The jubilation, celebrations and festivity is about to begin. People are rushing for France and the fans’ debates are catching fire. Running from Saturday, July 3rd to Sunday July 25th 2010, the 97th Tour de France is around the corner. Consisting of 20 stages, it will cover a total distance of 3,600 kilometers. The all year’s most awaited event lasts for a full three weeks.
It is a legacy of a hundred years crossing the entire France and the countries touching its borders. The cyclists pass through the mountains and plains and alongside of rivers, practice one of the worlds most physically challenging sport.
The 2010 Tour begins in the Netherlands, which is for the first time ever, crosses into Belgium, and then follows a clockwise trace around France. Rotterdam hosts the opening stage, a prologue of 8 kilometers. Our Dutch friends will welcome the Tour de France with fervor and enthusiasm in a magnificent popular celebration on a par with last year's festivities. After climbing the peaks of the Jura and the Alps, tribute will be paid to the magnificent Pyrenees with four key stages in the third week of the race.
As the race passes through Belgium, it celebrates the spring classics with a tribute stage to Liège-Bastogne-Liège, which includes the Côte de Rosier, and stage between Wanze and Arenberg Porte du Hainut which includes 13 kilometers of pavé and finishes outside the trouée d’Arenberg of Paris-Roubaix fame. Crossing into France, the Tour travels south over the course of three flat stages.
Passing through the Les Rousses in the ninth stage and later Rodez to Revel in the fourteenth stage the event would keep unwinding. And finally on 25th of July the 21st stage would be witnessed in Paris as a custom of the event.
The 22 teams designated to take part in the 2010 Tour de France are– ProTour Teams: AG2R-La Mondiale (France), Astana (KAZ), BBox Bouygues Telecom (France), Caisse d'Epargne (Spain), Cofidis (France), Columbia (USA), Euskaltel (Spain), Frangaise des Jeux (France), Footon-Servetto (Spain), Lampre (Italy), Liquigas (Italy), Milram (germany), Omega Pharma-Lotto (Belgium), Quick Step (Belgium), Rabobank (Holland), Saxo Bank (Denmark).
Special Invite Teams: RadioShack (USA), Sky (Great Britain), Katusha (Russia), Garmin (USA), Cervelo (Switzerland), BMC (USA).
Among them will be the US RadioShack team of former champion Lance Armstrong and the recently-formed Team Sky, who have built on Britain's track success at the Beijing Olympics to create a talented group headed by triple Olympic champion Bradley Wiggins, fourth in last year's Tour.
Among many of the other predictions, a much talked about story is about Lance Armstrong, the record making seven times winner of Tour De France, as being the favorite for 2010 Tour de France.
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