The Isle of Beauty will welcome the Tour de France for the first time. The Grand Start will set the tone of an edition equally dedicated to majestic landscapes and sporting feats. For the first time in ten years, the route of Le Tour will remain entirely within the borders of France.
The biggest race in the world will pay homage to the theatre of its battles, by inviting its viewers to discover the many UNESCO World Heritage listed sites, from the Calanques de Piana to the gardens of the Château de Versailles, including the Cathedral in Albi and the historical centre of Lyon, to name but two.
After its Corsican sojourn, Le Tour 2013 will continue to bathe in the theme of water: including Nice, Marseilles, Saint-Malo and Mont-Saint-Michel, six stages will finish at the seaside, whilst the pack will have the opportunity to ride along the four biggest rivers in France and pass alongside the sumptuous shores of the Serre-Ponçon and Annecy Lakes.
During the three weeks of racing, the action will also be aesthetically pleasing. Once again, a broad range of terrains has been chosen, to offer all types of riders the possibility to shine, in all the sequences that Le Tour will include. Time-trialists will have pride of place as part of a team in Nice, then on their own at the Mont-Saint-Michel, whilst the sprinters should be looking forward to the finishes in Marseilles, Montpellier or also Saint-Malo. In any case, the route will constantly favour the brave and, amongst them, the climbers will have opportunities spread all along their journey to Paris.
The Pyrenean programme includes climbs recently incorporated into the list of Tour de France’s “elite passes”, such as the Col de Pailhères or Col Hourquetted’Ancizan passes. Le Tour’s leading lights will have a date in their diaries with the Giant of Provence, the Mont Ventoux, which has not been climbed since 2009. If they are dynamic, the climbers will then have a sufficient amount of kilometres and steep gradients to really set off the fireworks in the Alps.
The final time-trial of Le Tour has not taken place so far from the finish in Paris since 1975. More importantly, there will still be more than 140 km of climbing spread over three highly intense stages: the Alped’Huez will have 42 bends this year, because the riders will be faced with a double climb up to the ski resort on Thursday afternoon.
Another high altitude challenge will await them the next day as they head to Grand Bornand, then also at the finish in Semnoz, opposite Mont-Blanc, which they will discover 24hours before arriving at the Champs-Elysées. Who knows if the winner of the 100th Tour de France will have already been crowned?
Tour de France 2013 Stages
– Stage 1 – June 29 – Porto-Vecchio to Bastia – 200km
– Stage 2 – June 30 – Bastia to Ajaccio – 155km
– Stage 3 – July 1 – Ajaccio to Calvi – 145km
– Stage 4 – July 2 – Nice – 25km (TT)
– Stage 5 – July 3 – Cagnes-sur-mer to Marseille – 219km
– Stage 6 – July 4 – Aix-en-Provence to Montpellier – 176km
– Stage 7 – July 5 – Montpellier to Albi – 205km
– Stage 8 – July 6 – Castres to Ax 3 Domaines – 194km
– Stage 9 – July 7 – Saint-Girons to Bagnères-de-Bigorre – 165km
– Rest Day 1 – July 8 – Saint-Nazaire, Loire-Atlantique
– Stage 10 – July 9 – St-Gildas-des-Bois to Saint Malo – 193km
– Stage 11 – July 10 – Avranches to Mont-Saint-Michel – 33km
– Stage 12 – July 11 – Fougères to Tours – 218km
– Stage 13 – July 12 – Tours to Saint-Amand-Montrond – 173km
– Stage 14 – July 13 – Saint-Pourçain-sur-Sioule to Lyon – 191km
– Stage 15 – July 14 – Givors to Mont Ventoux – 242km
– Rest Day 2 – July 15 – Vaucluse province (Avignon, Orange)
– Stage 16 – 1 July 16 – Vaison-la-Romaine to Gap – 168km
– Stage 17 – July 17 – Embrun to Chorges – 32km (TT)
– Stage 18 – July 18 – Gap to l’Alpe d’Huez – 168km
– Stage 19 – July 19 – Bourg d’Oisans to Le Grand Bornand – 204km
– Stage 20 – July 20 – Annecy to Annecy-Semnoz – 125km
– Stage 21 – July 21 – Versailles to Paris (Champs-Elysées) – 118km
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