The Legendary Alpine Climb to Observe 100th Anniversary of the Tour De France
Tour de France would mark its 100th anniversary by passing through the legendary and beautiful Alpine climb twice in 2011. It has been decided that the 18th stage of the event would end at the summit of the most climbed mountain by
the tourists, which, amid being at an altitude of 2645 meters, is considered the seventh highest finish in the world. While on the following day, the cyclists would have to take on the Galibier before another top finish at the mountain of Alpe d’Huez. The
race would start from Vendee on 2nd of July, while it would end on 24th of July in Paris.
Instead of following the traditional time trial prologue, a 191 kilometres opening stage would mark the grand depart of the race which is comprised of six mountain and 10 flat stages along with 4 summit finishes. Altogether, there would be 21 stages.
While talking to the media, director of the Tour de France, Christian Prudhomme said that they wanted to provide a huge array of challenges for the riders around the globe. He was of the view that though last summer’s initial week was also thrilling, this
time the race would offer further difficult tracks to the riders.
The director said that they had tried to keep the route more balanced by having three stages in the Pyrenees and three at the Alps during the final week of the race.
“This way the suspense would last till the end,” Prudehomme claimed.
Mark Cavendish from England, who rides for HTC Columbia, had managed to win 15 stages during three Tour de France races, is not expected to find this year’s route as supportive as traditionally it has been. The sharp climbs which would replace the flat surfaces,
would pose a real challenge for the riders.
The journey for altogether 3,471 kilometres would begin from the island of Ile de Noirmoutie and go through the west coast of France before crossing the passage of Du Gois. The way would lead them to their final finish at Mont Des Alouettes. The second stage,
which would be a 23 kilometres team time trial around the Essarts before it would wind the way through Brittany in the opening week covering many flat courses for the sprinters.
The course of the track would take the riders through the centre of the country making them go through Le Mans and Chateauroux before they would aim towards the Pyrenees during the second week of the event. At this stage, riders like Alberto Contador from
Spain and Andy Schleck from Luxembourg who, respectively, have been the winner and runner up of the last two tours would start coming to the fore.
At this stage, while going through the Luz-Ardiden road, two new mountain climbs, named the Perthus and the Hourquette d’Ancizan, would have to be passed. The race would spend three days at these passages which separate Spain from France.
With the race heading on to the Alps, the riding would become rather enjoyable for the riders where they would also visit Pinerolo in Italy before heading back to the challenging climbs of Galibier and the hairpin of Alpe d’Huez.
The traditional final day ride would be preceded by a 41 kilometres individual time trial around the Grenoble. Observing the performance of the British contingent, this could bring an ultimate advantage for them. After these 41 km, the race would lead the
riders to the finishing line on Champs Elysees in Paris.
The English riders who could finish 24 in last year’s Tour de France race told the correspondent of an international sports’ channel that while proceeding along with the race, the riders know about having the summit finishes and time trial where the race
has been spread over three weeks. If they are there without any prologue, there are huge chances for losing time on the first stage.
They were of the view that the last year provided them learning experience where they put the best team together at the time and enjoyed the best preparations. However, they lamented that in professional sports it was quite difficult to not be able to make
it for one reason or the other.
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