October 14, 2009 (Paris, France) – The centenary of the first appearance of high mountains on the program of the Tour de France will be celebrated during the passage in the Pyrenees. The riders will be climbing twice the famous Col du Tourmalet.

Over 4,000 spectators were present this morning at the official presentation of the 97th edition of the Tour de France that will be held from the 3rd to the 25th of July 2010. In the presence of the Mayor of Rotterdam, Ahmed Aboutaleb, and the two former Dutch winners of the Tour, Jan Janssen and Joop Zoetemelk, Christian Prudhomme firstly rejoiced with anticipation at the welcome the peloton will receive in the Netherlands, land of cycling. The fifth Dutch Grand Départ in history, that naturally invites to a visit to Belgium before heading to the French territory, allowed to design a dense program as soon as the first days for the race favourites who will immediately have to be careful. “In just forty-eight hours, we will have a mini Liège-Bastogne-Liège and a mini Paris-Roubaix”, enthusiastically explained the director of the Tour in reference to the two stages that will partly take place on the roads of the great spring classics.

For several years now, the Tour de France is careful at exploring all kind of mountains, by focusing on the contours of medium mountains. Indeed, the Alpine part, marked by two prestigious stages ending at Morzine-Avoriaz and at Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne, will be preceded by a excursion in the Jura mountains heading to the resort of Les Rousses, and followed by a stop in the Massif Central, where the demanding climb of Mende should offer a spectacular explanation.

But the teams of the Tour de France were mainly inspired by the centenary of the first high mountain stage. In 1910, a decisive turning point occurred in the history of cycling, when riders were sent off to climb the Pyrenees roads heading up to the Col de Peyresourde, Aspin, Tourmalet and Aubisque. All that in a same stage designed between Luchon and Bayonne, with 326 kilometres of effort to be covered. For the 16th stage of the 2010 Tour, the distance will be reduced with a finish decided at Pau, but as a tribute to Octave Lapize, Gustave Garrigou or Eugène Christophe, the climbs will be done in the same order: a feast for climbers. After a rest day, a last altitude finish will take place at the Col du Tourmalet, where only Jean-Pierre Danguillaume had the honour of lifting his arms in triumph, back in 1974. The battle for the yellow jersey could witness a final episode in the Bordeaux vineyards on the occasion of an individual time-trial of 51 kilometres between Bordeaux and Pauillac, on the eve of the finish in Paris, on the Champs-Élysées.