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Gueugnon
225 km
Friday 9 July
This will be the longest stage in the 2010 Tour: 225 kilometres, from Loiret to Saône-et-Loire, from the Centre region to southern Bourgogne. A flat stage, with a few inclines in the landscape from time to time: a ride that should inspire fans of lengthy forays on the road to Gueugnon, a new town on the Tour.
• 3 times a stage town
• Population: 16,000
• Sub-prefecture of Loiret (45)
If Montargis has often been positioned at the very end of the route on the Tour, on account of its proximity to Paris, it has, over the last few years, seen Paris-Nice launched from the neighbouring common of Amilly and the Tour de l’Avenir from Chalette-sur-Loing. Loiret is hence emerging as a genuine launch pad to the sun for cyclists.
• Stage town for the first time
• Population: 8,300
• County town of Saône-et-Loire canton (71)
A new stage town in this year’s Tour, Gueugnon is already famous among sports fans for its football team, “les Forgerons” (the Blacksmiths). Winners of the League Cup in 2000, the club’s players owe their nickname to the famous ironworks that brought wealth to the town before the slump in the iron and steel industry. Since then, and parallel to its expertise in this domain, Gueugnon has also renewed with its rural vocation of the past at the heart of Bourgogne, home to Charolais cattle.
