There’s no culture that loves the romantic notion of stars aligning and the beauty of fate more than the French. So when next year’s Tour de France celebrates the 100th anniversary of the introduction of the maillot jaune and it happened to fall on the same year as the 50th anniversary of Eddy Merckx’s first Tour de France victory, there seemed no better destination for the Grand Départ than Belgium.
“Brussels, capital of Belgium, capital of Europe, the city where the man who symbolises in the best possible way the yellow jersey and the Tour de France was born. The idea was perfect and we thought it was an ideal start for that year,” Christian Prudhomme enthused.
But when it comes to the seven flat sprint stages, the five medium mountain “hilly” stages and the seven mountain stages who does the 2019 course look set to suit?
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“To win you’ll need to be a climber, clearly. We say that every year of course, but we know that the all rounders are now perfectly used to mountains,” Prudhomme remarks. “One will need to be good in the mountains and be extra careful on tricky stages like those of the Massif Central. And one will also need to be good on descents. There are several sinuous descents that can play a key part in this Tour.”
We know that from recent editions the descents have been key; look back to 2016 when Froome unleashed his pedalling supertuck attack on the descent of the Col de Peyresourde, taking the stage win and the leader’s jersey that day, keeping it until Paris. There will be several downhill finishes next year and these are the stages that play into the hands of he-who-dares-wins.
In contrast to the descents, next year’s course also looks to favour riders who are adept at handling climbing at altitude, as there will be seven mountain passes over 2000m. “Some people definitely deal with altitude better than other people, especially I would say the altitude natives, people like Nairo Quintana who was obviously born at altitude and lived at altitude, that probably plays in his advantage. But I think that will be part of the preparation at this years Tour, altitude will definitely be on the cards,” Chris Froome commented after the route had been unveiled in Paris.
But there are other factors to look at as well. During the presentation Prudhomme mentioned that he has been in talks with UCI president David Lappartient regarding the removal of power meters from the race. This could be a game changer where you have the likes of Dumoulin and Froome so used to sitting at their pace on long climbs. The 33km hike up to Val Thorens on the penultimate day could be one of those moments where a contender digs too deep and loses it all.
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The first week will also provide drama with the summit finish on Planche des Belles Filles: “I’ve always enjoyed racing up there, the first summit finish of next year’s race and especially with an added kick at the end of over 20% that will be definitely interesting and should sort the boys out from the men,” Froome says. Let’s just hope that the extra kilometre of road they’ve added is tarmacked and good to go by then.
Then there are the time-trials, the 27km team time trial and 27km test around Pau that will of course go in favour of the likes of Team Sky, but for next year the time-trials aren’t as long as in previous years: “[There’s] relatively fewer time trial kilometres as well to previous editions so that’s quite different,” Chris Froome commented.
The fewer TT kilometres should favour the likes of EF Education First and Groupama-FDJ who always struggle and lose time on those stages.
Next year will see two Brits also fighting the ticking of their career clocks, as they try their hardest to put themselves into the history books. Froome is aiming to join the five Tours win club and Mark Cavendish is vying to take four more sprint wins to equal the record held by Merckx.
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“When you’ve got six or seven sprint opportunities that’s good. So I can’t really complain at that, you know. I think there’s more climbing and probably more altitude metres but it’s still probably easier than 2018,” Cavendish says with a smile.
“2018 was near on impossible to reach Paris for the sprinters. Just the position of the climbs and the layout of the stages, whereas here there is loads more climbing but there’s a better opportunity for us to work hard and get to Paris. In the end I was sick this year, but I think even if I hadn’t been, I wouldn’t have made it. So it’s quite nice next year, I’m looking forward to it,” Cavendish reflects.
Lastly it’s a case of who turns up on the 6th July. Reigning champion Geraint Thomas isn’t even sure whether he will race the Tour or not: “I wouldn’t say it’s 100%. I still need to sit down and decide and look at this and the Giro in detail and go from there.”
So who is it made for? Well, it seems like this year Prudhomme and course designer Thierry Gouvenou have tried to put a bit in for everyone. There’s high altitude, multiple sprint stages, shorter time-trial kilometres and plenty for the puncheurs.
And if the romantic gesture of planets aligning fits into play, then come the end of July next year the 100th anniversary of the maillot jaune could witness two Brits cementing their names into the history books alongside the 50th anniversary of the Cannibal’s Tour triumph.
The Tour will be raced over 3,460km over the usual 21 stages. Here is a breakdown of the race route.
2018 Tour de France
Stage 1: Saturday 6th July 2019
192 km
Brussels > Charleroi > Brussels
Stage type: sprint with some of the Belgian cobbles thrown in
Stage 2: Sunday 7th July 2019
27 km
Brussels Palais Royal > Brussels Atomium
Stage type: TTT
Stage 3: Monday 8th July 2019
214 km
Binche > Épernay
Stage type: day for the breakaway
Stage 4: Tuesday 9th July 2019
215 km
Reims > Nancy
Stage type: sprint
Stage 5: Wednesday 10th July 2019
169 km
Saint-Dié-des-Vosges > Colmar
Stage type: one for the breakaway experts
Stage 6: Thursday 11th July 2019
157 km
Mulhouse > La Planche des Belles Filles
Stage type: mountain top finish
Stage 7: Friday 12th July 2019
230 km
Belfort > Chalon-sur-Saône
Stage type: sprint
Stage 8: Saturday 13th July 2019
199 km
Mâcon > Saint-Étienne
Stage type: hilly
Stage 9: Sunday 14th July 2019
170 km
Saint-Étienne > Brioude
Stage type: hilly
Rest day: Monday 15th July 2019
Stage 10: Tuesday 16th July 2019
218 km
Saint-Flour > Albi
Stage type: sprint
Stage 11: Wednesday 17th July 2019
167 km
Albi > Toulouse
Stage type: sprint
Stage 12: Thursday 18th July 2019
202 km
Toulouse > Bagnères-de-Bigorre
Stage type: mountain with downhill finish
Stage 13: Friday 19th July 2019
27 km
Pau > Pau
Stage type: ITT
La Course will also be held on this day where the ITT course will be used as a circuit course raced by the women’s peloton over five laps. Each lap will feature two climbs.
Stage 14: Saturday 20th July 2019
117 km
Tarbes > Tourmalet
Stage type: short mountain stage
Stage 15: Sunday 21st July 2019
185 km
Limoux > Foix Prat d’Albis
Stage type: mountain stage with 4,700m of elevation
Rest day: Monday 22nd July 2019
Stage 16: Tuesday 23rd July 2019
177 km
Nîmes > Nîmes
Stage type: sprint
Stage 17: Wednesday 24th July 2019
206 km
Pont du Gard > Gap
Stage type: hilly
Stage 18: Thursday 25th July 2019
207 km
Embrun > Valloire
Stage type: mountain with long downhill finish (mountain passes: Vars, Izoard, Galibier)
Stage 19: Friday 26th July 2019
123 km
Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne > Tignes
Stage type: summit finish at Tignes (crosses the Iseran)
Stage 20: Saturday 27th July 2019
155 km
Albertville > Val Thorens
Stage type: summit finish
Stage 21: Sunday 28th July 2019
127 km
Rambouillet > Paris Champs-Élysées
Stage type: sprint
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