News Article -- October 26, 2006
‘Balanced’ 2007 Tour Route Unveiled
Carlos Sastre will be CSC's top man in the 2007 Tour.
For the second year in a row, the team time trial discipline will be left out of the Tour route as race organizers instead chose a traditional mix of mountains and time trials with the hopes of repeating last year’s nail-biting finish.
“It’s very similar to last year’s course. There were a lot of yellow jersey candidates last year and it looks like it could happen again next year,” said Team CSC sport director Alain Gallopin.
With an exciting start in London on July 7 and the traditional finish on the Champs Elysées on July 29, the 94th grand boucle provides a few new twists to keep the fans happy.
The route will include a summit finish atop the Col d’Aubisque in Stage 16 in the heart of the Pyrenees for the first time since 1985 as well as the colorful prologue in starting in Trafalgar Square, the first time the Tour has started in England.
The 3,547-kilometer route starts on the streets of London with an eight-kilometer prologue in what’s sure to provide Team CSC’s Fabian Cancellara and David Zabriskie a chance to grab the yellow jersey.
After a flat stage across southern England, the Tour crosses the English Channel and nudges into Belgium for two stages and continues pushing clockwise into France toward three climbing stages in the Alps.
The first hard climbing stage comes in the 197-kilometer Stage 7, which includes four climbs, capped by the difficult 16-kilometer descent off the Col de la Colombiere.
The Tour’s first of three summit finishes comes the next day in a classic route across the Alps, with five passes culminating on the climbing finish to the French ski area at Tignes. A rest day is sandwiched in between the final of three days in the Alps that hits the legendary climbs at Telegraphe and Galibier en route to Briancon.
The first time trial doesn’t arrive until Stage 13 in Albi, quickly followed by three decisive climbing stages in the Pyrenees.
The grueling Stage 14 – the second of three summit finishes – tackles the narrow Col de Pailheres before the 15.9-kilometer “beyond category” climb to Plateau de Beille. That’s followed by another rollercoaster across the Pyrenees and the second rest day.
Four demanding climbs are on tap in the 218-kilometer Stage 16, including the Col de Marie Blanque before the 16.4-kilometer climb to Col d’Aubisque, one of the Tour’s legendary climbs.
The final time trial on the Tour’s penultimate stage in Angouleme will clear up any unsettled business in the overall standings before a long transfer to Paris for the traditional finale on the Champs Elysées.
In all, there are six mountain stages with three grueling summit finishes, two individual time trials, 11 flat transition stages, two rest days and the opening prologue.
Team CSC will be looking to Carlos Sastre to be among the best to challenge for overall victory for the Tour with 2006 Alpe d’Huez stage-winner Fränk Schleck playing the role of the outsider.
“Our team will be able to count on Cancellara or Zabriskie to contest the yellow jersey in the prologue, with Sastre fighting for the overall standings with Schleck, who’s already shown this year he’s possible to be among the top five,” Gallopin said. “Sastre is just behind the top favorites for overall victory. Which? Basso, if he can race, Vinokourov and Kloeden, with Sastre and Valverde just behind them.”
Sastre finished fourth overall last year and will enter the 2007 season as the team’s outright leader. Besides Gallopin, no other Team CSC riders or staff appeared at the unveiling ceremony in Paris on Thursday.
Riders and staff are enjoying a well-deserved break after a long and successful 2006 campaign. Vacations continue through November and Team CSC reconvenes in December when it travels to South Africa for its annual team-building camp.
Stages for the 2007 Tour de France:
July 7, prologue: London-London, 8km (individual time trial)
July 8, Stage 1: London to Canterbury, England, 203km
July 9, Stage 2: Dunkirk to Ghent, Belgium, 167km
July 10, Stage 3: Waregem, Belgium to Compiegne, France, 236km
July 11, Stage 4: Villers-Cotterets to Joigny, 190km
July 12, Stage 5: Chablis to Autun, 184km
July 13, Stage 6: Semur-en-Auxois to Bourg-en-Bresse, 200km
July 14, Stage 7: Bourg-en-Bresse to Le Grand-Bornand, 197km (mountain stage)
July 15, Stage 8: Le Grand-Bornand to Tignes, 165km (summit finish)
July 16 – first rest day
July 17, Stage 9: Val d’Isere to Briancon, 161km (mountain stage)
July 18, Stage 10: Tallard to Marseille, 229km
July 19, Stage 11: Marseille to Montpellier, 180km
July 20, Stage 12: Montpellier to Castres, 179km
July 21, Stage 13: Albi to Albi, 54km (individual time trial)