Tour de France organisers appear to be planning Skyfall

Tour de France organisers once again appear to have taken aim at Team Sky’s recent dominance by unveiling a 2019 route designed to provoke attacking racing. And they are also calling for power metres to be banned in competition.

Next year’s route was announced at a ceremony in Paris attended by reigning champion Geraint Thomas and four-time winner Chris Froome.

Sky have won six of the past seven Tours with three different riders, leaving them with a potential leadership battle next summer.

Organisers ASO have sought before to design a route which minimises Sky’s ability to control from the front of the peloton. But they made their intentions even more clear as Tour director Christian Prudhomme ended his presentation by calling on watching UCI president David Lappartient to ban power metres – which enable riders to measure their efforts so they do not always respond to rivals’ attacks.

“We must find the great uncertainty of the sport,” Prudhomme said.

But Thomas shrugged off the suggestion, saying “I doubt it would make any difference.”

Next year’s 3,460km route includes a record 30 mountain passes – climbs rated category two or higher – and five summit finishes. But Prudhomme noted there were fewer hors categorie climbs – the hardest ranking of all – with the goal to encourage more attacks.