Time trial specialists who relish flat, fast courses are giving thumbs up to the first details of the 2015 Tour de France Grand Depart in Utrecht, learning that the opening stage will be a 13.7 kilometre time trial.
Riders such as Fabian Cancellara, Tony Martin, Taylor Phinney and others who favour high speed, big gear courses will fancy their chances of taking the first Maillot Jaune of the race, while some of the sport’s sprinters will also be motivated as they should be able to limit their losses and then chase the jersey in the subsequent days.
The Dutch city will be the venue for the sixth-ever Tour start in the Netherlands in a year and seven months’ time. After that opening time trial, the second stage will also begin in Utrecht, with further details of that to follow at a later point.
Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme said today that the city has more bicycles than people, using that detail to underline the importance of the bike in its culture. “The Netherlands is a cycling nation, one which has written quite a few remarkable chapters of the history of the Tour de France,” he said.
“Utrecht's main attraction was the way it is integrated cycling into its day-to-day life. Its natural and palpable relationship with cycling is quite simply an inspiration.”
The country has enjoyed past Tour victories with Jan Janssen [1968] and Joop Zoetemelk [1980] and will hope that its riders can shine in the race. Belkin’s Bauke Mollema and Laurens Ten Dam were prominent in this year’s race, taking sixth and thirteenth overall, respectively.
The 2015 Tour will begin on July 4th. Next year’s race will begin with a 191 km race from Leeds to Harrogate in Britain.
Click on the images below to see larger maps of the Utrecht routes