A Paris-Roubaix cobble stage, a classic Alpe d’Huez summit finish and an opening day’s time-trial in Copenhagen are the main highlights of a 2022 Tour de France route geared towards climbers and opportunists.
The 2022 Tour course, presented by race organiser ASO today at the Palais des Congrès, will predominantly centre around six mountain stages in the Vosges, Alps and Pyraness, of which five will be summit finishes including Alpe d’Huez, Hautacam and La Super Planche des Belles Filles. However, a combined 53km of individual time-trialling across two stages, and an opening week stage which tackles 11 sectors of cobblestones should offer variety in the race for the yellow jersey.
The route was revealed by Christian Prudhomme in Paris on Thursday morning in front of 3,000 spectators including defending Tour champion Tadej Pogačar and World Champion Julian Alaphilippe. Earlier in the day, the eight-stage route for the inaugural Tour de France Femmes was also revealed.
The first headline act of the 2022 Tour will undoubtedly be the 155km Stage 5 from Lille to Arenberg, which utilises 11 cobbled sectors over 19.5km, six of which feature in the Paris-Roubaix Monument race (albeit in the reverse direction). Despite finishing in Arenberg, the organisers have decided to miss out the five-star Arenberg Forest cobble section.
The race’s first summit finish will come on Stage 7 at La Super Planche des Belles Filles, a 7km, 8.7% climb in the Vosges Mountains and the scene of defending champion Pogačar’s first Tour victory in 2020.
Stage 11 on Wednesday 13th July will be the next day for the diary as the race heads over the stunning Lacets de Montvernier before tackling the infamous double act of the Col du Télégraphe/Col du Galibier before a summit finish on the Col du Granon.
The following day celebrates Bastille Day by lining up another potential Alpine epic that takes the peloton back over the Col du Galibier, this time from the Col du Lautaret side, before summiting the Col de la Croix de Fer and finishing the day atop Alpe d’Huez in an exact replica Stage 18 of the 1986 Tour.
Following the Alps will be a visit to the Pyrenees in the race’s final week with summit finishes at Peyragudes on Stage 17 and the Hautacam on Stage 18, the race’s final mountain stage.
Before heading to Paris on Stage 21, the riders will face a 40km individual time-trial on Stage 20 from Lacapelle Marival to Rocamadour that includes two difficult climbs towards the finish, the final opportunity for any General Classification riders to claim yellow.
As previously confirmed, the 2022 Grand Depart will take place in Copenhagen, Denmark on Friday 1st July, a year later than scheduled due to being postponed in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Denmark will become the 10th country to host the Tour’s Grand Depart.
Denmark will host three stages in total, starting with a 13km ITT in Copenhagen. Stage 2 will be 190km and will travel from Roskilde to Nyborg on the island of Funen, including the expansive, open 18km Great Belt Bridge, before Stage 3 takes the race 170km from Vejle to Sønderborg. These three stages will then be followed by a rest day as the peloton travels back to France.
As is now tradition the 109th Tour de France will finish with its processional stage through Paris with laps of the Champs-Élyseés with its sprint finish in the shadow of the Arc de Triomphe.