I actually had this info yesterday and am proud to say that I held onto it till the general public unveiling today. If you have any deep, dark secrets you’d like to get off your chest, I’ve just proven that I’m trustworthy.
Here’s the route; a classic trans-Alpine parcours that, like this year, crosses the border into Italy for a stay in Cuneo. Big, famous cols include Colombiere, Croix de Fer, Glandon, Alpe d’Huez, Telegraphe, Galibier, Granon, Izoard and Agnel. The not-so-well-known climbs (depending on who you are) are Romme, Aravis, Sarenne, Tende, Brouis, Braus and Nice.
The shortest regular stage is 83km and the longest 152km. There’s one stage with over 4000m of climbing, but the rest are between 2400m and 3900m. The time trial is the Granon, which I did in the 2015 event. You’ll remember this col because it’s where Vingegaard and Jumbo Visma took the Tour de France from Pog this year. It’s 15km and 1200m.
From the 30 seconds that I’ve thought about the route, it looks to be nice and balanced. There’s a ‘short-long’ rhythm to the week, except for the last two stages, which hopefully will help with recovery. The two longest stages are followed by 1) the shortest stage, and 2) the time trial. Someone was thinking about riders’ wellbeing this year.
Training starts (slowly) very soon for me and my ‘team’ already has 5 riders on it. Very much looking forward to another kick at the Haute Route can, with all the camaraderie and war stories nobody cares about that comes with it.
The Vicious Cycle 
A much better course compared to this year’s sufferfest. Someone was listening.
Although I only rode stage 1 and part of 2 due to a rider that decided to take a wrong turn on a roundabout and took out five riders behind him resulting in a broken ankle and a cast from the knee down for myself. I did get the opportunity to listen to the daily complaining from the majority of the riders that the route was over the top in terms of difficulty. In fact, I didn’t hear a single rider say they would return.
As I sat at the TT cheering the riders on feeling sorry for myself, the Haute Route CEO / Executive Director of Cycling for Ironman sat down and chatted for over an hour. I shared what I was hearing and it was clear that she already knew they had crossed the line. It’s great to see they listened to the rider feedback.
As for me, I’m still bitter, but yesterday was my first day back, albeit only on my indoor bike.
That was very tough luck you had this year. I’m impressed that you stuck with the race the whole week and didn’t find a way to escape.
If you’re bored and wondering what to do with next summer, the event probably won’t sell out for some time!