2015 Tour de France route unveiled
The route for the 2015 Tour de France has been unveiled in Paris this morning. The likes of Vincenzo Nibali, Mark Cavendish, Thibaut Pinot and UCI President Brian Cookson were all present to witness Tour director Christian Prudhomme reveal the mountain-heavy, climber friendly route.
Although the race will start with a 14 kilometre time trial around the streets of Utrecht in the Netherlands, this is the only individual test of the Tour, immediately putting Chris Froome at a disadvantage. Stage two will be for the sprinters, but stage three goes up the formidable Mur de Huy, a stage for Peter Sagan or maybe Philippe Gilbert.
Stage four brings a return to the cobbles as the race heads to Cambrai, before a few sprinter-friendly stages until stage nine, which should bring the next general classification shake up. It's a 28 kilometre team time trial, in the last test against the clock of the 2015 Tour.
The mountains in 2015 start on stage ten after the first rest day, with three Pyrennean mountain stages awaiting the peloton. The race will climb the historic Col du Tourmalet, and a stage will also finish at the Plateau de Beille, which will pay tribute to the late Fabio Casartelli.
The Tour will then use transition stages to get to the Alps, which start on stage seventeen to Pra Loup. The stage features a tricky descent off the Col d'Allos which will favour The Shark Vincenzo Nibali. Stage eighteen features the short 18-hairpin Lacets de Montvernier climb before the longer tests and finishing in Saint Jean de Maurienne.
Stages nineteen and twenty are short and sharp, with nineteen featuring the Glandon and Croix de Fer, and with twenty finishing atop L'Alpe d'Huez. The race will once again finish on the Champs Elysees, but Prudhomme has vowed the race will visit the Eiffel Tower beforehand.
Time bonuses will be making a comeback, with 10, 6 and 4 seconds being available for the first three finishers on each stage. The total distance will be 3350 kilometres. It is sure to favour the climbers with the limited time trials, but the cobblestone stage and the finish up the Mur de Huy are sure to add unpredictability to the 102nd Tour de France.