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2007 Tour de France Route Announced

By Jessica | Permalink | No Comments | October 29th, 2006 | Trackback

I was remiss, I now realize, in not posting this news a few days ago - the 2007 Tour route was announced on the 26th of October. The Tour route announcement is always a big deal, and this year was no different. This year, however, was notable in particular as La Grande Boucle is still in the midst of the Floyd Landis doping scandal (Landis is still fighting the allegations), and the sport as a whole is struggling to shake the lingering effects of too many scandals in general. President of ASO Patrice Clerc said, “After all that happened in 2006 we really believe cycling deserves a second chance. We think that these problems also bring a lot of hope for solving the problem of the doping in cycling. … 2007 will be a fantastic start in the great capital of London and a great expression for a renewed Tour de France.”

As Clerc said, the Tour start next year will be in London, and it will follow a clockwise direction around the country, meaning the Alps will come before the Pyrenees. The race will be 3,547km long over 20 stages, with 11 flat stages, two individual time trials and six mountain stages in all. Three of the mountain stages will feature mountaintop finishes, including the final mountain stage which finishes at the top of the Col d’Aubisque. There will also only be the standard two rest days, and the team time trial is once again absent from the route.

Though race organizers are eager to put the doping scandals - especially that of last year - behind them, the film which is shown during the presentation of the route did more than just allude to the ongoing Landis issue. From CyclingNews:

The presentation of this year’s route was not without its controversial moment, as the traditional eight-minute film that is shown during the presentation - reviewing the most recent Tour and other great moments in the race - ended with the American winner of the 2006 Tour, Floyd Landis, on the winner’s podium, but then the image then changed to become a cracked mirror.

Landis, who failed a doping test taken during this year’s Tour, was not invited to attend Thursday’s presentation. He strenuously denies the doping charge and is mounting a spirited defense. While there has been no official change to the results - as this cannot be done until the legal process involved in suspending an athlete has runs its course - it appears that ASO no longer considers him to be the champion.

The back-and-forth between Landis and UCI will no doubt continue for some time, though at least this fan hopes that the issue can be put to rest before the 2007 Tour starts on July 7 (hey, that’s 07-07-07!). I’m not optimistic about that, but one can dream, right? At any rate, details about the route, including the date of each stage and profiles of the mountain stages, can be found here.

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