The Tour de France – The Route
A Look at the Stages of the 2008 Edition of the Tour de France
In advance of this year's Tour de France which starts on July 5th, Suite101 presents a review of the route, or parcours, the race will follow.
For the 2008 Tour de France, race director Christian Prudhomme has given the world of cycling a more varied Tour de France route than has been seen in recent years. With short time trials and hilly stages a feature it could help to create one of the most open tours in years.
The Opening Week
In recent memory the Tour has started with a very short time trial, otherwise known as a prologue – last year the riders rode the prologue around central London in possibly the Tour's most memorable Grand Depart ever. This year sees a break from that tradition with normal road stage of just over 197 kilometres running from the Brittany city of Brest to Plumelec.
The race then stays in the cycling crazy region of Brittany for a further two stages before the first real chance for the favourites to put their mark on the race comes in the form of a 29 kilometre time trial around the town of Cholet on stage four.
There is then a long transitional stage before the riders reach the Massif Central and hit the first major climbs of the tour with a summit finish at Super Besse on stage six before tackling another five categorised climbs on stage seven.
Week Two
With the Massif Central behind them the peloton continues to head towards the south of the country with a flat stage to Toulouse before heading into the Pyrenees and the first real test for the climbers. The first Pyrenean stage takes the riders over two category one climbs – the Col de Peyresourde and Col d'Aspin before dropping down into Bagneres de Bigorre. Then, on stage 10 comes the first major summit finish at at the top of a beyond (hors) category climb to Hautacam – a 14.2 kilometre slog at an average gradient of 7.2% - this coming after the riders have already crossed the top of the Col du Tourmalet – another hors category climb.
There is another tough stage to Foix before the riders then get a slight break as the route crosses the flat lands of the south of France on stages 12, 13 and 14 on its way to the Alps.
Week Three
The week where the Tour will be won and lost starts in the Alps with a 183 kilometre stage from Embrun to Prato Nevoso - another summit finish preceded by a climb of the monster Col D'Agnel topping out at 2,744 metres above sea level.
Stage 16 sees no let-up as the peloton take on another two hors category climbs before Stage 17 and the Queen Stage of this year's race.
Again starting in Embrun, Stage 17 takes the riders three hors category and legendary Alpine climbs – the Col du Galibier and the Col de la Croix de Fer are on the menu before finishing at the the most iconic of all summit finishes – Alpe d'Huez.
After three fantastic mountain stages the race then heads out of the Alps towards Paris. With a second time trial on the penultimate day and the traditional closing stage finish on the Champs Elysee, the 2008 route should give us a truly memorable Tour.
References
Cycle Sport Magazine July 2008 Edition
