It’ll probably take until the official launch on Tuesday October 18th before confirmation is received, but it appears that the route of next year’s Tour de France could have been accidentally published on the LeTour.fr website this morning. As noticed by the journalist Sander Slager of the Wieler Revue website, the information – which was quickly taken down by the LeTour webmasters – listed full start/finish details and stage distances for the July 2012 event.
If confirmed, the time trialists in the bunch will be happy, while the mountain specialists may bemoan the apparent lack of opportunities for them.
For the first group, those who shine in races against the clock, there are three opportunities: a Liège prologue on June 30th of 6.1 kilometres, a 38 kilometre July 9th time trial from Arc et Senans to Besançon, and a penultimate day GC settler of 52 kilometres from Bonneval to Chartres.
In a screen grab shown on VeloPeloton.com, further details are listed. There are nine flat stages, four transition (ie lumpy) stages and five mountain stages, plus the aforementioned time trials. There will be 25 mountain climbs in all, with eleven coming in the Pyrenees, six in the Alps and four in the Swiss Jura mountains. The remainder are in the French Jura (3) and the Vosges (1).
The first-time stage towns are said to number nine and are in Abbeville, Annonay Davezieuz, Bellegarde-sur-Valserine, La Planche des Belles Filles, Peyragudes, Porrentruy, Samatan, Tomblaine and Visé.
The stats suggest just three summit finishes, one of those being on a transition stage. Stage 7 on July 7th is 199 kilometres to La Plance des Belles Filles, a 1148 metre peak in the Vosges. Another apparent summit finish is on stage 11 to La Toussuire-Les Sybelles, coming at the end of a 140 kilometre race from Albertville.
The third summit finish would appear to be that of Peyragudes, at the conclusion of stage 17’s 144 kilometre race from Bagnères de Luchon.
Given that only the start and end points of each stage are listed, it is impossible to tell which of the big mountains will be scaled en route to the finishes. However if there are indeed just three summit battles, climbers such as triple runner-up Andy Scheck may well be disappointed. He and others with his characteristics would have very limited chances to open time over the all rounders.
Possible route of Tour de France 2012 (yet to be confirmed by ASO) :
P, Prologue : Sat 30 June, Liège > Liège 6.1 km
1, Road stage: Sun 1 July, Liège > Seraing 198 km
2, Road stage: Mon 2 July, Visé > Tournai 207 km
3, Road stage: Tues 3 July, Orchies > Boulogne-sur-Mer 197 km
4, Road stage: Weds 4 July, Abbeville > Rouen 214 km
5, Road stage: Thurs 5 July, Rouen > Saint-Quentin 197 km
6, Road stage: Fri 6 July, Épernay > Metz 210 km
7, Road stage: Sat 7 July, Tomblaine > La Planche des Belles Filles 199 km
8, Road stage: Sun 8 July, Belfort > Porrentruy 154 km
9, Time trial: Mon 9 July, Arc-et-Senans > Besançon 38 km
10, Road stage: Weds 11 July, Mâcon > Bellegarde-sur-Valserine 194 km
11, Mountains : Thurs 12 July, Albertville > La Toussuire – Les Sybelles 140 km
12, Mountains : Fri 13 July, Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne > Annonay 220 km
13, Road stage: Sat 14 July, Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux > Le Cap d’Agde 215 km
14, Road stage: Sun 15 July, Limoux > Foix 192 km
15, Road stage: Mon 16 July, Samatan > Pau 160 km
16, Mountains: Weds 18 July, Pau > Bagnères-de-Luchon 197 km
17, Mountains: Thurs 19 July, Bagnères-de-Luchon > Peyragudes 144 km
18, Road stage: Fri 20 July, Blagnac > Brive-la-Gaillarde 215 km
19, Time trial: Sat 21 July, Bonneval > Chartres 52 km
20, Road stage: Sun 22 July, Rambouillet > Paris Champs-Élysées 130 km
