Tour de France – Le Tour 2010

From Rotterdam to Paris Champs-Élysées:

The 97th Tour de France will start from Rotterdam on Saturday July 3rd and finish on the Champs-Élysées in Paris on Sunday, July 25th, 2010. This year’s race will be made up of 1 prologue and 20 stages covering a distance of 3,600 kilometres.

Race Stage Profiles

• 1 prologue
• 9 flat stages
• 6 mountain stages and 3 summit finishes
• 4 medium mountain stages
• 1 individual time-trial stage (51 km).

Particular features of this year’s race

• le Tourmalet will be climbed twice
• there’s a hint of the classics and cobblestones*
• 2 rest days
• 23 level 1, level 2 and highest level mountain passes

*Each year the organizers think of new ways of inflicting additional pain on the riders! For the 2010 Tour programme, the 3rd stage, Wanze-Arenberg Porte du Hainaut, will include 7 cobbled sectors over a total distance of 13.2 kilometres, split up as follows:

• 3 sectors over a total distance of 2.2 kilometres in Belgium
• 4 sectors over a total distance of 11 kilometres in France

Oooh! I feel the pain! The last 5 occasions when cobbled sectors were included in the Tour were in 1981, 1983, 1985, 1989 and 2004.

11 New Stage Towns

In talking to fellow travellers, many have become keen followers of the Tour de France as it also has an interesting travel element in it. The Tour coverage is rather like a travel show and many who watch this race have been to various parts of France and this great race brings back memories of those trips. This year there are 11 new stage towns to excite travellers with:

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

The selection of the above towns goes through a rigorous process. The town must be able to ensure that the peloton’s arrival and departure is able to take place under optimum conditions in terms of sporting entertainment and rider and public safety. There are lots of other practical considerations as well.

So fans of this great and gruelling race, yours truly included, if you’re doing any travels to Europe, you may wish to plan a little detour in your itinerary so that you can witness this great race.

Tour Route

Sat 3 Jul – Rotterdam > Rotterdam
Sun 4 Jul – Rotterdam > Bruxelles
Mon 5 Jul – Bruxelles > Spa
Tue 6 Jul – Wanze > Arenberg Porte du Hainaut
Wed 7 Jul – Cambrai > Reims
Thu 8 Jul – Épernay > Montargis
Fri 9 Jul – Montargis > Gueugnon
Sat 10 Jul – Tournus > Station des Rousses
Sun 11 Jul – Station des Rousses > Morzine-Avoriaz
Mon 12 Jul – Morzine-Avoriaz
Tue 13 Jul – Morzine-Avoriaz > Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne
Wed 14 Jul – Chambéry > Gap
Thu 15 Jul – Sisteron > Bourg-lès-Valence
Fri 16 Jul – Bourg-de-Péage > Mende
Sat 17 Jul – Rodez > Revel
Sun 18 Jul – Revel > Ax-3 Domaines
Mon 19 Jul – Pamiers > Bagnères-de-Luchon
Tue 20 Jul – Bagnères-de-Luchon > Pau
Wed 21 Jul – Pau
Thu 22 Jul – Pau > Col du Tourmalet
Fri 23 Jul – Salies-de-Béarn > Bordeaux
Sat 24 Jul – Bordeaux > Pauillac
Sun 25 Jul – Longjumeau > Paris Champs-Élysées

Click here to get a free PDF of this post

If you think of anything I left out of this post, please feel free to put that on the comment.