BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
Running from Saturday July 3rd to Sunday July 25th, the 2004 Tour de France will be made up of one prologue – in Belgium – and 20 stages and will cover a total distance of 3360 kilometres, says ASO, the organising company.
The route was announced today in Paris.
Leblanc is looking forward to another nail-biting contest:
"Our main concern has been to prepare the terrain so that [the contenders] are once again motivated to provide us with as fine a contest as this year. Discover the terrain; see how it has been split up; study the regulations: nothing is conventional, everything has been designed to create suspense and uncertainty.
"With a time trial by teams and adjusted time gaps, with a tight points scale for the Best Climber Rankings, we can expect constantly changing rankings and, above all, potential turnaround situations: sporting directors, you will need to be clever strategists!
"Without forgetting the question that is already on the tips of everyone’s tongues: will "He" be the first to obtain six victories?"
Clearly, one part of the race will be right up Armstrong’s rue: there’s an individual time trial on Alpe d’Huez. The 15km uphill TT is the 16th stage of the Tour and this is the first time the mountain has been used for a race against the clock.
FOR PIX AND INTERVIEWS WITH RIDERS CLICK HERE:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/…/oct24news
The Stages
0
Saturday, july 3
6 km
Liège
Prologue (TT)
1
Sunday, july 4
195 km
Liège – Charleroi
2
Monday, july 5
195 km
Charleroi – Namur
3
Tuesday, july 6
195 km
Waterloo – Wasquehal
4
Wednesday, july 7
65 km
Cambrai – Arras
(team / TT)
5
Thursday, july 8
195 km
Amiens – Chartres
6
Friday, july 9
190 km
Bonneval – Angers
7
Saturday, july 10
208 km
Châteaubriant – Saint-Brieuc
8
Sunday, july 11
172 km
Lamballe – Quimper
R
Monday, july 12
Transfert to Limoges – Rest Day
9
Tuesday, july 13
160 km
Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat – Guéret
10
Wednesday, july 14
237 km
Limoges – Saint-Flour
11
Thursday, july 15
164 km
Saint-Flour – Figeac
12
Friday, july 16
199 km
Castelsarrasin – La Mongie
13
Saturday, july 17
217 km
Lannemezan – Plateau de Beille
14
Sunday, july 18
200 km
Carcassonne – Nîmes
R
Monday, july 19
Rest Day Nîmes
15
Tuesday, july 20
179 km
Valréas – Villard-de-Lans
16
Wednesday, july 21
15 km
Bourg d’Oisans – L’Alpe d’Huez
(TT)
17
Thursday, july 22
212 km
Bourg d’Oisans – Le Grand Bornand
18
Friday, july 23
166 km
Annemasse – Lons-le-Saunier
19
Saturday, july 24
60 km
Besançon – Besançon
(TT)
20
Sunday, july 25
165 km
Montereau-Fault-Yonne – Paris Champs-Élysées
TOTAL
3 395 km
