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Cobbles, gravel and the return of Alpe d'Huez – 'ultra-dynamic' Tour de France route is revealed in Paris

The route for next year's Tour de France was announced in Paris on Tuesday - AFP
The route for next year's Tour de France was announced in Paris on Tuesday - AFP

An “ultra-dynamic” 2018 Tour de France route has been announced at the Palais des Congres in Paris, the highlights of which are a return to the Roubaix cobblestones, a summit finish on Alpe d’Huez and the shortest stage in recent memory; a 65km hop from Bagnères-de-Luchon to the Col de Portet (alt 2,215m) in the Pyrenees.

The entire route comprises barely 3,300km, with organisers declaring their intention being to “provide a vision of modern and inspired cycling”.

The 105th edition of La Grande Boucle, which will be held from July 7-29 2018, will see Chris Froome attempt to win his fifth Tour crown and so draw level with Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Benard Hinault and Miguel Indurain as the joint most successful rider in the history of the race, discounting Lance Armstrong who was stripped of all seven of his Tour titles for doping.

To triumph, Froome will have to contend with the cobblestones of northern France again. It was approaching the pavé that the Team Sky leader famously crashed twice in foul weather in 2014, fracturing his wrist. That edition was the only one out of the last five that Froome has not won.

A reduced peloton of 176 riders (each team will be allowed eight rather than nine riders next year, in an attempt to make it less easy to control the race) will start in the Vendée region on the west coast of France, take on a team time trial in Cholet on stage three, then head up to Brittany where they will tackle the Mûr de Bretagne twice in one day on stage six on July 12.

Tour de France riders - Credit: Getty Images
All of the favourites were in Paris for Tuesday's big reveal Credit: Getty Images

The peloton then heads over to the north east of the country, to the bleak World War One battlefields, to take on 21.7km of cobblestones on Sunday July 15 with a stage from Arras to Roubaix.

Other highlights of the 2018 race are a partly unpaved climb up to the Plateau des Glières on the Le Grand Bornand stage on Tuesday July 17, a return to Alpe d’Huez on Thursday July 19, and a return to the Mende airstrip where Steve Cummings famously won for South African team Dimension Data on Mandela Day in 2015.

Inspired perhaps by the success of some of the shorter stages at the Tour and the Vuelta a España this year, in particular the 101km Bastille Day stage from Saint-Girons to Foix which was a huge hit, organisers have included an intriguing 65km test from Bagneres de Luchon to the Col de Portet on stage 17 on Wednesday July 25. The 2,215m finish is a new one. And the stage will be the shortest since the elimination of half-stages.

The race for the general classification concludes in the Pyrenees with a 200km 19th stage from Lourdes to Laruns via the Col Aspin, Col du Tourmalet and Col d’Aubisque passes; and finally an undulating 31km time-trial in the Basque Country.

In total there are eight flat stages, five hilly stages, six mountain stages, three summit finishes (La Rosière, Alpe d’Huez, and the Col de Portet), one team time trial and one individual time trial.

Christian Prudhomme, the Tour’s director, said his team had tried to ensure that the race was as exciting as possible. “We especially wanted to emphasise stage variety and the routes that may prove decisive,” he explained, “whilst combining legendary climbs with brand new ascensions or ultra-dynamic formats, to provide a vision of modern and inspired cycling”.

Organisers also confirmed the fifth edition of La Course by Le Tour de France, the women’s race which is starting to grow into something a bit more than merely window-dressing, would take place on a reworked version of stage 10 on July 17.

The women’s peloton will also start on the shores of Lake Annecy, before tackling a reduced 118-kilometre course to Le Grand-Bornand, taking in the Col de Romme and the Col de la Colombière passes like the men.

11:49AM

Important rule changes!

Christian Prudhomme has just announced there will be bonus second on offer at pre-determined places withing the opening nine stages.

