100% Tour de France!
Edito
The Tour of the beauties of France
The 100th Tour de France will be the Tour of the whole of France, of every kind of France, of every French people too. And while the race will not spread over the French borders, for the first time since its centenary in 2003, the event will largely extend beyond the race itself. Almost every day, an initiative, a sign of support has reached us, offering to celebrate with fondness and respect the youngest 100-year-old in the country. The course between Corsica and the Champs-Elysees will be far more than a showcase for the number one tourist destination in the world. Thanks to the images of France Televisions, it will bear witness to the love for a race which, while not a World Heritage site like the Mont St Michel or the Calanques of Piana, is still a national treasure. This Tour will be the Tour of all the beauties of France, but also the Tour of everyone involved in it. The riders of course, who will write with their sweat the 100th chapter of a long saga and will be greeted in Paris by all the Giants who showed them the way.
Local authorities as well, who host the greatest free show on the planet and will display the beauty of the Tour in an exhibition on the gates of the French Senate at the Jardin du Luxembourg. And finally spectators, who will cheer by the millions on the roadside but will also be called to ride on the course on June 15, for a Fete du Tour turning everyone into a Tour rider.
Books, stamps, coins, clothes – a whole range of souvenirs will keep memories alive and lead the Tour towards its future. The race survived all the hardships of the world and the sport. But its longevity has a simple secret: passion. And it will again be the key word between the Isle of Beauty and the most beautiful avenue in the world.
Christian Prudhomme
Director of the Tour de France
Corsica: a first for the 100th
With the Grand Depart in Corsica, the Tour de France steps straightaway into the exceptional and the historical. The wish for a Tour visit had been around for decades, the project took shape in recent years and the dream will come true this summer. All along the way, the actors of the project grew more and more enthusiastic. The hosting of the Criterium International in the past three years was a kind of dress rehearsal and the excitement shared by Corsicans, riders, organisers and television viewers led to an obvious decision – there was no alternative to Corsica as the place to kick off the 100th edition of the Tour.
The Corsicans proudly took over the preparation of the event, especially during a Night of the Tour held in the whole of the towns and villages on the island. The next step will symbolically coincide with the change to the summer time in France with the 2013 edition of the Criterium International bearing a special importance this year. Of course, Porto-Vecchio, Bastia, Ajaccio and Calvi will be later involved in the Tour Festival on June 15 (pages 8 and 9). Then, when the peloton is ready, a moving and spectacular show will take place in the blue sky of Corsica – the Patrouille de France will execute manoeuvres above the peloton mixing the colours of France and the colours of the Tour.
The highlights
Saturday March 23 and Sunday March 24: three months before the start of the Tour, Corsica welcomes the best riders in the world for the Criterium International
Saturday, June 15: Tour Festival with gran fondos for all in the towns hosting stages
Wednesday, June 26: Opening of the permanence and press centre. They will be installed for nearly a week in a Corsica Ferries ship, the Mega Smeralda. A first for the Tour
Thursday, June 27: offi cial presentation of the teams taking part in the 2013 Tour de France in Porto-Vecchio
Saturday, June 29: Tour Grand Depart and first stage between Porto-Vecchio and Bastia (213km)
A Tour de France exhibition in the Senate
To travel through time and the diverse territories of the country – it is the ambition of the exhibition devoted to the Tour de France held between Wednesday, March 27 and Saturday, July 27 at the Senate, on the gates of the Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris.
The exhibition vows to be a tribute of the Tour to the regions, departments and towns that hosted the race for so many years. While the Tour has been magnifi ed by the feats of exceptional riders for more than a century, the beauty of the setting in which it takes places, the variety of the geography allowing it to design courses beyond compare are also part of the Tour’s global appeal.
The 80 pictures that visitors, fans, passersby and tourists will discover were carefully picked from the archives of Presse Sports, the picture agency of L’Équipe, the newspaper which created the Tour.
The exhibition will be inaugurated on March 27 at 6 pm by Jean-Pierre Bel, President of the Senate, and Christian Prudhomme, Director of the Tour de France, in the presence of several personalities and sport celebrities.
Fête du Tour: everyone on his bike!
On Saturday, June 15, 2013, the Tour de France course will be ridden by all the cyclists who wish to join the Fête du Tour. Two weeks before the Grand Depart, an original program is scheduled on the whole course of the race. For once, the champions will leave the centre stage on the French roads to simple everyday cyclists, enjoying a leisurely ride on their own bicycles or hire-bikes like Paris Vélibs.
