TourDeFrance

Tour de France 2013

2013 official programme

The Official Programme

FULL STAGE MAPS + TIMES

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

Every rider and rival

Maps, itineraries, profiles and expert analysis for all 21 stages of the race

We talk to last year’s historic winner, Great Brit Sir Bradley Wiggins

Essential statistics, predictions and profiles for all the contenders

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the Jerseys Although most riders dream of the jellow jersey, it’s not the only coloured top being fought over in the Tour de France. Here are the other coveted prizes up for grabs…!

YELLOW Of course the most important contest is for the coveted yellow jersey, which is worn by the overall leader of the race – the rider who has taken the least cumulative time to complete the race after each stage. The first yellow jersey was worn by Frenchman Eugène Christophe in the 1919 Tour.

GREEN The green jersey is worn by the leader of the points competition, who is usually a sprinter.

This competition rewards the race’s most consistent finisher, based on points gained from each stage’s intermediate sprint and end-of-stage placing, rather than overall, cumulative time for the race as a whole.

White Essentially, it’s the same as the yellow jersey but for younger riders. The white jersey goes to the best young rider – aged 25 or under in the year of the Tour – who has the highest overall classification. Sometimes a rider can be wearing both the white and yellow jersey at the same time.

Polka-dot The ‘King of the Mountains’ – the race’s best climber – gets to wear the polka-dot jersey.

Points are accumulated over the summit of different categories of climb. The toughest and steepest are classified Hors Catégorie – which means Super Category – and fetch the most points. Double points are awarded for summit finishes.

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Red numbers A red race number is worn by the previous day’s most attacking rider, judged by a eight-judge panel led by Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme. At the end of the Tour, the top ‘super-combatif’ for the whole race will be chosen.

Guide

Yellow numbers and helmets The riders on the squad that heads the team classification (the team which has three riders with the lowest cumulative race time after each stage) will wear yellow numbers.

As last year, they will also be presented with yellow helmets at the start of each stage, so you can more easily keep an eye on their movements throughout the day.

The Jerseys

The 2012 jersey winners.

From left to right: Points Jersey, Peter Sagan; Yellow Jersey and overall winner Bradley Wiggins; Polka Dot King of the Mountains Jersey, Thomas Voeckler; Best Young finisher and White Jersey winner, Tejay Van Garderen

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FROOME

ROLE REVERSAL WIGGINS First and second in the 2012 Tour de France, Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome were and still are team-mates at Sky Procycling. This year, however, they are swapping roles. But pre-decided strategies don’t always work out as planned…

Writer: Jean-François Quénet Images: Tim de Waele

T

he history of cycling has shown us that every time there is a betrayal of trust, whether it’s real or perceived, the interpretations of what happened diverge.

Chris Froome’s acceleration on stage 11 of last year’s Tour, four kilometres from the finish at La Toussuire, when Bradley Wiggins already had the yellow jersey on his back, aroused all kinds of reactions. The wife and girlfriend of the protagonists threw oil on the fire by hitting out via social media. Mrs Wiggins omitted to cite Chris Froome when she mentioned her husband’s model team-mates after the race finished in Paris, arousing the anger of Miss Cound, who is the Froome’s partner. There was a veritable settling of accounts among the WAGS (wives and girlfriends)!

Froome, who was brought back into line by his directeur sportif via a message in his

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earpiece, had already relented in his effort, which had no other goal but to move him into second place overall – he had been lying third at that point, 14 seconds behind Cadel Evans and only 16 ahead of Vincenzo Nibali. By doing so he could have stepped up if any subsequent weakness had affected the former track star, whose ability to last the pace over three weeks was not then guaranteed. Gagged by Team Sky’s communications department, Froome wasn’t allowed to explain his tactical decision right away, nor to reveal what margin for manoeuvre he had been given in the team briefing that morning. On the other hand, Wiggins happily gave his version in his autobiography My Time, published in November: “It was like going to war and all of a sudden your soldiers decide to attack the enemy in an unexpected way and without following the rules of the established hierarchy… I had had enough of

Contenders

Wiggins & Froome

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It’s been a turbulent 18 months since he joined Team Sky at the start of 2012, but

MARK Cavendish has carried on winning through all the upheaval.

Now that he’s finally settling in a new team, could this be Cav’s best Tour de France yet?

Writer: Daniel Friebe Images: Tim de Waele

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Contenders

Mark Cavendish

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Tour Guide

The people, places and history of the 100th Tour de France route

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Contents 1

Corsica

Page 68

2

Nice

Page 70 3

Med to Midi

Page 72

4

Pyrenees

Page 74

5

Time trials

Page 76

6

Page 80

8 Page 82 9

Paris

Page 84

Top 10 places to watch Page 86

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The Mediterranean island will host the first three stages of the Tour. It might be the race’s first visit but that doesn’t mean it’s a stranger to Tour de France legends

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Alps

Corsica Writer: Christophe Penot Images: Offside / L’Equipe

Three sprints Ventoux

The ROUTE Corsica

C

orsican cycling fans got their first clue that the Tour de France might finally include them when, on 17th of December 2009 it was announced that the twoday Critèrium International would be held in Corsica for at least four seasons.

Those in the know realised this opened the way for the race's big sister, the Tour de France, also owned by Amaury

Sports Organisation. If the Critèrium Internationale could mange the logistics of a race on the island, then so too could the tour. After all, it's not as if Corsica has never staged a big bike race...

The Tour of Corsica has most often been an amateur race, but not always.

