The route for the 2017 Tour de France was officially announced this morning at a ceremony in Paris in the presence of three-time champion Chris Froome and luminaries including Bernard Hinault.
The Tour will start in Dusseldorf on 1 July after a 30 year absence from Germany. A 13km individual time trial along the banks of the Rhine will allow riders a chance to enjoy the sights of this sporting and francophile city (Napoleon was welcomed warmly in Dusseldorf, apparently). But the big news is that Kraftwerk will be making an appearance at the Grand Départ! Wonder what they'll play...
The 2017 Tour will feature five fewer categorised climbs than 2016, but steeper gradients as it visits France's five mountain ranges: Vosges, Jura, Pyrenees, Central Massif and Alps in that order. It's the first time since 1992 that this 'grand slam' has featured together in a single Tour.
The Tour will visit four countries in all, with stages passing through Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg as well as France.
The queen stage will tackle the Jura mountains between Nantua and Chambéry (Col de la Biche, Grand Colombier and Mont du Chat, for a total altitude gain of 4,600 m!); pretenders to the crown will go head-to-head in the Pyrenees in a 100km stage from Saint-Girons to Foix; sections approaching a 20% gradient will provide fertile ground for attacks on La Planche des Belles Filles and Peyragudes; and the race will be decided in a spectacular climax on the Izoard, a fabled climb which will set the scene for the concluding mountain showdown in its first stage finish ever.
Mountain goats, however, will not have all the fun, and they will have to fight for the yellow jersey in a time trial on the Mediterranean coast, with the finish line right in Marseille's Vélodrome stadium. The last time a stage finished in a football ground was in Bordeaux's Parc Lescure in 1979.
Less than 24 hours later, the peloton will be in Montgeron - start of the 1903 Tour - for the final stage, which will see them ride indoors in the prestigious Grand Palais. The Champs-Élysées will see the traditional sprinters' battle to cap a series of sprints which will start in Liège and probably continue in Vittel, Troyes, Nuits-Saint-Georges and Romans-sur-Isère. Time for Cavendish, Kittel, Greipel and co to settle old scores...
Here's the route in full:
Tour de France 2017 route
Stage one: Düsseldorf 13.8km ITT - 1 July 2017
Stage two: Dusseldorf - Liège - 2 July
Stage three: Verviers - Longwy - 3 July
Stage four: Mondorf-les-Bains - Vittel - 4 July
Stage five: Vittel - La Planche des Belles Filles (Summit finish) - 5 July
Stage six: Vesoul - Troyes - 6 July
Stage seven: Troyes - Nuits-Saint-Georges - 7 July
Stage eight: Dole - Station des Rousses (Summit finish) - 8 July
Stage nine: Nantua - Chambéry (Mountains) - 9 July
Rest day in Perigueux - 10 July
Stage 10: Périgueux - Bergerac - 11 July
Stage 11: Eymet - Pau - 12 July
Stage 12: Pau - Peyragudes (Summit finish) - 13 July
Stage 13: Saint-Girons - Foix - 14 July
Stage 14: Blagnac - Rodez - 15 July
Stage 15: Laissac-Sévérac L'Eglise - Le Puy-en-Velay - 16 July
Rest day in Le Puy-en-Velay - 17 July
Stage 16: Brioude - Romans-sur-Isère - 18 July
Stage 17: La Mure - Serre Chevalier - 19 July
Stage 18: Briançon - Col d'Izoard (Summit finish) - 20 July
Stage 19: Embrun - Salon-de-Provence - 21 July
Stage 20: Marseille ITT - 22 July
Stage 21: Montgeron - Paris - 23 July
La Course: women's race to tackle the Izoard
Since 2014, the Tour de France has leveraged its fame and know-how to support women's cycling by organising La Course, a prestigious event for the world elite, which has been held three times on the Champs-Élysées finishing circuit in Paris. The fourth edition will send the ladies on a mountain quest: just a few hours before the men's peloton, they will light the first fireworks in the final 66 kilometres of the stage from Briançon to the Izoard. Sprinters will be nowhere to be seen on the final ascent, described by Jacques Goddet as "a harrowing trial which establishes the boundary between difficult and terrifying". The girls will bring back memories of riders such as Gino Bartali, Fausto Coppi, Louison Bobet and Bernard Thévenet as they tackle the 10 kilometres leading to Casse Déserte, which boast an average gradient of over 9%. Welcome to the Alps, ladies.
Étape du Tour: thousands of cyclosportive riders in Casse Déserte
Ever since 1993, the Étape du Tour has given amateur cyclists the unique opportunity to tackle a Tour de France mountain stage just a few days before the elite peloton. 15,000 cyclosportive riders are expected to make this event the highlight of their 2017 season. It will be held on the course of the stage from Briançon to the Izoard on Sunday, 16 July.
Registration opens on Friday, 21 October at 8am at www.asochallenges.com.
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