2010 Tour de France Route Analysis

A Climbers Tour highlighting the French Pyrénées

By Carlos D. Coton 

11/10/2009

The Tour de France route for 2010 was announced by Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme in Paris, France, to an audience that included past winners Alberto Contador and Lance Armstrong. The three-week stage race, July 3 to 25, includes six mountain stages, with four being Pyrenean stages in the final week.

 It promises to be a tour for climbers this year in celebration of its 100 year history.  The 2010 edition of the tour will finish with four straight days in the mountains between  France and Spain, and the riders will make two ascents of the Col du Tourmalet. The final mountain stage finishes  high at the summit of the Tourmalet. In all, the course includes twenty-three categorized climbs and three mountain-top finishes, the most climbing in a Tour de France since 2005. The table compares key elements of the announced route with 2006 to 2009.

The Tour will begin in the Netherlands, will cross into Belgium, then the mandatory tour around France, of course. The tour will open with a prologue of 8 kilometers followed by treacherous cobble stone stages always proving difficult for the General Classification contenders. These will be followed by flat stages, then the sprinter’s stages as they reach the first round of the mountains. The tour will feature three Alps stages with four categorized climbs between Morzine-Avoriaz and Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne: Col de la Columbière, Col des Aravis, Col des Saisies, and Col de la Madeleine. The Col de la Madeleine climbs a lengthy 25 kilometers at an average gradient of 6.5%. This stage is not a mountain-top finish however.

There will be three transition stages between the Alps and Pyrénées. Unlike last year where the Mediterranean coast was an issue at the opening week, the 2010 Tour avoids it altogether.

The closing stages will include a total of four in the Pyrénées. The first stage includes two main cols, the Porte de Pailhères and the finishing climb to Ax-3 Domaines.  "The Pyrénées will be crucial with three consecutive stages, and the last one only four days until the end of the Tour," said Prudhomme.

The second Pyrénéen stage includes Col du Portet d’Aspet and Col des Ares. The Porte de Balès,  rises to 1755 meters over 19.2 kilometers and is the final climb of the day before the course drops  to the finish in Bagnères-de-Luchon.  From here, the tour takes off to a four-climb trek to Pau. Then the riders will climb the Col de Tourmalet, from Sainte-Marie-de-Campan by way of La Mongie, a 17.1 kilometer ascent with an average gradient of 7.4%. A rest day in Pau is the reward for completing this stage.

The climbing finale of the 2010 Tour de France finishes on the very same Col du Tourmalet. The stage begins in Pau and back-tracks. The Col de Marie-Blanque and the Col du Soulor are merely ornamental in preparation for the final climb of this year’s Tour. The Col de Marie-Blanque climbs 9.5 kilometers at 7.5%, while the Col du Soulor, by way of Ferrières, climbs 22 kilometers at 4.9%. But this is all just prelude for the grand finale. This final mountain stage climbs the Col du Tourmalet by way of Barèges and finishes at 2115 meters in elevation about 4.5 kilometer from La Mongie. At only 174 kilometers, this stage will all come down to the final climb. The race organizers are hoping that the suspense for the jersey will continue to this stage and decided here.

There will be two stages following the double whappy at the Col de Tourmalet. The one and only long time trial of 51 kilometers is the first stage and it offers contenders their last shot at the General Classification moves.

Only the final stage to Paris is left. The Tour follows tradition, and the final stage finishes with a circuit on the Champs Elysées

One missing element that has been such an attraction lately, particularly with the Armstrong led teams of Blue Train, Discovery, and Astana, is the team time trial. However, team strategy and fundamentals will be tested in the early stages and of course, the heavy climbing stages featured this year.

The 21 days of racing, with two rest days, will total 3596 kilometres. The longest stage is stage seven, Montargis to Gueugnon, 225 kilometres.

Spaniard Contador won his second Tour de France this year by 4'11" over Schleck (Saxo Bank) and 5'24" over Astana teammate Armstrong.

Stage, Date, Cities, Distance
P, July 3, Rotterdam - Rotterdam, 8km
1, July 4, Rotterdam - Bruxelles, 224km
2, July 5, Bruxelles - Spa, 192km
3, July 6, Wanze - Arenberg Porte du Hainaut, 207km
4, July 7, Cambrai - Reims, 150km
5, July 8, Épernay - Montargis, 185km
6, July 9, Montargis - Gueugnon, 225km
7, July 10, Tournus - Station des Rousses, 161km
8, July 11, Station des Rousses - Morzine-Avoriaz, 189km
R, July 12, Morzine-Avoriaz
9, July 13, Morzine-Avoriaz - Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne, 204km
10, July 14, Chambéry - Gap, 179km
11, July 15, Sisteron - Bourg-lès-Valence, 180km
12, July 16, Bourg-de-Péage - Mende, 210km
13, July 17, Rodez - Revel, 195km
14, July 18, Revel - Ax-3 Domaines, 184km
15, July 19, Pamiers - Bagnères-de-Luchon, 187km
16, July 20, Bagnères-de-Luchon - Pau, 196km
R, July 21, Pau
17, July 22, Pau - Col du Tourmalet, 174km
18, July 23, Salies-de-Béarn - Bordeaux, 190km
19, July 24, Bordeaux - Pauillac, 51km
20, July 25, Longjumeau - Paris Champs-Élysées, 105km