News: Route for Tour de France 2021

Scheduled to start on the 26th of June, the 2021 Tour de France will see three summit finishes, two time trials, twice up Mont Ventoux and more.

News: Route for Tour de France 2021

The route of the 2021 Tour de France, which is due to run from 26 June to 18 July, was presented on the set of France Télévisions’ Stade 2 weekly programme today. After the Grand Départ in Copenhagen and Denmark had to be postponed to the following edition, this time the show will get on the road in Brittany with four stages tailored to punchers and sprinters.

2020 winner Tadej Pogačar reflected on his first glance of the new route: “It’s an interesting route. It’s more of a classic Tour de France route than the last few years. The first week in Bretagne should be exciting with the chance of crosswinds and bad weather and then the time trial, which hopefully should suit me well. Then it heads to the Alps where they’ll be very tough stages – Mont Ventoux twice in one day will be a legendary stage. A couple of days have more than 4’500 metres of climbing so there will be some very hard days. The stages in the Pyrenees suit me well also, and I know those roads also from the Vuelta last year. There are just 3 mountain top finishes. Ideally I would have liked a few more, but regardless I expect exciting racing as always at the Tour.”

The 2021 route has been fine-tuned to keep the suspense going until the end. Climbers will get three opportunities to gain time on summit finishes (Tignes, Saint-Lary-Soulan Col du Portet and Luz Ardiden), but riders will also have to make use of their descending skills to win in Le Grand Bornand, at the foot of a “revamped” Ventoux and in Andorra. The addition of two individual time trials with a combined length of 58 kilometres will also be a decisive factor in the strategies of the riders.

The 108th Tour de France will feature a groundbreaking route with a double serving of double trouble. Contenders for the overall victory will have to be on high alert from the get-go, lest they choke on the two climbs up the Mûr-de-Bretagne, which will be tackled from a different side in the stage 2 finale. Ten days later, they will have to make another show of strength on the slopes of the Mont Ventoux. The Giant of Provence, which is making its first double appearance in a stage, will be tackled from two different sides before plunging down to Malaucène. In between these two key dates, the riders will have already faced new challenges, including four stages in the four departments that make up Brittany —from Brest to Fougères— riddled with hazards such as coastal winds and the hills of the Armorican Massif. The Signal d’Uchon, a recently discovered climb in the Morvan, will decide the stage to Le Creusot in its first appearance in the race.

The return of the first-week individual time trial will provide an early indication of the pecking order, which the climbers will do their best to shake up in the two gruelling Alpine stages finishing in Le Grand Bornand and on the heights of Tignes, just before the first rest day.

After that, the Pyrenees will dispel any remaining doubts in five action-packed duels in the high mountains, combining the brand-new, spectacular Col de Saint-Louis on the road to Quillan with absolute classics like the Peyresourde – Val Louron-Azet – Col du Portet and Tourmalet – Luz Ardiden sequences. It will be do or die for the kings of the mountains, who will have to grab every second they can if they are to fend off the toughest power riders in the 31 km romp through the vineyards of Saint-Émilion on the eve of the finish on the Champs-Élysées.

While the destiny of the yellow jersey will probably be decided in south-western France, the fight for the green jersey will take place all over the country, with no fewer than seven stages likely to fall to the sprinters as long as their teammates can keep any breakaways on a tight leash. Stage hunters will also get numerous opportunities to thwart the peloton.

Tom Steels (Deceuninck – Quick-Step sports director): “The start of the race will sure be an exciting one, with some stages suited to Julian and others where we could be in for strong echelons. Looking over the whole parcours, we can notice there will be plenty of opportunities to show ourselves, and this is without taking into account the numerous sprint stages”, said Deceuninck – Quick-Step sports director Tom Steels. “Even for the time trials we have guys capable of getting good results. The Mont Ventoux stage and the ones where we’ll go over 2000 meters promise to be very demanding and should play an important role in the final outcome. Overall, it’s a route we like very much.”

Wout van Aert: The start of the Tour de France will be different compared to the first week of the this years Tour. In the first week, you can’t win much on GC, but you can lose a lot. That will be interesting and maybe cause some stress in the peloton.

