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The
2008 Tour de France
This year’s Tour de France race starts from Brittany on 5th July,
drops into Italy for a couple of days’ cycling, and finishes on
the Champs-Élysées, Paris, after 21 days racing.
Note that stage 15 now starts from Embrun, not Dignes-les-Bains.
There was too great a risk of rock falls in the climb up the Col de Larche
on the original route.
Here is advice
on watching the circus by the roadside, with further advice
for mountain stage spectating.
this year’s
stages
There are 21 stages, of which five are high
mountain stages [Alps 3, Pyrenees 2], four are medium
mountain stages and two are individual
against-the-clock [contre-le-montre] time trials. There
are 2 rest days. All other
days are ‘on the plain’
- relatively flat days, almost touring through France. The total distance
ridden will be about 3,500 kilometres, or roughly 1,900 miles.
| 1 |
Brest/Plumelec
5 July [ 197.5 km] |
12 |
Lavelanet/Narbonne
17 July [168 km] |
| 2 |
Auray/Saint-Brieuc
6 July [164.5 km]Le Tour 2007 - shadowed by doping |
13 |
Narbonne/Nimes
18 July [182 km] |
| 3 |
Saint-Malo/Nantes
7 July [208 km] |
14 |
Nimes/Dignes-les-Bains
19 July [182 km] |
| 4 |
Cholet/Cholet
8 July [29.5 km]
individual time-trial |
15 |
Embrun/Prato Nevoso
(France-Italy)
20 July [185/216? km] |
| 5 |
Cholet/Châteauroux
9 July [232 km] |
R |
21 July - rest day
Cuneo |
| 6 |
Aigurande/Super-Besse
10 July [195.5 km] |
16 |
Cuneo/Jausiers
(Italy-France)
22 July [157 km] |
| 7 |
Brioude/Aurillac
11 July [159 km] |
17 |
Embrun/L'Alpe-d'Huez
23 July [210 km] |
| 8 |
Figeac/Toulouse
12 July [172.5 km] |
18 |
Bourg-d'Oisans/Saint-Étienne
24 July [197 km] |
| 9 |
Toulouse/Bagnères-de-Bigorre
13 July [224 km] |
19 |
Roanne/Montluçon
25 July [163 km] |
| 10 |
Pau/Hautacam
14 July [156 km] |
19 |
Cérilly/Saint-Amand-Montrond
26 July [53 km]
individual time-trial |
| R |
15 July - rest day
Pau |
20 |
Étampes/Paris
Champs-Élysées
27 July [143 km] |
| 11 |
Lannemezan/Foix
16 July [166 km] |
Detailed
itineraries for the 2008 Tour de France stages |
the teams
| The twenty teams that have been invited to participate
in this year’s Grand Boucle [Great Loop] are: |
| |
BELGIUM
Quickstep (QST)
Silence - Lotto (SIL)
DENMARK
Team CSC (CSC)
- FRANCE
Bouygues Telecom (BTL)
Credit Agricole (C.A)
Cofidis Le crédit par
- téléphone (COF)
- Française Des Jeux (FDJ)
AG2R - La Mondiale
-
- (ALM)
- Agritubel (AGR)
|
GERMANY
Gerolsteiner (GST)
Team Milram (MRM)
GREAT BRITAIN
Barloworld (BAR)
ITALY
Lampre (LAM)
Liquigas (LIQ)
NETHERLANDS
Rabobank (RAB) |
SPAIN
Caisse d’Epargne (GCE)
Euskaltel - Euskadi (EUS)
Saunier Duval - Scott (SDV)
- USA
High Road (THR)
Slipstream Chipotle (TSL)
|
the prizes
To be verified when 2008 details available.
