A team time trial, an ITT, five summit finishes and seven opportunities for the sprinters will all be on the menu of the 113th edition.
Next year, the Tour de France will start from Barcelona, making it for the sixth time in the last decade that the Grand Départ is hosted by a foreign country. After that opening stage, a team time trial finishing atop the Montjuic, the peloton will spend two more days in Spain before finally entering France, where the sprinters will get their first opportunity only on stage five.
For the fast men and the breakaway artists, the next ten days should bring plenty of opportunities to shine, before the 3333km-long race will make way for the yellow jersey contenders. Plateau de Solaison – climbed from its most difficult side, where the gradients reach double-digit gradients – and Orcieres-Merlettes are sure to reshuffle the general classification.
The third week of the race will bring not one, but two summit finishes on the Alpe d’Huez, which returns after four years. The mythical ascent first used at the 1952 edition, when Fausto Coppi powered to a remarkable solo victory, will feature on back-to-back stages before the peloton travels to Paris for the final stage. There, the Montmartre climb is once again expected to bring fireworks, especially as it’s set to feature three times on the course – including with 15 kilometers to go – before the finish on the famous Champs-Élysées.
The man who conquered the legendary slopes of the Mont Ventoux last summer, Valentin Paret-Peintre represented Soudal Quick-Step in Paris at the route presentation and shared his thoughts on the route: “It’s a hard edition, but this doesn’t come as a surprise, because it’s the Tour de France after all. I look forward to the Plateau de Solaison, a steep climb not far from where I was born. It’s nice to see that we’ll have both the Galibier and the Alpe d’Huez next year, as there will be plenty of opportunities for the climbers, and I’m sure that the fans will appreciate the show.”
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