It is a Tour de France very varied and resolutely turned towards the southern half of France that Christian Prudhomme presented Tuesday. The 107th edition of the Great Loop, which will leave Nice on Saturday, June 27, will run 100% in France and will include nine stages of plain, three hilly stages and eight mountain, with four arrivals at altitude. And the mountain will arrive quickly, with two passages above 1,500 meters in the Nice hinterland from the second day. An extremely rare event in the history of the Tour: an arrival at the summit is planned at the 4th stage, in Orcières. (1,825 meters).
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Two unpublished arrivals "with rocky slopes"
Runners will return to the Alps around July 14 with two new arrivals, at the Grand Colombier on July 12 and at the Col de la Loze on July 15. The first one had already been borrowed by the Tour de France, but during a stage, never for an arrival. The second is completely new. The Loze Pass, located above the Méribel resort, will be climbed by a forest track that has been tarred this summer, to allow cyclists to reach the highest pass at 2,300 meters above sea level. .
At the microphone of Europe 1, Thierry Gouvenou, responsible for the layout of the Tour, describes "slopes sometimes very very steep, up to 20%". "In general, in the Alps, the slopes are arranged so that it is regular to go up to the stations, there it is completely different," he explains. "When we pass the station, we enter another universe, we go to the top of the mountain on an old path with slopes completely broken." "It looks a bit like an amusement park with roller coasters", abounds with Europe 1 Thierry Carroz, director of the sports club Meribel. "We have a lot of rhythm changes, slopes at 20% in places, and after, dishes."
Tribute to Jacques Chirac, against the clock in the mountains
Before that, there will be "the stage of the two islands, between Oléron and Ré, which responds to the will of the organizers to go to greet the West of France, missing the route 2020. A tribute to Jacques Chirac is also planned with the arrival of the 12th stage on July 9 in Sarran, in front of the museum that bears the name of the former president who died in late September, a step planned before his death, said Christian Prudhomme. 13th stage at Puy Mary after a difficult stage which will have 4,400m of elevation gain, the stage of the Massif Central with the highest elevation of the Tour de France.
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After the Alps, and just before the finish on the Champs-Élysées on Sunday 19 July - which is due to the Olympic race scheduled a week later in Japan - the last postulants at the Yellow Jersey will be explained on the Plate des Beautiful Girls, during a 36-kilometer time trial that could cause damage.