Tour de France 2012

30 June – 22nd July

99th Tour de France

Introduction

The Tour de France started in 1903, and is the world's biggest cycling race. It is a 23-day, 21-stage road race that is usually run over more than 3,600 km.

99th Tour de France running from Saturday 30^th June – Sunday 22nd July 2012 will be made up of 20 stages and will cover a total distance of 3,479 kilometres. These stages have the following profiles:

9 flat stages (one with summit finish), 5 mountain stages (2 with summit finish), 2 individual time-trial stage, 1 prologue and 2 rest days.

Distinctive aspects of the race

The 2012 Tour de France will have 25 mountain level two, level one or highest level mountain passes or summit finishes.
They will be divided up geographically in the following way:

1 in the Vosges

3 in the Jura

4 in the Swiss Jura

6 in the Alps

11 in the Pyrenees

Two of these stages pass close to several of the resorts offered by Peak Retreats:

Stage 11 (high mountains) – Thursday 12^th July 2012

Albertville-La Toussuire-Les Sybelles (140km)

The riders will set off from Albertville for an alpine stage with a substantial agenda. They will go over the Col de la Madeleine, the Col de la Croix de Fer and the Col du Mollard before tackling the climb towards the resort of La Toussuire. This will certainly single out the potential winners.

Resorts near to Albertville – Les Saisies and Notre-Dame de Bellecombe

Resorts close to Col de la Croix de Fer – St Jean d’Arves and St Sorlin d’Arves.

Stage 12 (medium mountains) – Friday 13^th July 2012

St Jean de Maurienne – Annonay Davezieux (220km)

Resorts close to St Jean de Maurienne – St Jean d’Arves, St Sorlin d’Arvesand Valloire.

You can view more details on the Official website: www.letour.fr

View here for a PDF high quality version of this map

'Cycling in the French Alps' from Guide publisher Cicerone is worth acquiring visit www.cicerone.co.uk