To suit every style of cyclist, gatherings and grand fondos will be held in all the towns holding stages in the 100th Tour. It will be possible for the bravest to ride on the whole of a stage course but shorter rides, from 10 to 50 km will be organised as well. There will be no competition or classifi cation. It will be a time for pleasure and conviviality.
Key points
On the 21 stages of the 2013 Tour de France, rides will be organised for riders of all levels.
Tour ambassadors will be sent on all sites for a chance to meet Bernard Hinault, Bernard Thévenet, Gilbert Duclos Lassalle…
Nice celebrates the Tour
Nice never waited for the sumer to celebrate the greatest cycling champions. Every year in Spring, the Promenade des Anglais marks the real start of the season with the fi nish of the Race to the Sun. But for this exceptional edition, the pearl of the French Riviera was invited to play a double part in the major sporting event of the sumer. First because it is in Nice that the peloton will return from Corsica to ride the fi rst continental stage of the 2013 edition. Secondly because, in the three days before the stage proper, fans will have joined in the Corsican celebration of the Tour by following the Grand Depart from a special site devoted to the event. A true summer atmosphere.
Exchange and sharing are part of the Tour heritage. Nice has the same values and will invite French and foreign tourists to bathe into … the world of the Tour. A giant screen, an exhibition village, animation stalls, games and quiz will take visitors to the very heart of the race. An eye on the Mediterranean and the Baie des Anges, the other on the shores of Corsica…
Programme of celebrations
- 4 days of continuous events and activities:
Saturday 29th June: 10 AM – 10 PM
Sunday 30th June: 10 AM - 10 PM
Monday 1st July: 10 AM - 10 PM
Tuesday 2nd July: 10 AM - 6 PM
- Saturday 29th June
The Prom Party will take place in the evening all along the Promenade des Anglais.
- Sunday 30th June
The Nice fête le Tour time-trial: 8 AM - 2 PM, on the route of the 4th stage of the Tour de France.
- Tuesday 2nd July
Tour de France team time-trial stage - Nice > Nice (25 km).
The biggest celebration of cycling
Get a big taste of Le Tour: watch the first 3 stages of the Tour de France live on the giant screen each afternoon, as well as the spectacular archives of Le Tour to celebrate its 100th edition!
Visit the activities podium: a zone at the heart of Nice fête le Tour (Nice celebrates Le Tour), open all day with shows from mountain-biking and trial champions, quizzes and competitions with many prizes to be won, as well as the chance to meet celebrities from Le Tour’s past and present.
Take part in sporting activities: children will be able to enjoy an introduction to BMX riding supervised by professionals with many different modules to try out. For all ages, spinning competitions on simulators, test tracks and out-of-the-ordinary bikes will be available for you to try out for the full duration of Nice fête le Tour. Why not also take advantage of the Le Tour Terrace, next to a boules courts set up specifically for the occasion?
Take a stroll down the aisles of the Tour Village: all the Tour de France partners will be happy to welcome you to their stands: face-painting and badges for children, animated photo studios for unique memories, product samples, sweets, gifts… just like when the sponsors’ caravan goes past! Some vehicles will even be on display on the Promenade des Anglais as a preview to the stage in Nice.
Before you leave, don’t forget to pick up your souvenir from the Official Tour Shop.
Spend a summer evening on the Promenade des Anglais: on Saturday 30th June, culture will join hands with sport, with the Prom Party as the highlight!
Individual and team time-trial
The Tour de France will celebrate its 100th edition this year. 100 editions full of victories, exploits, breakaways, extraordinary riders and sweat. Why not come and get a taste of the legend? Experience the Tour de France from the inside by testing yourself on one of its most spectacular formats: the time-trial.
Whether a club member or not, amateur or experienced rider, man or woman, this event is open to all. In the sumptuous setting of the city of Nice, you will be abe to express yourself on the route of the fourth stage of the Tour de France, totally cordonned off especially for the event, either alone or in a team of 4 to 6 riders.
On Sunday 30th June 2013, just like the professionals, roll down the official starting ramp of the Tour de France. 48 hours before the leading specialists such as Cancellara, Wiggins and Martin, you will be able to give it your best shot on a route that will start on the famous Promenade des Anglais.
