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2017 Tour de France preview: the course

Short on chronos and summit finishes, the route is still an alluring one

Gallery Giro d'Italia
June 25, 2017
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With six days remaining until the the start of the Tour de France, Canadian Cycling Magazine continues its preview of the 104th edition with an examination of the route.

Overview
It’s a course that takes in all five mountain regions of France for the first time since 1992. The time trials are kept to a minimum with two, including a 23-km chrono on the last GC day in Marseille before the procession into Paris. The end of Stage 18’s parcours, which concludes on the Col d’Izoard climb, will also make up the route of day one of La Course, the first time the women’s WorldTour race hasn’t been set in Paris.

In general the ASO has gone with shorter stages featuring steeper, unknown climbs and tricky descents. There are only four mountain summit finishes. The Northwest is completely ignored and a big transfer west from Chambery to Dordogne on the first rest day means that the race doesn’t neatly follow a clockwise or counterclockwise pattern.
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Week One
The 2017 Tour starts in Dusseldorf, Germany. Here the riders roll their first time trail, a flat 13-km affair. The next day is the first road stage from Dusseldorf to Liege, Belgium. Here we will see the first bonus seconds of 10, 6 and 4-seconds awarded to the first three finishers of each road race.

Stage 3’s arrival in France at Longwy climaxes on a short, steep ramp to the finish. After a sprint day, the race continues moving south, with the first summit finish of the 2017 edition coming Stage 5 in the Vosges mountains on Cat. 1 Planche des Belles Filles (5.9-km of 8.5%), where both Vicenzo Nibali and Chris Froome have won stages.

Sprinters have another couple of days to skirmish before the race heads into the Jura Mountains. Stage 9 is a brute: 4200-metres of climbing including the Grand Colombier and the Mont du Chat. The final 50-km are the same as stage 6 of the Critérium du Dauphiné.


Week Two
The rest day transfer plunks the race down near the Pyrenees. Stage 12 finishes atop Peyragudes after taking in Port des Bales and the Peyresourde.

Stage 12 is the big Pyrenees clash.

The next day to Foix is the shortest stage in 30-years, with 100-km of short, more obscure climbs. It’s sure to elicit three-and-a-half hours of full-tilt boogie.
The shortest road stage in 30-years should be bananas.

The riders then turn back east for an excursion into the Massif Central and the final rest day July 17.

Week Three
Fierce Alpine climbs await the peloton, with the first big skirmish scheduled for Stage 17, which tackles the Croix de Fer, Télégraphe and the Galibier. Yowza.


Stage 18 holds the 2017 Tour de France’s final summit finish on the moonscape Izoard after the riders have clambered up Guillestre, Barcelonnette and the Col de Vars.

The final summit finish punctuates Stage 18.

After the penultimate day for the sprinters comes the decisive 23-km time trial in Marseilles, a course mostly flat except for a pesky 1.2-km, 9.5% wall. Then it’s Paris and the Champs Elysees.

As mentioned, the first day of La Course takes place on a similar route to Stage 18 and on the same day. The women will battle it out on the first 10-km of Izoard after starting in Briancon for a 67-km parcours.

Tour de France 2017 route
Stage 1: Saturday, July 1: Dusseldorf-Dusseldorf (ITT), 13-km
Stage 2: Sunday, July 2: Dusseldorf–Liege, 202-km
Stage 3: Monday, July 3: Verviers–Longwy, 202-km
Stage 4: Tuesday, July 4: Mondorf-Les-Bains–Vittel, 203-km
Stage 5: Wednesday, July 5: Vittel–Planche des Belles Filles, 160-km
Stage 6: Thursday, July 6: Vesoul–Troyes, 216-km
Stage 7: Friday, July 7: Troyes–Nuit-Saint-Georges, 214-km
Stage 8: Saturday, July 8: Dole–Station des Tousses, 187-km
Stage 9: Sunday, July 9: Nantua–Chambery, 181-km

Rest day 1: Monday, July 10
Stage 10: Tuesday, July 11: Perigueux–Bergerac, 178-km
Stage 11: Wednesday, July 12: Eymet–Pau, 202-km
Stage 12: Thursday, July 13: Pau–Peyragudes, 214-km
Stage 13: Friday, July 14: Saint-Girons–Foix, 100-km
Stage 14: Saturday, July 15: Blagnac–Rodez, 181-km
Stage 15: Sunday, July 16: Laissac-Severac L’Eglise–Le Puy-en-Velay 189-km

Rest day 2: Monday, July 17
Stage 16: Tuesday, July 18: Le Puy-en-Velay–Romans-Sur-Isere, 165-km
Stage 17: Wednesday, July 19: La Mure–Serre-Chevalier, 183-km
Stage 18: Thursday, July 20: Briancon–Izoard, 178-km
Stage 19: Friday, July 21: Embrun–Salon-de-Provence, 220-km
Stage 20: Saturday, July 22: Marseille–Marseille (ITT), 23-km
Stage 21: Sunday, July 23: Montgeron–Paris Champs Elysees, 105-km