Tour de France

If you’re missing the Tour de France already, imagine what it’s like for the riders. Maybe the last three weeks saw you adjust your routine around TV broadcasts, your reading habits changed and even colleagues at work might have talked cycling.

But for the last three weeks the riders in the bunch things were even more different. They awoke to find breakfast waiting for them. They emerged from their hotels to find people asking for autographs. They pedalled past an estimated 12 million people who waited to applaud them. They crossed the finish line to find journalists ready to interview them. They found team helpers on hand to feed them, provide fresh clothes and even give them a massage. It wasn’t easy but all they had to do was race.

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Ah Paris! After three weeks of racing around rural France today’s stage is an urban criterium. The start is in Créteil, a boring suburb of Paris full of ugly tower blocks and a contrast to the elegant finishing circuit in Paris that borrows some of the most upmarket roads in the world, in particular the Champs Elysées and Rue de Rivoli.

Before the stage the riders get a transfer by plane thanks to a new sponsorship deal with Qatar Airways and they will be ferried from Paris’s Orly airport to the start zone by a fleet of coaches laid on by the organisers.

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After three weeks of uphill sprints and summit finishes this the only individual time trial with the start and finish in Grenoble. A student town with some high tech industries in the valleys near by it is surrounded by high mountains. There’s even a cable car from the town centre to the Bastille fort that sits high on the Chartreuse cliffs above. But the place has its ugly sides too, it’s quite the idyllic tourist destination and more a useful crossroads on the edge of the Alps.

If the 2011 Tour de France has the least amount amount of solo time trials for many years, the course today is a decisive test to settle the result of the race. The course is demanding and suits all-round riders. There’s no serious climb but it features gradients and descents, curves and a variety of roads.

If it’s familiar it’s because it was used in the Critérium du Dauphiné stage race in June. Also organised by ASO the Dauphiné was a dress rehearsal and also a clever move from the race organisers to attract some bigger name riders. Tony Martin won.

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There’s another chance to win one of the Rothera Cycling caps on Stage 19.

This time predict the time of the winner on Stage 19, as in how many hours and minutes and even seconds it will take them. The closest guess wins.

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Alpe d’Huez lies at 1860m and enjoys 300 days of sunshine a year, impressive for the Alps. On a good today there are stunning views of surrounding mountains but today every rider who reaches the resort can expect to see the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

Race organiser Christian Prudhomme probably couldn’t imagine a scenario like this. A Frenchman in yellow, several contenders still able to win the race, all on the last mountain stage of the race.

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Big, grande, enorme. Call it what you like, this is the biggest stage of the 2011 Tour de France. It might not settle the result, far from it, but three hors catégorie climbs including the finish in the Galibier mean it’s a massive day in the race. The French call it the Etape Reine, literally the “Queen Stage”.

Today’s stage from Pinerolo to the Galibier crosses back to France. Ignore the “Serre Chevalier” name since the ski resort is actually a good distance from the finish, it reminds me of the low-cost airlines in Europe that claim to fly to a capital city but land in a provincial airport far from the stated destination.

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