In the immediate slipstream of the 2012 Tour de France route announcement came speculation that the route favors Cadel Evans and Alberto Contador.
Why? They're good all around cyclists who excel in the time trial events, and the 2012 Tour just happens to have three such races-against-the-clock events.
The Tour de France, which rolls out from June 30 to July 22, will open with a prologue and tack on an individual time trial for Stage 9 and another on Stage 19, the penultimate stage. That's 96.1km of time trials, about double the amount last year.
As for Andy Schleck, 2nd place finisher in the past three Tours, perhaps he's getting the message that he'll need spend some time in the wind tunnel to work on his form. Schleck actually lost the 2011 Tour de France to Evans because of the weakness of his time trialing abilities.
The 99th edition of the Tour de France will cover 3,479km — 2,157 miles in a clockwise rotation around France. Some other details:
Nine flat stages
4 medium mountain stages (1 summit finish)
5 high mountain stages (2 summit finishes)
In all, there will be 25 mountains to cross, including 6 in the Alps and 11 in the Pyrenees. That's two more than in 2011.
Check online for a Stage by Stage description of the Tour.
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