- The winner of a day’s stage wins 8,000 euro
- The yellow jersey winner - fastest time
overall in the general time classification: 450,000 euro
- The green jersey winner - winning
the most points. Points are given to winners of intermediate and final
sprint on each stage: 25,000 euro
- The spotted jersey winner - best mountain
climber, winning mountain points when going over summits and intermediate
difficulties: 25,000 euro
- The white jersey winner - best under 25
y.o. in the general time classification: 20,000 euro.
- Combativity prize - chosen by a specialist cycling jury: 20,000 euro
- Best team by time - lowest time after adding together the times of
the three best members of each team at each stage: 50,000 euro.]
- For the mountain stages, if the last climb
is classed as 2nd or 1st difficulty, or out of classification [hors
catégorie] the points for that last ascent are doubled.
- For every stage except the individual against-the-clocks, the three
first riders of the intermediary sprints gain 6,4 and 2 seconds respectively,
while the first three arrivals for each stage gain 20,12 and 8 seconds
respectively. [There are three intermediate sprints on flat stages,
2 sprints on other stages.]
last
year (2007): the first thirty riders
| Pos. |
N° |
Name |
First name |
Team |
Nat. |
Time diff. |
| 1 |
112 |
CONTADOR |
Alberto |
DSC |
ESP |
91h 00' 26" |
| 2 |
041 |
EVANS |
Cadel |
PRL |
AUS |
91h 00' 49" |
| 3 |
111 |
LEIPHEIMER |
Levi |
DSC |
USA |
91h 00' 57" |
| 4 |
031 |
SASTRE |
Carlos |
CSC |
ESP |
91h 07' 34" |
| 5 |
071 |
ZUBELDIA |
Haimar |
EUS |
ESP |
91h 08' 43" |
| 6 |
018 |
VALVERDE |
Alejandro |
GCE |
ESP |
91h 12' 03" |
| 7 |
027 |
KIRCHEN |
Kim |
TMO |
LUX |
91h 12' 44" |
| 8 |
118 |
POPOVYCH |
Yaroslav |
DSC |
UKR |
91h 12' 51" |
| 9 |
073 |
ASTRARLOZA |
Mikel |
EUS |
ESP |
91h 14' 40" |
| 10 |
011 |
PEREIRO SIO |
Oscar |
GCE |
ESP |
91h 14' 51" |
| 11 |
219 |
SOLER HERNANDEZ |
Juan Maurico |
BAR |
COL |
91h 17' 17" |
| 12 |
052 |
BOOGERD |
Michael |
RAB |
NED |
91h 21' 41" |
| 13 |
012 |
ARROYO |
David |
GCE |
ESP |
91h 22' 15" |
| 14 |
015 |
KARPETS |
Vladimir |
GCE |
RUS |
91h 24' 41" |
| 15 |
44 |
HORNER |
Christopher |
PDL |
USA |
91h 25' 45" |
| 16 |
207 |
MAYO |
Iban |
SDV |
ESP |
91h 27' 35" |
| 17 |
036 |
SCHLECK |
Frank |
CSC |
LUX |
91h 32' 14" |
| 18 |
153 |
BELTRANI |
Manuel |
LIQ |
ESP |
91h 34' 40" |
| 19 |
088 |
VALJAVEC |
Tadej |
LAM |
SLO |
91h 37' 34" |
| 20 |
204 |
COBO ACEBO |
Juan Jose |
SDV |
ESP |
91h 37' 40" |
| 21 |
174 |
GARATE |
Juan Manuel |
QSI |
ESP |
91h 38' 42" |
| 22 |
014 |
GUTIERREZ |
José Ivan |
GCE |
ESP |
91h 46' 08" |
| 23 |
078 |
TXURRUKA |
Amets |
EUS |
ESP |
91h 50' 00" |
| 24 |
114 |
HINCAPIE |
George |
DSC |
USA |
91h 55' 16" |
| 25 |
037 |
VANDEVELDE |
Christian |
CSC |
USA |
91h 56' 16" |
| 26 |
106 |
FOFONOV |
Dmitriy |
C.A |
KAZ |
91h 56' 49" |
| 27 |
068 |
GOUBERT |
Stephane |
A2R |
FRA |
92h 06' 56" |
| 28 |
038 |
VOIGT |
Jens |
CSC |
GER |
92h 08' 48" |
| 29 |
089 |
VILA ERRANDONEA |
Patxi |
LAM |
ESP |
92h 10' 03" |
| 30 |
107 |
HALGAND |
Patrice |
C.A |
FRA |
92h 13' 11" |
The
final day, by Xavier:
The last stage, on the final Sunday, is a stage of
two, three, or is it four parts?
