hong Kong, Japan, USA
For Stage 15 the peloton moves north to pay a 1-day visit to Hong Kong, where they will tackle the final hilly stage of the race. This one a 156k hilly-circuit focused around the climb of Bowen Hill. This looks like a prime opportunity for a break to take a stage win.
From Hong Kong the peloton makes another jump east, to Japan. First the sprinters get an opportunity to impress the crowds in a circuit race around Tokyo, then the riders face the next defining stage, a 10k mountain time trial on the upper slopes of Mount Fuji. They will have no time to rest from their efforts as the next stage is the race’s longest at 244k. It includes three ascents of the Mikuni Pass and one climb up the lower slopes of Mount Fuji. The final ascent of the Mikuni pass marks the stage finish and at 9.9% over 7k coming after 237k of hard racing it should be a true test of the best rider in the race. (Given the time the TOA is spending around Tokyo, the Tour of Japan has moved to Hokkaido for the year).
The survivors from the Japanese stages will get a restful trip across the Pacific and one day of easier racing before the final push. The easier racing is a 97k flat stage from Yakima to Ellensburg. On paper it looks like one for the sprinters but it wouldn’t be surprising to see them let the break take this one. After that the peloton moves to Snoqualmie for a 19k flat time trial. Coming late in the race it will be a test of both time trial skills and the contender’s ability to recover.
But a rider with a poor time trial result will still have one chance to get the time back. Instead of ending with the usual processional stage the 2024 Tour of America (in Asia) will end with the iconic Mount Ranier stage, 195k of hard climbing concluding with a 15k climb up Mount Ranier. While much of the climbing in the race will be shorter steeper climbs this day will be one for the diesel climbers. The stage has not featured since 2020 but was used every year from 2015 to 2020, although never as stage 21. In all those years the overall race winner never won the Mount Ranier stage. Whether they win the stage or not, the rider who leads the GC after they reach the summit of Ranier will deserve to call themselves the People’s Champion.
Acknowledgements: Once again I pulled from a bunch of stagemakers. Il Lince made stages for races from all over the world and is the source for the UAE, Thai, and Philippine stages as well as the second Malaysian stage. The Oman stages are built from Emre99’s work which in turn built on Flo76’s Oman ZCTS. The Nepalese stages are from an old race built by Picolo Dog. Hong Kong comes from a Sazee zcts. Napoli built the Japanese Olympic route which is the source for stages 16 and 17, while stage 15 comes form the mangame Tour of Japan which I think was originally by togo95. Stages 19 and 21 are mangame TOA stages that I think go back to Tsmoha. Stages 6, 11 and 20 are the only ones I built from scratch this year. We will definitely be looking at a return for the Tour of Langkawi since I really like the Genting Highlands stage.
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [ICL] Santos-Euskadi | [PT] Xero Racing
My South Americans are crying, but our sponsors are excited to see 3 oceans represented if you count the US touching the Atlantic even if we don't hit the east coast.
Some really fascinating stages here as well - no clue how interesting the Turtles will be, but we'll be ready to watch no matter what.
I can't confirm or deny the rumors going around of American cycling teams organizing a boycott of this year's Tour of America due to the obvious bribery that has occurred by multiple foreign countries to seize control of the route being used this upcoming season.
Very interesting stages and well... not very american
Most likely we keep our tradition and just avoid the race but good luck to everyone participating in this. And hopefully you won't miss any flight to the next stages
Both Japan and India will be visited, I know a nice team that could suddenly be more interested in this race 