Three, two and one bonus seconds will be awarded to the first three riders who reach a specific kilometre of the course determined in advance. This will go purely towards the general classification and have no impact on the points classification. One imagines this innovation is to help liven up those long flat stages that can, sometimes, drag on a little. 

11:43AM

The final leg ... to include our old friend the Tourmalet

Stage 18, Thursday July 26: Trie-sur-Baïse - Pau, 172km

Stage 19, Friday July 27: Lourdes - Laruns, 200km
The final day in the mountains will be a classic Pyrenean day for the riders with the Aspin, Tourmalet and the Aubisque passes all featuring.

Col du Tourmalet | Previous appearances at the Tour
Col du Tourmalet | Previous appearances at the Tour

 Stage 20, Saturday July 28: Saint-Pée-sur-Nivelle Espelette, individual time trial, 31 km
The only time next year's Tour de France ventures outside of its host country will be during the undulating 31km time-trial in the Basque Country.

 Stage 21, Sunday July 29: Houilles - Paris Champs-Élysées, 115km
The final stage finishes on the most famous boulevard in the world, the Champs-Élysées just as it has done every year since 1975.

11:40AM

Short and sweet

Stage 17, Wednesday July 25:Bagnères-de-Luchon - Saint-Lary-Soulan Col de Portet, 65km
The spectacular Col de Portet d'Aspet climb will make its Tour de France debut on one of the shortest road stages in living memory. Oh, the 65km stage includes 38km that go uphill! Should be an explosive day of racing. 

11:38AM

Into the mountains

Stage 14, Saturday July 21: Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux - Mende, 187km
Mende, the scene of Steve Cummings' memorable stage win – the one where he ambushed Romain Bardet and Thibaut Pinot – returns and again the airstrip in the sky will host a stage finish.

Mende
Mende

Stage 15, Sunday July 22: Millau - Carcassonne, 181km
Millau returns as a stage town for the first time since 1990.

Stage 16, Tuesday July 24: Carcassonne - Bagnères-de-Luchon, 218km
Bagnères-de-Luchon, of course, was the town where Chris Froome did that descent into during last year's race. A lovely town it is too. The Col de Portet d'Aspet, Col de Menté and Col du Portillon are all positioned in the final third of a long stage – the second longest in the race – before the descent into Bagnères-de-Luchon.

11:34AM

The Dutch Mountain returns on stage 12

Stage 10, Tuesday July 17: Annecy – Le Grand-Bornand, 159km
Just the four categorised climbs in the first day in the Alps with the Col de la Croix Fry, Col des Glières, Col de Romme and Col de la Colombière punctuating the 159km run from Annecy to Le Grand-Bornand. Part of the women's La Course will also take place on the same route as will the the Étape du Tour.

Col de la Colombière | Previous appearances at the Tour
Col de la Colombière | Previous appearances at the Tour

Stage 11, Wednesday July 18: Albertville – La Rosière Espace San Bernardo, 108km
The second day in the Alps sees the Montée de Bisanne, Col du Pré, Cormet de Roselend and La Rosière all make appearances. A very tough day for all concerned.

Stage 12, Thursday July 19: Bourg-Saint-Maurice Les Arcs – Alpe d’Huez, 175km
As expected, Alpe d'Huez returns and will be tackled at the end of a tough 12th stage but not before the Col de la Madeleine and Col de la Croix de Fer have been put behind them. Another classic Tour stage.

Alpe d'Huez | Previous appearances in the Tour
Alpe d'Huez | Previous appearances in the Tour

Stage 13, Friday July 20: Bourg d’Oisans – Valence, 169km

11:29AM

Almost 22km of cobbles on the road to Roubaix!

Stage nine, Sunday July 15: Arras - Roubaix, 154km
It had been widely rumoured that the cobbles would return to the Tour de France, though many of those rumours came with the caveat that just three kilometres of pavé  would be included.

