Hi there,

since I'm from Germany it's pretty dissappointing not to have a bigger stage race in our country. Not that Germans wouldn't be into cycling at all, but apart from football the popularity of any sports depends very much on the success of German athletes. I think it's like that in most European countries, but it seems to be more extreme in Germany. So, after not having a stage race accross the country for ten years I was really excited about this relaunched version of the Deutschland Tour, and I am still. It is short, yes, but that's ok under the circumstances. It's not that easy to find host cities, people usually don't come to you, you have to go where they are (meaning urban areas), Germans are better in sprinting than climbing and at least there is the opportunity to extend the race to even 7 days in the next years (5 are to come 2022). That's still not much, regarding that they travelled 3 weeks through Spain at la Vuelta last year and only covered half of the country (and there is a 5 days stage race in small regions like Burgos, Wallonie or 9 in Switzerland, 5 wasn't even enough for Tour of Bavaria), but let's stick to what it is.

Still, the parcours could need some improvement from a sporting view, I think. In my opinion, a lot of stages ressemble each other to much, they travel about 160k through hilly regions from one city to another, do 2 hilly local laps and finish with a sprint of sometimes 4, sometimes 40 riders. And they leave out some nice opportunities - so from the start in 2018 I created a Tour of Germany each year, which I want to present to you in the following days or weeks, now that I found this Forum - and finally the opportunity to share my work of boredom and passion! You're invited to do your own Tours accross Germany, there aren't pretty much rules about it. The tour should be one for the classic riders, that's what the organisation always tells, but they have a MTF in the black forrest next year on top of a ~15k, 7% climb, so Politt or Stuyven eg won't do it

I just wanted to cover a lot of regions over the years and as much as possible within in one edition. Plus I wanted to create some variety and some development through the race, having a fight for the leaders jersey on most of the stages, with the possibilty of most stages to be the decisive one and a climax at the end. And of course, you need to have one or two pure sprinting stages, because Ackermann, Greipel, Kittel, Bauhaus... [edit: actually it would be better to say "opportunities for pure sprinters" instead of "pure sprinting stages" - on a 4-day-race nothing should be for granted and in 2/3 of Germany, if you go to the south it's almost impossible to create routes without some climbs. (But it's also nearly impossible to create really hard mountain stages like in the Grand Tours or Tour de Suisse, only a small part of the Alps is German or Bavarian, and passes like around Sella, San Gottardo or Huez and Maurienne-Valley don't exist here.)] My first edition from 2018 (I saved every GPS data on my Computer before I created some proper graphics with the LFR tools lately) will be uploaded soon and I would love to have some critcs, remarks or applause from the audience.

Greets, Möve (that means "seagull" and is the name of my local bicycle club, mind the "Ö" instead of the "O" in "move" )

So, this is my updated version of the 2010 Deutschland Tour. Some ideas of the original route should stay as they are: No border crossing, MTF on the penultimate day, still a fan of the start at Lake Tegernsee with this uphill prologue and a finish in Berlin plus Bonn being a major part of the route. Inbetween, some stuff had to change, because 3 of the 4 final stages being totally flat is just pointless. So the stages right before the final Sprint royal in Berlin now will be: An ITT, a hilly stage with a steep uphill finish and a mountain stage in the Harz region with a MTF on north Germanys highest mountain.

Also, I changed the MTF on the first stage in the Allgäu region. Instead, the stage now ends 7k after crossing the highest German pass route, the Riedbergpass, in a downhill to the finish in Balderschwang. This climb is not that super steep as Ochsenbergalpe, but still steep and much longer. In combination with the downhill afterwards, I hope for earlier attacks and more action on this route. On top, it's much more realistic to end the stage in Balderschwang, because the infrastructure in this village is much more fitting for an event like the Deutschland Tour if you compare it to the small path to Ochsenbergalpe.

Bonn now hosts the finish and the start of a stage race instead of an ITT, that's my alternative plan to keep the city a central part of the route. As I wanted to go further north afterwards and push the ITT one day further back, this was the alternative plan I came up with. The ITT will now be held in the very north of Germany in Frisia region, connecting the two major regional towns of Emden and Leer. Stages 3 and 6 will be much more difficult than they were originally, having some climbs in the finale on stage 3, even in the city of Bonn, and an uphill finish on the sixth day. Instead of 3 total flat stages plus 2 merely flat ones, the race now will have 2 total flat stages and 2 more that more or less could be for the sprinters, but also provide some opportunities to attack.

