2010 Tour de France route revealed

October 14th, 2009 by Ron Callahan View Comments

The route presentation for the 2010 Tour de France took place this morning.

The race will run from Saturday July 3^rd to Sunday July 25^th 2010. The 97th edition of the race will have 1 prologue and 20 stages and will cover a total distance of 3,600 kilometres.

As we have known for some time, the race will start with an 8km prologue in Rotterdam. The race will then spend the first week of the race providing a hint of the spring classics. Stage 3 from Wanze to Arenberg Porte du Hainaut will even include 7 cobbled sectors over a total distance of 13,2 kilometres, divided up as follows: 3 sectors over a total distance of 2,2 kilometres in Belgium and 4 sectors over a total distance of 11 kilometres in France. This is the longest bit of cobbles in the race since 1985, when there were 10.5 km of bumps.

The race enters the mountains on its 8th day with a 161km stage from Tournus to Les Rousses, two towns that have never before played host to the Tour. After a forty kilometre flat ride, the going gets tough with an unrelenting and rising succession of mountain climbs, and notably the ascension of the southern slopes of La Croix de la Serra (1,049 m). A final 14 kilometre climb will lead to the summit finish in Les Rousses.

Day 9 sees the first “high mountain” stage as the race continues from Les Rousses, through the Ramaz pass and on to a mountaintop finish (1800m) in Morzine-Avoriaz.

After a rest day, the race continues through the Alps before heading across the southeast corner of France to enter the Pyrenees.

Stage 17 takes the competitors to the highlight of the race, a finish on the 2115m Col de Tourmalet. It will be climbed on its steepest side uphill from Barèges following the ascension of the Marie-Blanque and Soulor passes. Since Octave Lapize first conquered this climb in the 1910 edition of the Tour, the race has climbed to the summit 73 times, making this Pyrenean mountain pass the most frequently climbed pass on the Tour. In 1974 Jean-Pierre Danguillaume won the first, and hitherto only, summit finish here.

After the literal high of the race in Stage 17, the race heads to the plains. A 51 km time trial in the rolling hills of the Bordeaux region comes on the penultimate day before the inevitable parade into Paris on the Champs-Elysee.

The stages have the following profiles:

1 prologue,
9 flat stages,
6 mountain stages and 3 summit finishes,
4 medium mountain stages,
1 individual time-trial stage (59 km).

Distinctive aspects of the race:

le Tourmalet climbed twice,
a hint of the Classics and cobblestones,
2 rest days,
23 level 1, level 2 and highest level mountain passes.

11 new stage towns:

Arenberg Porte du Hainaut, Bourg-de-Péage, Bourg-lès-Valence, Gueugnon, Longjumeau, Pamiers, Pauillac, Sisteron, Station des Rousses, Tournus, Wanze (Belgium).

For the complete overview of the course, visit LeTour.fr