Stage nine
Stage nine

Christian Prudhomme, however, has just announced that there will be 21.7km of cobbles raced over 15 bone-shaking sectors. Should be fun!  

Pavé (cobbles) | Previous appearances in the Tour
Pavé (cobbles) | Previous appearances in the Tour

11:26AM

Stage-by-stage details are coming in ...

Stage four, Tuesday July 10: La Baule - Sarzeau, 192 km

Stage five, Wednesday July 11: Lorient - Quimper, 203km

Stage six, Thursday July 12: : Brest - Mûr de Bretagne, 181km
The Mûr de Bretagne is back and the riders will have to tackle it twice in one day on July 12!

Mûr-de-Bretagne | Previous appearances at the Tour
Mûr-de-Bretagne | Previous appearances at the Tour

Stage seven, Friday July 13: Fougères - Chartres, 231km

Stage eight, Saturday July 14:  Dreux - Amiens Métropole, 181km

11:21AM

Tour de France almost 100% French

Race organisers have yet to reveal the stage-by-stage details, but from looking at that I'd say the route looks almost entirely French, it maybe dips into Spain for around 15km during stage 16 between Carcassonne and Bagnères-de-Luchon. Will need to wait for confirmation on that.

11:19AM

Next year's route is revealed . . .

 . . .and here's what it will look like:

 In summary:

  • Eight flat stages

  • Five hilly stages

  • Six mountain stages

  • Three altitude fnishes (La Rosière, Alpe d’Huez, Saint-Lary-Soulan col de Portet)

  • One individual time-trial

  • One team time-trial

  • Two rest days

Total distance: 3,300km

11:11AM

Froome wins again!

No, we're not predicting the outcome of next year's race  – not just yet, at least – but letting you know that the Team Sky rider has just been awarded the prestigious Velo d’Or award. For a third year.

11:04AM

What we know so far: Pt III

Stage three, Monday July 9
Cholet, team time trial, 35km

The third and penultimate stage stage of next year's grand départ sees the return of the team time trial following a three-year absence, so good news for defending champion Chris Froome, less so for the likes of Romain Bardet and Thibaut Pinot whose Ag2r-La Mondiale and FDJ teams have historically struggled against the clock.

Cholet | Previous appearances in the Tour
Cholet | Previous appearances in the Tour

On its previous appearance at the Tour de France, the team time trial was won by BMC Racing who completed the 28km course a solitary second faster than Team Sky, while Movistar crossed the finish line in Plumelec 4sec adrift of the stage winners. Ag2r-La Mondiale and FDJ, though, lost 1min 24sec and 1min 33sec respectively.

Following a circuitous route in a westerly direction out of the small town in Maine-et-Loire, riders and their directeur sportifs will be on full alert here against the possibility of winds sweeping in from the Atlantic Ocean and causing any splits in the group of riders going up against the clock and mindful of the dangers of lapsed concentration on the twisty roads. Most, after all, will remember the lively team time trial in 2009 when almost half the Bbox Bouygues Telekom team appeared keen on doing a bit of cyclo-cross went they went off-road near Montpellier before losing almost five minutes to stage winners Astana.

Put simply, next year's team time trial may prove a crucial day in the race in the race for yellow and certainly one that riders with ambitions on the general classification will have to start planning for immediately. Right now. Yes Romain, we are looking at you young man!

11:02AM

What we know so far: Pt II

Stagetwo, Sunday July 8
Mouilleron-Saint-Germain - La Roche-sur-Yon, 183km

After heading inland from Fontenay-le-Comte, the 176-man peloton  – providing no riders abandoned following the opening stage – will head towards La Roche-sur-Yon, a town synonymous with sprinters. Synonymous with sprinters, that is, if you are old enough to remember the 1930s!

Mouilleron-Saint-Germain | Previous appearances at the Tour
Mouilleron-Saint-Germain | Previous appearances at the Tour

There are a number of small lumps in the second stage, though nothing serious enough to trouble the riders or, in all probability, have any say in the outcome of the day's racing. 

stage2
stage2

10:55AM

What we know so far: Pt I

While we're waiting for the official unveiling of the route for next year's Tour, why don't we have a quick re-cap of what we already know? 

