Race Preview: Tour de l'Avenir in France
Tour de I’Avenir also referred as the Tour of the Future is one of the oldest cycling race scheduled in France annually since 1961.
The event is pretty much similar to the Tour de France and is anticipated by various cyclists across the globe.
The major difference between the Tour de France and the Tour de I’Avenir is that the Tour is a top-ranked World Tour race and 18 out of 22 teams chosen to ride the event must have the World Tour license.
Four professional-continental teams are also given opportunity to ride the French Grand Tour and this year Team Cofidis, Team Saur-Sojasun, Team Argos-Shimano and Team Europcar were the four teams invited through the wild-card entry along with the 18 World
Tour sides.
Tour de I’Avenir is designed for the semi-professional and the amateur riders who participate under the national teams.
Editor of the L’Equipe Jacques Marchand created the race back in 1961 to attract the cyclists from the communist nations especially Soviet Union.
Italian cyclist Guido De Rosso wins the first edition of the race while Antonio Gomez del Moral and Andre Zimmermann succeeding during the 1962 and the 1963 editions of the event.
French cyclist Romain Sicard wins the 2009 edition of the Tour de I’Avenir while Nairo Quintana (Col) and Jhoan Esteban Chaves (Col) succeeded during the 2010 and the 2011 editions of the contest.
Colombian Team Manager Luisa Fernanda Rios admired Esteban’s performance and noted that the perfect combination of youth and experience helped his side with an important victory at the Tour de I’Avenir 2011.
"This year, we mixed young and old riders in the team, but it didn't work out too well," Rios said.
"So, for next season, we have decided to keep only the young ones and return to Continental. First, we have to finish their training and then come back amongst the pros”.
“We'd like to step up to Professional Continental in 2013 and be invited to the Tour de France at that point in time".
The main reason why the race is called as the ‘Tour of the Future’ is because of the fact that the winner of the race are given chance to ride the Tour de France.
The 2012 version of the six-day race is scheduled right after the Olympics on August 26th, 2012 and all the amateur riders are already warming up for the mega event.
The final route of the race was revealed earlier in March and the race will be held at the Tour de France famous classic route as usual.
The event this year will begin from Dole on August 26th and will take the cyclists through the grueling 801 kilometres before finally concluding on September 1st at the Beaufort to Le Grand Bornand.
The final route of the Tour de I’Avenir 2012 is as under,
-August 26: Prologue in Dole (4 km)
- August 27: Dole to Belleville-sur-Saone (140 km)
- August 28: Le Parc des Oiseaux to Chatillon-sur-Chalaronne (140 km)
- August 29: Pont d’Ain to Annemasse (152 km)
- August 30: Seyssel to Valloire (155 km)
- August 31st: Valloire to Les Saisies (130 km)
- September 1st: Beaufort to Le Grand Bornand (83 km)
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