The traditional routing is all the way to the top of the bar wrap. All the racing men who used BES had them wrapped that way, not just Rik van Looy.

Charlie Gaul:


Coppi and Koblet:


Ocaña on his titanium bike... used DT shifters, but José Fuente (the KAS dude next to him) knew how to tape a BES cable.


Me, I like a handlebar bag, so taping all the way up is the only way that plays nice. I do most often crisscross, in front of the HT and again under the DT, but I'm not dogmatic about that. Whatever works best.

I don't have any shifting or handling problems from that routing but YMMV, some people report extra friction. I tend to use '60s or earlier derailers and original unlined housing, so you might be wise to ignore anything I say — clearly, I have extremely low standards. I only need it to work about as well as the bikes that repeatedly were used to win the TdF and all those great races of the '50s through the '70s. I'll "settle" for that.

The only racer pic I was able to find taped differently was Laurence Malone, the great American cyclocrosser.

He's also the only guy (AFAIK) who bunny-hopped the barricades, which are intended to make you get off and run over them. So I'll forgive him for running his shifter cables wrong (and his brake cables too long).