Established in 1920, the first title went to a local star named Napolèon Paoli. But there was even, after many interruptions and as many setbacks, the glorious

the route

Corsica

Left: Jacques Anquetil (left) and Raymond Poulidor, whose bitter rivalry was once ignited on Corsica, during the 1966 Paris-Nice race

but brief life of the professional Tour of Corsica, which ran for nine editions between 1971 and 1982.

The list of winners says it all really: Alain Santy, Miguel Maria Lasa, Michel Laurent twice, Règis Ovion, Sven-Ake Nilsson, Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle, Stephen Roche and, finally, Bernard Hinault, who finished ahead of Pascal Simon and Greg LeMond. In other words, the island’s race was firmly on the world cycling map.

Its draw is explained to an extent by Corsica's spectacularly varied geography, which is tailor made for tough cycling challenges. In every direction there are narrow roads, tight bends, short climbs and any number of tough ascents for the very best riders to show off their talents.

That was certainly the case on the 15th

March 1964, when the riders taking part in the Paris-Nice stage race came to the island. They stayed for two days, taking them to Porto Vecchio and then to Bastia.

Listed as one of the favourites, Dutchman Jan Janssen didn’t hesitate imposing his authority on the race, in spite of attempts made by Jacques Anquetil to thwart him.

But it was said that the French champion was simply biding his time for another rival and edition of the race on the island.

Two years later, in 1966, Paris-Nice visited Corsica for a third time, and it was to be a legendary vintage, particularly memorable for marking the rivalry between Anquetil and Raymond Poulidor.

It all began with a 35.7km time trial between Casta and l’Ile Rousse.

Anquetil, the five-time Tour winner, was

certainly the favourite. However, showing exceptional quality, his rival gained almost a second per kilometre on him!

In short, he delivered a resounding slap, which could be seen as nothing other than marking the start of a duel.

What followed is well remembered in the cycling world: when the race returned to France, Anquetil made a decisive attack, while poor old Poulidor, who fell right into his trap, searched in vain for riders to help him chase at the head of the peloton. “I can see that Jacques Anquetil is still the boss,” he announced in cryptic fashion. In the final standings, although beaten by 48 seconds, he still finished ahead of Vittorio Adorni, Eddy Merckx and Den Hertog – another impressive line-up of Corsica tourists.

Top: Five-times winner of the Tour de France, and winner of the last Tour of Corsica in 1982, Bernard Hinault Right: Stephen Roche won the Tour of Corsica in 1981, the year he turned professional Left: Jacques Anquetil (right) won five Tours de France, earning Raymond Poulidor the reputation of the 'eternal runner up'

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The T Giant of Provence

The ROUTE The Alps

Three sprint stages through the heart of France, will leave the riders in Lyons, ready for the next monumental day’s race to the summit of Mont Ventoux Writer: Gilles le Roch Images: Tim de Waele, Offside / L’Equipe

Main: The observatory at the summit of Ventoux can be seen from 65km away

his infamous barren, windy peak towering above southern France has been one of the Tour’s iconic locations since 1955 when, as they prepared to tackle it, rider Rapahël Geminiani warned the winner of the 1950 Tour, Switzerland’s Ferdi Kübler: “Watch out, Ferdi, this mountain is not like any other!”

“Ferdi is not a rider like any other,” the brilliant Swiss rider replied before attacking the 21km climb. On the steepest slopes, he paid for that with a memorable moment of weakness. He faded 6km before the top and was overtaken by that year's Tour winner Louison Bobet. The price paid by the Swiss, was that his Tour ended when he eventually made it to the summit.

Mont Ventoux exercises a strange fascination over the riders, who can see it from a long way off, know all about its tragic history, and are aware that their expectations can explode on any part of the climb leading

up to the observatory. While the riders follow the route via Chalet-Reynard, there are also trails along which sheep are moved from season to season, and paths of pilgrimage that lead to the chapel of Sainte-Croix.

It was 1907 before the first cyclist hauled himself him to its very pinnacle, Jacques Gabriel reaching the summit in two hours and 29 minutes. Nowadays, it takes the best climbers an hour to complete the ascent. It starts in the forest on a smooth and steady gradient, then, once past the ski station at Mont Serein, the road becomes rougher and is often exposed to a crosswind that increases the degree of suffering immeasurably.

Tour stages have crossed the summit of Ventoux six times in the race’s history and finished on its summit eight times – always providing new stories of super-human endeavour and suffering. It’s fitting then that a stage of this 100th Tour finishes on top of the Provençal peak on Bastille Day, 14 July – a day for heroics if ever there was one.

Legends of Ventoux Two kilometres metres high, and exposed to the heat and wind, Mont Ventoux has provided some of the most memorable Tour drama over the years…

Tom Simpson Legendary British cyclist Tom Simpson died of exhaustion on the mountain on the 13th stage of the 1967 Tour de France. The post mortem found alcohol and amphetamines in Simpson’s bloodstream, which is thought to have proved a lethal combination combined with a stomach complaint and the heat.

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Armstrong vs Pantani This century, the most notable Ventoux drama was the epic duel between since-disqualified Lance Armstrong and Marco Pantani in 2000.

The infamous Mistral wind gusted at 36 mph that day, and Pantani finally won the stage after Armstrong claimed he gifted the Italian the finish. The pair had blasted away from the pack with about three miles to go before Armstrong surged ahead in the final sprint. Seconds before the line, Armstrong seemed to back off and let the 1998 Tour winner take it. Pantani wasn't impressed!