Register
Date: Sunday 30 June 2013
Time: from 8am to 2pm
Registration: Thursday 11 April 2013 on
Start/finish: Nice, Promenade des anglais
For more informations: www.chronodutour.fr
Route
The Tour gran fondo
It has been a tradition since 1975. On a late July Sunday, the Champs-Elysées become the largest stadium in the world and a stage for the Tour de France champions for a spectacular and thrilling finale. Before sealing off this exceptional edition, the public will be invited to join in the show by taking part in a gran fondo on the final circuit used by the riders several hours later.
Thousands of fans, clad in yellow jerseys, are expected to celebrate the Tour and act as forerunners while enjoying a great ride in the streets of Paris.
A unique gathering
Sunday, July 21 at 14:30: 10,000 persons are expected to take part in a friendly gathering. The access to the starting area will be between 1:00 pm and 2:00 pm.
To register to La Randonnée du Tour, please click here. (Participants list)
5 € entry fee will be requested. The sums will be collected and given away to charities Mecenat Chirurgie Cardiaque and HandicapZero
The course: start and fi nish on avenue Foch, ride on the final circuit in the very historical heart of the French capital
The French Air Force in tandem with the Tour
Every year, it flies over the Champs-Élysees for the annual parade on Bastille Day. The Patrouille de France, which celebrates its 60th anniversary in 2013, is closely linked to the Tour’s 100th edition. Already present at the start from Porto-Vecchio in Corsica on June 29, it will again lead the way to the riders between Versailles and Paris on Sunday, July 21.
Composed with nine pilots on board Alpha Jets sporting the Tricolore colours and led by Commandant Raphaël Nal, the Patrouille de France, Ambassador of the unit air force, is considered one of the best aerobatic.
From Versailles to the Champs-Élysées
Since 1975, the greatest cycling race on earth has finished on the Champs-Elysées. This year, for the first time, the riders will cover the last stretch of the 100th edition in the evening. Before them, the Tour Grand Fondo will allow thousands of cyclists on their bikes, mountain bikes or Velibs to ride the streets of the French capital and be both the actors and the direct witnesses of a historical sporting moment.
The finish will take place around 9.45 pm after ten laps of the Champs-Elysees which will for the first time include a lap around the Arc de Triomphe.
Between Versailles, inside the gardens of the castle from which the start will be given at 6:30 pm, and the Champs-Elysées, the race will be followed from the air by the Patrouille de France. After the podium ceremonies, the riders will ride a lap of honour on the most beautiful avenue in the world as a prelude to a superb lightshow to be broadcast in 190 countries.
Meet the Giants
This is a world where the Belgian Herman Vrancken, the French Jean-Claude Frédéric Brun and Genty or Italian Bruno Monti, are equal to Merckx, Anquetil or Coppi. They have never won the Tour de France, or even worn the yellow jersey or won any stage. But these champions of the ordinary buckled, with their means, their ambitions and their missions, the entire route of the Tour at least once in their lives.
As such, they fall into the category of Giants Tour, conceived and designed by the journalist Serge Laget Claude Maignan and his accomplice. Each participated in its extent, writing ledger of the Tour de France.
Tribute to the contribution they have made to his adventure, a forum will be reserved on the Champs-Élysées, Sunday, July 21, to watch the arrival of the 100th Tour. With the help of the Association of Cycling chaired by Jean-Marie Leblanc, the race organizers wish to meet more than 500 Giants from France, the rest of Europe, but also North America and South or Australia.
Jean-Marie Leblanc, former director of the Tour de France: «In the very definition of the Giant of the Tour, there is something very noble, almost brotherly simply because those 3,000 riders are symbolically equals. If the Tour de France celebrates its 100th edition in 2013, it is also thanks to them. They amply deserved to be part of this great celebration.»
Giants fact file
15 000 The number of riders having started the Tour de France at least once since the fi rst edition in 1903
3 900 The number of riders having completed at least one Tour de France in their career
1 400 The number of Giants still alive, including nearly 500 French riders or former riders
France Télévisions and the 100th
Since 1903, the link between the Tour de France and the media is an unfailing one. France Televisions is the historical broadcaster of an event which could be dubbed, after a Victor Hugo masterpiece, the Legend of a century.
A hundred Tours and not a sign of disaffection from the million of spectators and television viewers who, every year in July, come to watch the riders and have a great time of simple happiness shared on the side of the road or in front of their TV sets.