WOMEN’S LA COURSE BY LE TOUR DE FRANCE TO TACKLE THE MÛR-DE-BRETAGNE
Since 2014, the women’s peloton has raced on the Champs-Élysées, tamed the Col d’Izoard and gone head to head in a circuit race at the foot of the Pyrenees. The eighth edition of the race will take the riders to Mûr-de-Bretagne, a hallowed site of cycling that has come to be known as “the Breton Alpe d’Huez”. While the men will face a double serving of the climb in the finale of stage 2, the ladies will tackle it no fewer than six times on 27 June 2021. The course is about 130 km long and consists of five laps of a circuit to be completed before the finish. Each lap will be another turn of the screw!

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MEN’S TOUR DE FRANCE

1 – Hilly Sat 06/26 — Brest > Landerneau 187 km
2 – Hilly Sun 06/27 — Perros-Guirec > Mûr-de-Bretagne Guerlédan 182 km
3 – Flat Mon 06/28 — Lorient > Pontivy 182 km
4 – Flat Tue 06/29 — Redon > Fougères 152 km
5 – Individual time-trial Wed 06/30 — Changé > Laval Espace Mayenne 27 km
6 – Flat Thu 07/01 — Tours > Châteauroux 144 km
7 – Hilly Fri 07/02 — Vierzon > Le Creusot 248 km
8 – Mountain Sat 07/03 — Oyonnax > Le Grand-Bornand 151 km
9 – Mountain Sun 07/04 — Cluses > Tignes 145 km
– – Rest Day Mon 07/05 — Tignes
10 – Flat Tue 07/06 — Albertville > Valence 186 km
11 – Mountain Wed 07/07 — Sorgues > Malaucène 199 km
12 – Flat Thu 07/08 — Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux > Nîmes 161 km
13 – Flat Fri 07/09 — Nîmes > Carcassonne 220 km
14 – Hilly Sat 07/10 — Carcassonne > Quillan 184 km
15 – Mountain Sun 07/11 — Céret > Andorre-la-Vieille 192 km
– – Rest Day Mon 07/12 — Andorre
16 – Hilly Tue 07/13 — Pas de la Case > Saint-Gaudens 169 km
17 – Mountain Wed 07/14 — Muret > Saint-Lary-Soulan Col du Portet 178 km
18 – Mountain Thu 07/15 — Pau > Luz Ardiden 130 km
19 – Flat Fri 07/16 — Mourenx > Libourne 203 km
20 – Individual time-trial Sat 07/17 — Libourne > Saint-Emilion 31 km
21 – Flat Sun 07/18 — Chatou > Paris Champs-Élysées 112 km

OVERALL STAGE SUMMARY
8 flat stages
5 hilly stages
6 mountain stages with 3 finishes at altitude (Tignes, Saint-Lary-Soulan col du Portet, Luz Ardiden)
2 individual time-trial stages
2 rest days
Stage 8 Vierzon > Le Creusot, 248 kms, will be the longest of the Tour since 2000 (Belfort > Troyes, 254,5 kms)

TIME-TRIAL
In 2021, there will be two individual timetrial stages which hadn’t occurred since 2017. Their total distance will be 58 kms, 27 kms between Changé and Laval Espace Mayenne on stage 5 and 31 kms between Libourne and Saint-Émilion on the occasion of stage 20.

MOUNTAIN RANGES
The Armorican mountains will get the ball rolling as soon as the Grand Départ in Brittany. Will then follow: the Massif Central, the Alps and the Pyrenees. There will also be a first ever climb in the Morvan, le Signal d’Uchon.

BONUS SECONDS
They will distributed at the finish of each normal stage allowing the first three riders to gain 10, 6 and 4 seconds.

BONUS POINTS
They will be given at the summits of the 6 following climbs situated at strategic places of the course and will allow the first three riders to gain 8, 5 and 2 seconds (under the approval of the Union cycliste internationale).
Stage 2: Mûr-de-Bretagne, first passage
Stage 7: Signal d’Uchon
Stage 8: Col de la Colombière
Stage 11: Mont Ventoux, second passage
Stage 14: Col de Saint-Louis
Stage 15: Col de Beixalis
These bonus points will have no incidence on the points classification.