Stage one, Saturday July 7
Noirmoutier-en-l’Île - Fontenay-le-Comte, 189km

The opening stage will set off from Noirmoutier-en-l’Île on July 7, 2018, before heading in a north westerly direction, hugging the coastline, towards Fontenay-le-Comte where one would expect the sprinters to prevail.

stage 1
stage 1

After picking up his first  – and to date, only – maillot jaune following the opening stage of the 2016 edition, Mark Cavendish will surely have designs on taking a a second in Fontenay-le-Comte next July.

Noirmoutier-en-l'Île | Previous appearances in the Tour
Noirmoutier-en-l'Île | Previous appearances in the Tour

The Briton, though, can expect severe tests from the likes of Marcel Kittel, who next year will be racing for Katusha-Alpecin and, possibly, a former team-mate in Fernando Gaviria who may make his Tour debut in 2018 for Quick-Step Floors or whatever their latest iteration is.

10:46AM

And we're under way . . . sort of

Unfortunately, we've had a few technical gremlins here at Telegraph Towers that has hampered my preparations a little, but hopefully that shouldn't effect today's outcome too much. Well, it won't change anything at all. Anyway, while my computer was rebooting a French suit took to the stage at the Palais des Congrès in Paris where he spent an age doing what sporting suits do and chatted about sporting integrity, environmental issues and what have you.

9:45AM

Col des Glières poised to make its debut 

So, today's the day we all finally discover the route of next year's Tour de France. Exciting,  eh? If you are reading this then I imagine you will have some sort of vested interest in the 15th edition of the race, and so I imagine that, like myself, you will have been reading the occasional rumour about where next year's race will take us. 

One of the big rumours that has been circulating for months now – that the gravel climb Col des Glières will make its debut – appears to be true. Indeed, race director Christian Prudhomme is clearly so excited by the prospect that he has been talking to French journalist Julien Prétot.

Earlier this morning, Prétot filed this missive through the Reuters news agency:

Every year since he took over from Jean-Marie Leblanc in 2006, Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme has tried to spice up the route with new climbs to make the race more exciting.

In 2012, he introduced the Planche des Belles Filles, where four-times champion Chris Froome claimed his maiden Tour stage victory, adding the brutal col des Chevrieres two years later.

For 2018, Prudhomme and Tour competitions director Thierry Gouvenou have come up with another novelty - the Col des Glières, which will feature on the first mountain stage in the Alps.

The Col des Glières is a six-kilometre climb at an average gradient of 11 percent on narrow roads ending on a plateau, which the peloton will go through on a 1.8-km gravel path.

"It will be interesting from a sporting point of view, but also from a historical point of view," Prudhomme told Reuters on his last reconnaissance of the stage this month.

Col des Glières | Previous appearances at the Tour
Col des Glières | Previous appearances at the Tour

The plateau des Glières features the national monument of the Resistance as the limestone plateau was used by Maquis group of resistance fighters during World War Two.

The site had been in Prudhomme's mind for a few years but it was only included very recently in the 2018 Tour, leaving little time for organisers Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) to set up the route.

"We have a lot of ideas but they don't necessarily come to fruition right away," Prudhomme explained.

The first reconnaissance trips are usually made in June the year before the Tour but organisers often have less than a couple of months to build a 3,500-km route.

"Sometimes we have to work on an idea for three years," said Prudhomme.

Gouvenou, however, reminded that ASO is often pressed by time.

"We take the previous Tour into account. It's important not to rush things off and see how the previous edition panned out," he told Reuters.

"Then we can change the number of climbs and the amount of time trial kilometres."

9:30AM

Pre-amble to the big reveal

When will the route for next year's Tour be announced?

