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2015 Tour de France preview: the course

The 102nd Tour de France launches in one week, with anticipation very high for the clash between the “Fab Four”. In our second preview of the race, Canadian Cycling Magazine looks at the course of La Grande Boucle.

Can El Pistolero win the first Giro-Tour double in 17-years?
Can El Pistolero win the first Giro-Tour double in 17-years?


Week One: Chronos, sprints and Classics:
The opening stage in Utrecht, the Netherlands is a short, flat time trial, and the first week ends with Stage 9’s rolling team time trial in Brittany. In between those chrono bookends are three sprinter’s days on Stages 2, 5 and 7 and three Classics days on Stages 3, 4 and 8.

Stage 3 finds the race leaving the Netherlands to assail some of the La Fleche Wallonne course in Belgium, including the final climb of the Mur de Huy, 1.3-km of 9.6%.

Last season, Chris Froome (Great Britain/Sky) came undone on the cobbles, and this year he’ll be wary of Stage 4, where 13-km of pavé await the peloton over seven sectors, six of which are in the final 47-km of a 223.5-km route.

Only a sharp little climb into La Havre on Stage 6 could ruin sprinters’ prospects over the next three days before Stage 8’s finishing clamber up the Mûr-de-Bretagne.

The team time trial, coming relatively late in the race, will be difficult for those squads that have already lost riders. After this test, the GC men will have nothing but mountains ahead. Rest day one couldn’t come at a better time.

Week Two: The Pyrenees and Massif Central: Having worked its way southwest, the race takes a long transfer on the rest day and then immediately starts climbing in the Pyrenees. Stage 10 offers three Cat. 4’s to warm up the legs before ends on the HC-rated La Pierre Saint-Martin. The next day throws the HC Col de Tourmalet climb at the riders 58-km from the finish before finishing on the Cat. 3 ascent of Cauterets.

The hardest stage in the Pyreness is Stage 12, where three climbs are spread evenly over the route before the brutal HC Plateau de Beille (15.8-km of 7.9%)

The toughest stage in the Pyrenees.
The toughest stage in the Pyrenees.

The climbing relents a little with three medium-mountain days in the Massif Central and plenty of opportunities for things to go awry for the GC men as the race heads northeast before the second rest day.

Week Three: The Alps and Paris: If Stage 17 seems familiar to race fans, it’s because Romain Bardet (France/Ag2r) won an exact copy of it during the Critérium du Dauphiné, staying away on the Cat. 2 Pra Loup climb after attacking on the Cat. 1 Col d’Allos.

Stage 18 may not climax with a summit finish, but there are seven categorized ascents, including the HC Col de Glandon, spread across 186.5-km.

The queen stage of the 2015 Tour de France just might be Stage 19, which hurls the Croix-de-Fer and Col du Mollard climbs at the riders before concluding on the 18-km, 6.1% La Toussuire.

Arguably the queen stage of the 2015 Tour de France.
Arguably the queen stage of the 2015 Tour de France.

The Croix-de-Fer makes an unexpected return the next day, replacing the classic Galibier and Col du Télégraph climbs after damage to a road and tunnel leading to the famed climb of Alpe d’Huez necessitated a change. However, the two ascents packed into 110-km, with the Alpe d’Huez summit finish, will still make for a thrilling GC finale.

On Saturday, July 26, a stately procession to Paris will end with action on the Champs-Élysées, where the winner of the last two Paris showdowns, Marcel Kittel, will be notably absent.

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