And here is the updated route of my 2010 Deutschland Tour: maps/tours/view/22349

It's time for another German race, before I will present the 2023 edition of my Deutschland Tour - today, it's all about the Black Forrest. There was also traditional race in the region, called the Regio Tour (sponsored by Brewery Rothaus), which was won by a very young Mario Cipollini or a young Jan Ullrich back in their days. The pro race was cancelled in 2008, the following junior race existed until 2012. But as the Black Forrest might be Germany's most beautiful landscape for cycling, I would be very pleased the see the race again. And this is what it could look like maybe:

The race starts in France, a detour the race often took. After leaving the pituresque town of Colmar, riders cross the Rhine and pass the beautiful village of Neuf Brisach to reach Germany after 55k. On the German side of the border, 4 rather small climbs in the volcanic region of Kaiserstuhl have to be done before reaching the finish line in Herbolzheim. More climbs are to be seen the following days: 6,2k with 8,5% on a MTF up to Sand on the second stage are the first real test for the GC contenders. There are also some smaller climbs to be done before the MTF, which is located in the northern part of the Black Forrest.

On day 3, riders go back south for the final two stages. Stage 3 finishes in Schiltach, where we already saw a stage departure in last year's Deutschland Tour. In Schiltach, the company Hansgrohe is located - you surely recognize the name, especially if you connect it with the word Bora. There are some climbs to be done, but the final is not too hard. We could possibly see some attacks, or a restricted bunch sprint. But the decisive stage is going to be the final MTF at Black Forrests highest peak, the Feldberg. The climb is 11,6k long and only 5,4% steep in average, meaning the penultimate climb to Notschrei is definitvely harder. However, the middle section of the Feldberg is harder than the the rest and provides some opportunities to attack. There we would probably see the decisive moments of the whole race. And in the middle of the stage we pass the Rothaus Brewery - which is not only the main sponsor of the race, but pretty famous in Germany.

I hope you like it! Here's the whole plan: maps/tours/view/22752

Next, I'll try to plan an alternative route only using the cities hosting stages at the 2023 Deutschland Tour in real life. I'm already planning those, as well as my own version, but there is still one spot open. Already known is the following plan: Prologue St. Wendel, 1st stage St. Wendel-Merzig, 2nd stage Kassel-Winterberg, 3rd stage TBD-Essen, 4th stage Hannover-Bremen. Let's see what we can do with that! My own Deutschland Tour will be released in summer. I plan coming back to Freiburg, have a trip to the Alps and start in the Berlin region.

I like your tour! I'd like to see your entries in the contest!

Thank you for your compliment! I had one entry in the TdF Contest 2022, that was a lot of work, but the contest was never finished but still, if I have time and an idea for a new race, I will compete however, I recognize that what I like most about creating a race is finding a new structure completely on my own and being creative, so the more rules there are for a race, the less I'm attracted to the contest - e.g. there's no need to visit every German speaking capital (so even Vaduz) in a German Tour Contest imho.

That being said, I now present my idea of how I would have done the 2023 Deutschland Tour, only using the same cities the real route does. The reasons I wanted to do this are, that the race starts in my home region and I wanted to do some speculation, how the final route will actually look. Now the organisers were quicker than me - and the races look quite similar, to be honest. Actually, there's nothing much to change: A Prologue is a prologue, Merzig is just located in a hilly region and has this climb to Eller Weg right at the edge of the city, Winterberg is located on top of a hill and Essen and Bremen are rather, if not to say completely flat.

So: Stage 1 is a little bit harder than the original one, with 2700 vertical meters instead of 2000. The finish stays the same. Stage 2 doesn't have this easy MTF like in the original version, but a shorter and steeper climb 8k before the finish line and a merely flat run-in to the finish. Stage 3 also became harder than the original one while still favoring the sprinters. In the original version, there should be a small uphill finish, I changed that and added two small climbs in the final lap instead. And stage 4 is completely flat in the original version - while I was looking for some small climbs on an additional local lap in northern Bremen to provide at least some small opportunities for a GC fight on the final stage. From km 145 to 176 with then 20k to go to the city center there will be 11 uphill sections with climbs which are like 200-300m long an 3-5% steep - still a day for the sprinters probably, but some riders can have a try!

I did all of this to have more attacks throughout the race, while there could still be a fight for the overall win on all of the 5 days. I'm afraid that in the real race, there will only be attacks on the first stage and an uphill sprint on the second one and than the GC is merely done. What I can't change is the big transfers the riders have to do. Before stage 2, they have to travel by bus for 5h from Saarland to Winterberg, before stage 4 there will be another ride for 3h from Essen to Hannover. That's way too much, if you ask me, and numbers proof that (as you can see in a Tweet by Alon_Rheinruhr from April 26th). As you can see, I don't like this Deutschland Tour very much this year. My very own version going from Potsdam to Freiburg will be posted in July or August, and I hope I can eliminate all this flaws, although I also need two bus travels of 2h.

Finally, you can compare the Deutschland Tours. This is what the organisers of ASO und Gfr did: https://www.deutschland-tour.com/de/strecke

And here is what you get if you merge their plans with my ideas: maps/tours/view/22961