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Bordeaux
190 km
Friday 23 July
This stage through the pine-woods of Les Landes will be run on the day after the Tourmalet, following the Tour’s centenary celebrations of its first foray into the Pyrenees, and before the time-trial test. Bordeaux, which will receive the Tour for the 80th time – the highest record after Paris – should see flatland specialists living up to tradition and showing off their skills at this sprinters’ finish by the river in Quinconces Square.
• Once a stage town
• Population: 5,000
• County town of Pyrénées-Atlantiques canton (64)
A thermal spa, city of salt, laboured for more than 3,500 years, Salies-de-Béarn has not been visited by the Tour since 1939. That year, it was world title holder, Marcel Kint, who triumphed in this picturesque little town with its sloping roofs. The Belgian rider clinched the fifth of his six Tour stage wins here. The Black Eagle, as he was called, went on to win Paris-Roubaix and Gand-Wevelgem and was a triple winner of the Flèche Wallonne. He also formed a remarkable duo with Rik Van Steenbergen in the Six Jours race.
• 79 times a stage town
• Population: 236,000
• Capital of the Aquitaine Region and Prefecture of Gironde (33)
Bordeaux is the most visited city on the Tour, after Paris, and race sprinters, who have often won here during the 79 stage finishes hosted here since 1903, will be content. Van Looy, Darrigade, Godefroot, Maertens, Van Poppel and Zabel: the finest specialists have triumphed at the Lescure Velodrome or on the banks of the river. Evidently, in 2010, British and American fans will be hoping to see Mark Cavendish or Tyler Farrar follow in the footsteps of Barry Hoban and Davis Phinney, the only British and American riders to have won in Bordeaux.
