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Alpe d’Huez returns to Tour de France for Bastille Day on a 2022 route for the climbers

Tour de France Femmes' eight stages end with mountains

Photo by: Sirotti
October 14, 2021
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The routes of the 109th Grande Boucle and the first Tour de France Femmes were unveiled on Thursday in Paris by the organizers ASO. The 2022 edition of the Tour de France begins in Copenhagen, Denmark on July 1, Canada Day, and concludes on the Champs-Elysées of Paris on July 24. The race slips into Belgium and Switzerland along the way.

Dare we hope for a proper Roglič vs Pogačar vs Bernal scrap next July? Photo: Sirotti

Denmark
The 109th edition’s Grand Départ is in Copenhagen. A 13-km time trial is the first chrono kick off since 2017. Stages 2 and 3 should favour the sprinters unless the wind has other ideas.

July 4 is the first rest day as the whole operation transfers to France.

Cobbles

Stages 4 through 9 swing southeast from Dunkirk. Stage 5 features 19.3 km of cobbles in the final 75 km between Lille and Arenberg Porte du Hainaut.

There are two summit finishes in the first French week. La Planche des Belles Filles is back as a mountain top finish on Stage 7, while the race’s excursion into Switzerland sees a two-headed climb of Pas de Morgins and Châtel end the week.

Into the Alps

Will Michael Woods be coming out to play among all those mountains? Photo: SIrotti

Week 3 piles on the climbs. Stage 11 shoehorns the Col du Télégraphe, Col du Galibier and Col du Granon into 149 km. The big treat comes the next day with a clamber up Alpe d’Huez after assailing the Galibier and Col de la Croix de Fer.

There are a couple of stages for the sprinters before the final rest day in Carcassonne.

The final battlefields

Although there are Pyrenees climbs on Stage 16 to start the final week, the next two days are the brutes. Stage 17 takes on Col d’Aspin, Hourquette d’Ancizan and Col de Val Louron-Azet before concluding on Peyragudes. The next day the riders depart from Lourdes before ascending Col d’Aubisque and Col de Spandelles on their to the Hautacam summit finish.

If there are any sprinters left, they’ll cross swords on Stage 19. Stage 20 is the climax of the GC battle, as a 40 km time trial with two 1.6 km climbs near the end will decide the final spots in the table.

The race concludes on the Champs-Elysées of Paris on July 24.

Tour de France Femmes

The first Tour de France Femmes is 1029 km over 8 stages with 2 mountain stages, 2 punchy stages and 4 flat stages.

There’s a sweet overlap between the two races, as the women start in Paris on the Champs-Elysées on July 24 and conclude on July 31 atop La Planche des Belles Filles. La Planche des Belles Filles is the second summit finish in a row for the women’s peloton, with Stage 7’s assault of Petit Ballon, Col du Platzerwasel and finally Grand Ballon making up the queen stage for the queens.