For the centenary of the yellow jersey, the Tour de France 2019 will be the summit of the mountains next July: the course, presented Thursday in Paris, provides for five arrivals at the summit, three to more than 2000 meters above sea level, and thirty collars.

"A hymn to excellence," said its director Christian Prudhomme who wanted to place the 106th edition of the world's biggest race on the heights. Both in the Pyrenees, with the arrival at Tourmalet, than in the Alps. The penultimate stage concludes in Val Thorens at 2365 meters, the third highest finish since the creation of the event in 1903.

Relive the ceremony announcing the route of the Tour de France 2019

A symbol of this desire to gain altitude, the Iseran, a legendary ascent - the highest road pass in France at 2,770 meters - rarely visited by the Tour, will be climbed on July 26 for the second of the three Alpine sections. By the side of the Maurienne, the most difficult, which has not been borrowed since 1963 by the Great Loop.

The hundredth anniversary of the creation of the yellow jersey, July 19, will be celebrated in Pau, emblematic city of the Tour, and not in Grenoble, where Eugene Christophe had worn for the first time the distinctive outfit. On this day, it will be an individual time trial (the only one on the 2019 Tour program) of 27 kilometers that will be proposed to counterbalance the hearty mountain menu.

The giant format Tourmalet

Six days after the kickoff of Brussels, the city of Eddy Merckx holds the record for the number of yellow jerseys, climbers have a first opportunity in the Vosges. This time, the rise of La Planche des Belles Filles is extended compared to the three previous arrivals by a steep "raidard" , at 20%. Before the Massif Central, the stage of Saint-Etienne multiplies the coasts and small passes in the mountains of Lyonnais.

After the first day of rest in Albi, the Pyrenees are condensed. Peyresourde and Ancizan hors d'oeuvre, then the day after the lap of Pau the Tourmalet in giant format hill race by the side of Barèges, finally the unprecedented rise of the Prat d'Albis above Foix to conclude a promising step ariégeoise (4700 m vertical drop).

The Tour, which always seeks to show the beauties of France, then lingers on the side of Nîmes and Pont du Gard, dating from Roman antiquity. Before playing definitively in the Alps for a triptych that begins with the great historic passes, Vars, Izoard and Galibier, to reach Valloire.

"We try to find passages with high percentages. Here, we will also return to the very high mountain, "said race director Thierry Gouvenou. The riders, who confiscated the first four places last July (in the order: Thomas, Dumoulin, Froome, Roglic), will they be disturbed as long as they also excel in the mountains?

The mark of his century

The sprinters, they have seven opportunities in this edition drawn east of the line connecting Alsace to Béarn, to visit four mountains (Vosges, Massif Central, Pyrenees, Alps) and take his ease in Occitanie (rest in Albi then Nîmes). The first in Brussels, from the opening on July 6, before the 27-kilometer team time trial in the Belgian capital, the last in Paris for the conclusion on July 28.

Far from the canons of the years Merckx, Hinault or Indurain, three of the record holders of victories (five each) who attended the presentation, the Tour 2019 bears the mark of its century. It reflects the will of the organizers to have a lively race, nervous, intense, as long as the riders are inspired by the repetition of the uneven stages since the record number of climbs is due mainly to the average mountain.

"There are fewer climbs out of category," notes Christian Prudhomme. Thirty passes (2nd, 1st or out of category), it is however four more than in 2018, seven more than in 2017. But, recalled the director of the Tour, "the organizers propose, the riders have" .