First comes a jolly afternoon ride
through French countryside. Arch Tour rivals start to chatter, teams ride
in formation - not in Indian file - but as a most un-aerodynamic array,
in line across the road. The whole peleton is together - no break-aways,
no competition, after all this is a travelling party celebrating a job
well done. The team director will crack open a bottle or two of bubbly,
and everyone will be toasting each other as they ride along. Even TV motorcyclists
will join in, particularly the past spotty jersey multi-winner, now reporter
- Laurent Jalabert : JaJa the Panda.
This socialising and partying continues
as the peleton enters into Paris. Landmarks start to be recognisable,
is that the TV Channel 2 building going past, the Eiffel Tower? Now, the
champagne flutes are returned to the team cars and the riders start to
settle down to the work of the last day. Up and down the cobbled Champs
d’Elysée they go, round the Arch de Triumph and down the
other end, to go round the obelisk in the Place de la Concorde, past the
seried lines of Norbert
Dentressangle trucks, transporting the Tour -
Norbert!
The tension starts to build as
each of the eight or ten laps are made, and then it happens. The final
lap has been made and.... pow, they’re off for the final crazy dash,
the sprint to the finish that will determine the overall winners of the
stage, the green points jersey and, maybe one day, the overall winner
of this year’s Tour de France.
The last evolution of the day is
the final podium. Bouquets are held high, while the attendant colour-coordinated
girls appear to be sniffing the cyclists’ underarms, much shaking
of hands with public worthies, bestowing of medals, national anthems,
the now traditional display by the winning cyclists of their very sweet
young children, suitably dressed in green, or red and white, or yellow
cycling grab.
Some history
The first Tour de France took place in 1903, with a first stage from
Montgeron to Lyon, lasting an overwhelming 467 kilometres. There were
six stages. The first Tour was 2,428 kilometers long and the prize was
6,075 francs.
watching TDF broadcasts
Note that this section will be updated nearer the start
of the 2008 Tour de France, when current information is available.
For 2007, there was over a hundred hours of live broadcasting on France
2 and France 3. TV production is made using cameras on five motorbikes
and two helicopters, with ten fixed cameras at each stage arrival.
In Europe, as well as the French coverage, Eurosport provides live broadcasts.
Update: Eurosport coverage is often ‘disintergrating’
into broadcasts of conversations between the studio commentators. France
2 (switching sometimes to France 3) shows the day’s stage from about
14:30 onwards [2.30 p.m. - 1 hour ahead of UK time, 2 hours ahead of UT/GMT]
.
In the USA, Versus
carried daily coverage from various times, the earliest being 06:30 EDT
and the latest from 09:30 to 11:30 EDT. There will be several daily repeats
during primetime throughout the competition. [The Versus link above is
to their TDF schedules page.]
As well as the traditional 625-line broadcasts, from 2007, there will
also be broadcasts in Full HD (High Definition - 1080 lines) for those
who have the new HD televisions ( HD Ready televisions - 720 lines -can
also benefit from the better image quality). However,
the HD broadcasts will only be available to viewers in France using the
TNT system, those with a broadband [ADSL] HD subscription or those subscribing
to Canal Satellite.
The Tour de France website, www.letour.fr,
combined with YouTube to provide selected web-broadcasts from the Tour
de France.
Update: So far, they only have advertising,
preview and interview clips.
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