Shift the lines

It is with the same desire to vary the difficulties, scatter the opportunities and multiply the strategic options that the course of the 2015 Tour de France was designed. To experience a new balance, we have again put into question the concept of one “grand rendez-vous”, because indeed the Tour potentially plans them every day for the champions. Based on that, on over 3,000 kilometres of the course, only fourteen will be dedicated to an individual time-trial as soon as day one in the streets of Utrecht. And it appears that for this sixth Grand Départ in the Netherlands, the battle will rapidly be intense on extremely open terrain. After the opening time-trial, ten days on fairly flat road and ten others in the mountains will remain. But based on such a canvas, we really wanted to shift the lines: with the wind blowing through the Zeeland Delta or across the cliffs of Seine-Maritime, with the steep climb that will hurt the legs up the Mur de Huy, the cobbled portions before the finish in Cambrai, the instructive test of Mûr de Bretagne or the unusual team effort in Plumelec, the first chapter of the race will not only concern the sprinters.

The next sequence will allow climbers keen to attack to make a difference. Whether it is to reverse the trend or consolidate a position, the mountain stages were, for most of them, designed on dynamic formats to reward initiatives. The innovative finish at La Pierre-Saint-Martin or the selective climb to the Plateau de Beille will be among the highlights of the visit to the Pyrenees.
The west to east course heading to the Alps could also trouble the hierarchy, especially on the demanding finish at the Mende airfield.
Further developments can be imagined on the final part of the event in the Alps including four grueling and consecutive episodes of high intensity: at Pra-Loup, at Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne, at La Toussuire and finally at l'Alpe-d'Huez on the eve of the finish for the very first time. A big bang, revenge, setbacks or hold-ups can be expected. Enough to endlessly talk about and debate on who will finish on the next podium on the Champs-Élysées.

Christian Prudhomme
Director of the Tour de France