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Station des Rousses
161 km
Saturday 10 July
This is a major first for Tournus and Les Rousses that have never before played host to the Tour. After a forty kilometre flat ride, the going gets tough with an unrelenting and rising succession of mountain climbs, and notably the ascension of the southern slopes of La Croix de la Serra (1,049 m). A final 14 kilometre climb will lead to the summit finish in Les Rousses.
• Stage town for the first time
• Population: 6,100
• County town of Saône-et-Loire canton (71)
Six towns in the county of Saône-et-Loire – Bernard Thévenet and Michel Laurent are both natives of Saône-et-Loire – have welcomed the Tour, but thus far not Tournus. The Burgundy town has nevertheless already organised the start of a celebrated cycling race on a stage of last year’s Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré. A practice run that manifestly incited the Tournusiens (local inhabitants) to repeat the experience.
• Stage town for the first time
• Population: 3,000
• Winter / summer holiday resort in Jura (39)
Another major first for this stage finish in Les Rousses, a pretty village in Haut Jura that, together with three other towns in the surrounding area – Bois d’Amont, Lamoura, Prémanon – forms a family summer vacation and winter ski resort. The birthplace of skiing in France, the resort is also well known to cyclists as the climb to Les Rousses (1,140 m, level 2 or 3 climb), which leads to the Faucille pass, has been ascended more than 40 times since 1911.
