Published on : 14/10/2021 – 13:38
The Tour de France 2022, unveiled Thursday, October 14 in Paris, includes five summit arrivals including Alpe d’Huez, on July 14. The race starts from Denmark on July 1.
After four years of absence, Alpe d’Huez will make its comeback on July 14 in the 2022 Tour de France, the day after another hellish stage at the Col du Granon. The outgoing winner, Pogacar, knows nothing about Alpe d’Huez, absent since the Tour since 2018.
A Tour de France for climbers?
The Slovenian Tadej Pogacar discovered the menu that awaits him on July 13 and 14: five non-category passes, including the Galibier climbed by its two slopes, and two final climbs that will upset the ranking established in the first ten days of the race. Will Pogacar be as cheeky as in the last edition? : ” No matter how much care you take in setting up the course, you don’t write the scenario of the Tour de France by drawing a map. “, Advances Christian Prudhomme, director of the Tour de France.
The plain stages of the first week are often punchers in the north-eastern quarter of France then in Switzerland during an incursion arriving in Lausanne, the city of the International Olympic Committee (Lausanne).
The last day in the mountains alternates classicism and novelty (18e stage). The Aubisque, by the side of Gourette, is one of the four great traditional passes of the Pyrenees, discovered in 1910. On the other hand, Spandelles, whose ascent (10.3 km at 8.3%) begins in Ferrières below du Soulor, has never been used by the Tour.
Time trial and cobblestones
On leaving the mountain, there will still be a time trial, the second of this 109th Tour, to fix the final hierarchy near the Marian shrine of Rocamadour, one of the great sites of France in the Lot, over a distance 40 kilometers, the longest in a time trial since 2014. It comes on the eve of the arrival in Paris. The next day, the riders will parade on the Champs-Elysées, a few hours after the competitors of the Tour de France women, the first edition of which was presented by its director, the former French champion Marion Rousse.
Outside the mountains, the Tour takes the risk again on the cobblestones of northern France, for the first time since 2018, during the 5e stage. From the heart of Lille to Arenberg, at the entrance of the famous “hole” (which will not be used), the course passes through eleven sectors with a total length of 19.4 kilometers. Barely less than in 2018 (21.7 km), which was the contemporary ceiling in this area since the Tour got into the habit of including this highly spectacular exercise in its program: it will be the 5th time in 13 editions. .
(with AFP)
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