France Televisions’ passion for the Tour has never ceased. Happiness, emotion, admiration, passion for all these reasons, the French public television network, in a partnership with A.S.O., has been trying to improve the technical and editorial coverage of a fabulous show which is also a chance to discover or rediscover the beauty of the landscapes and historical sites in France, and to in turn share it with millions of TV viewers in the world.
All through the years, France Televisions has kept increasing the time devoted to the Tour in its programmes on France 2 and France 3, taking it from 55 hours 20 years ago to more than 120 hours at present! The pairing formed by tour de France and France Televisions has become stronger every year at the service of a great human and sporting adventure belonging to France’s collective heritage.
Digital caravan on time for the 100th
Besides the official Tour de France digital services (www.letour.fr, phone applications, social networks) offering a look back on its mythical history and a live coverage of the 100th edition, the digital publicity caravan will be the pillar of the digital activation both for the public and the Tour de France partners.
Launched two years ago, the digital caravan provides numerous pictures, videos, games and quiz dedicated to the brands on the caravan, but also a live coverage, the history of the Tour… For the 100th edition, via the digital caravan and the social networks, it will be possible for fans to share their pictures using #TDF, #TDF100 and #TDF2013 and to find them on a giant interactive map. Everyday, the public will be asked to vote for the #fanoftheday with lots of surprise gifts to be earned… a great way be fully part of the Tour atmosphere.
The Tour on the big screen
“Tour de Force” June 12th in the French theaters.
“François is a Tour de France fanatic. Fired from his job, dumped by his wife, he sets out to do the Tour one day ahead of the pros. Alone at first, he is quickly joined by others inspired by his daring. He faces numerous obstacles, but word of his amazing tour de force quickly spreads. The media goes crazy, the public loves him… and the leader of the Tour is furious - François must be stopped!”
A film by Laurent Tuel with Clovis Cornillac, Bouli Lanners, Ary Abittan, Bruno Lochet, Élodie Bouchez, André Marcon, and the special guest appearance of Bernard Hinault, Laurent Jalabert and Nelson Monfort.
“For years, we have dreamed of making a film with the Tour de France as a backdrop. As sports fans, we are particularly fond of stories of “self-surpassing”, stories in which an ordinary individual manages to achieve something truly exceptional. Tour de Force is one of those stories.”
The producers.
A 100th edition to preserve
Like every anniversary, the 100th edition of the Tour de France is a great opportunity to offer souvenirs and remember a unique event thanks to memorabilia destined to become collector’s items. For instance, the Monnaie de Paris chose to mint eight exceptional coins to celebrate the Tour, four holding the colours of distinctive jerseys. Only 99 of the most prestigious coin issued for the occasion will be minted. The French Mail will also issue a special series of stamps to mark a milestone event in the history of sport.
100 editions are as many stories to tell and several books are reviewing the history of the race, starting with 100 days, 100 Tours published by sports daily L’Equipe’s publishing house and written by some of the best Tour experts. In English, The Official Tour de France records, published by Carlton, is a reference for all facts and figures on the Tour.
The 100th edition will also be a label worth wearing all year round. While official tee shirts will be on offer, Le Coq Sportif will unveil a special line dedicated to this edition.
The 100th Tour links up with the Foundation for Historical Monuments
2013 : France celebrates the 100th edition of the Tour… and the 100 years of the law on Historical Monuments. A fine opportunity to make the public aware of the monuments spread all around France and along the roads of the Tour.
The Foundation for Historical Monuments, under the helm of the Fondation de France, works to preserve, share, transmit and build the future of the monuments registered on the national heritage list, whether private or public, all bearing witness to the French identity.
Jersey wearers after the stage 20
- yellow jerseyWIGGINS B.SKY
- polka-dot jerseyVOECKLER T.EUC
- white jerseyVAN GARDEREN T.BMC
- the day's winnerCAVENDISH M.SKY
- teamRADIOSHACK-.RNT
- super-combativeSORENSEN C.STB
Sporting stakes
Yellow Jersey 
Green Jersey 
Red Polka Dot Jersey 
White Jersey 
Most aggressive rider 
Team classification Corporate social responsibility
Since it was founded, Amaury Sport Organisation has been involved in various sponsorship and philanthropy activities. It is the generosity of sport that can be found in a certain number of initiatives aiming to invest in the workings of the disciplines themselves (sponsorship of the French Federation of Cycling), in a humanitarian and social framework, (Mécénat Chirurgie Cardiaque, Actions Dakar, Un Techo Para Mi Pais) or in the environmental sphere (Madre De Dios, selective sorting, etc.). Read more
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