The route for the 2018 Tour de France route will be unveiled on Tuesday, Oct 17, 2017, at the Palais des Congrès in Paris, France.

When does the Tour de France start?

The Tour de France – 105th edition of the world's biggest bike race – gets under way in Noirmoutier-en-l'Île on Saturday July 7, 2018, and concludes in Paris a little over three weeks later on Sunday July 29.

Er, sorry but what is this 'Tour' thing you are talking about?

Why, it's only the 105th edition of the Tour de France, one of the three grand tours, the others being the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España.

For many, the Tour – or la Grande Boucle – is the only bicycle race that matters. Those people, of course, are very wrong indeed, but given the exposure the race is given compared to its less well known Italian and Spanish cousins and the other one-day or week-long races throughout the season this is understandable. Forgivable, even, some may say.

Founded in 1903 by Henri Desgrange, editor of L'Auto newspaper, the Tour is the biggest annual sporting event in the world and has more live spectators than even the Olympic Games or Fifa World Cup.

Tour de France 2018 | In summary
Tour de France 2018 | In summary

The Tour may not be the favourite stage race of the cycling cognoscenti – that honour goes to the Giro, or possibly Tro-Bro Léon – but it is one that certainly captures the imagination of the wider sporting public. Along with the crack of leather on willow and old boys taking afternoon snoozes in their linen slacks and loud stripey ties, the Tour de France for many is the sight and sound of the summer.

Tour de France 2018: When is the route announced, who are the bookmakers' favourites to win and what do we know about next year's race - Credit:  Reuters
Farmers and locals will start planning their tributes to la Grande Boucle once its route is announced Credit: Reuters

What do we know about next year's route so far?

All we know so far is that the Grand Départ will be hosted in the Vendée department in the Pays-de-la-Loire region of France.

The opening stage runs on July 7 from Noirmoutier-en-l'Île to Fontenay-le-Comte over a 195 kilometre route while the following day the riders will tackle the 185km run from Mouilleron-Saint-Germain to La Roche-sur-Yon. The first Monday of the three-week race sees the return of the team time trial which will be contested on a 35km course near Cholet while the fourth stage sets off from La Baule to an, as yet, unannounced destination.

Grand Départ of the 2018 Tour de France
Grand Départ of the 2018 Tour de France

What teams will ride the Tour de France?

As with all WorldTour races, each of the 18 teams that make up the top-flight of professional cycling receive an invite and in the case with the Tour de France all are contracted to race. In addition to the WorldTour teams, race organisers Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) will also hand out wildcard spots to four teams of which Cofidis, Solutions Crédits, Direct Énergie and Fortuneo-Oscaro will be confident of pocketing one. Unsurprisingly, the ASO tend to favour French teams when it comes to handing out these golden tickets to the most prestigious race in world cycling.

British riders to have worn leader's yellow jersey at the Tour de France
British riders to have worn leader's yellow jersey at the Tour de France

How many riders will line-up on the starting line?

Following changes announced by International Cycling Union (UCI), team sizes in all three grand tours will be reduced to eight riders while all UCI races will be limited to 176 riders. So there's your answer: 22 teams with eight riders apiece will be on the starting line in Noirmoutier-en-l'Île comprising 176 riders. 

What are the bookmakers' favourites to win the 2018 Tour?

  1. Chris Froome: 6/4

  2. Tom Dumoulin: 9/2

  3. Richie Porte: 8/1

  4. Nairo Quintana: 11/1

  5. Mikel Landa: 13/1

  6. Miguel Ángel López: 20/1

  7. Fabio Aru: 33/1

  8. Romain Bardet: 33/1

  9. Rigoberto Urán: 33/1

  10. Vincenzo Nibali: 40/1

Odds supplied by oddschecker.com are best available as of Oct 17, 2017

Who are you backing for next year's race?

Rouleur Classic | Tickets now on sale
Rouleur Classic | Tickets now on sale