For the first time this decade, bike racing handicappers aren't pondering whether a Tour de France route helps or hurts Lance Armstrong.
The organizers of the Tour de France issued the 2006 route on Thursday, and everyone knows that seven-time Tour winner won't be among the racers. Race organizers appear satisfied with that, according to VeloNews, as the 34-year-old Texan was all but ignored in a video announcing the new route.
The 2006 Tour de France leads cyclists 2,232 miles in a counter-clockwise route around the country from July 1 to July 23. Beginning in Stasbourg, it also slides briefly into neighboring Belgium, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, and Spain before ending in Paris.
CyclingNews reports that the 93rd version of the Tour de France is “one of the hardest in recent years.” The route includes five pure mountain stages (including three mountain-top finishes), nine flat stages and two individual time trials. There is no team time trial this year.
The cyclists spend four days in the Alps this year, with climbs to mountain-top finishes at Alpe d'Huez and La Toussuire. The Tour also features two days of struggling through the Pyrenees.
OLN has scheduled a Tour de France route announcement show at 6 p.m. ET on Thursday.
Organizers report that stages will begin or end in 36 different towns. They are:
Prologue: July 1, Strasbourg;
Stage 1: July 2, Strasbourg to Strasbourg;
Stage 2: July 3, Obernai to Esch-sur-Alzette;
Stage 3: July 4, Esch-sur-Alzette to Valkenburg;
Stage 4: July 5, Huy to Saint Quentin;
Stage 5: July 6, Beauvais to Caen;
Stage 6: July 7, Lisieux to Vitre;
Stage 7: July 8, Saint Gregoire to Rennes;
Stage 8: July 9, Saint Meen le Grand to Lorient;
Rest day: July 10, Bordeaux;
Stage 9: July 11, Bordeaux to Dax;
Stage 10: July 12, Cambo les Bains to Pau (mountain stage);
Stage 11: July 13, Tarbes to Val d'Aran-Pla de Beret (mountain stage);
Stage 12: July 14, Luchon to Carcassone;
Stage 13: July 15, Beziers to Montelimar;
Stage 14: July 16, Montelimar to Gap;
Rest day: July 17, Gap;
Stage 15: July 18, Gap to L'Alpe d'Huez (mountain stage);
Stage 16: July 19, Bourg d'Oisans to La Toussuire (mountain stage);
Stage 17: July 20, Saint Jean de Maurienne to Morzine (mountain stage);
Stage 18: July 21, Morzine to Macon;
Stage 19: July 22, Le Creusot to Montceau les Mines;
Stage 20: July 23, Antony Parc de Sceaux to Paris.
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