Tour de France organisers unveiled the 20-stage 2006 edition in Paris on Thursday which will be held next July 1-23 and totalling around 3 600km.
It will be the first not to feature seven-time winner Lance Armstrong, who is now retired, but the American was a hot topic despite the presence of several of his potential successors.
Ivan Basso, of the CSC team, was present and was largely favourable to a race route which will feature the two traditional individual time trials, at the end of the first week and on the penultimate day.
The organisers however have removed the team time trial event — so coveted by Armstrong and his Discovery Channel teammates — which will begin in Strasbourg in Alsace and move counter-clockwise around the country before finishing in Paris.
Early stages will be held in the north east of France, with forays into The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany.
As the race heads south towards Bordeaux in the south west of the country, only two stages will be held in the Pyrenees mountains, with a foray into neighbouring Spain for the latter of the two.
The likes of Basso of Italy, who finished runner-up to Armstrong last year, Spain’s Alejandro Valverde and other yellow jersey contenders such as Kazakhstan’s Alexandre Vinokourov or Jan Ullrich of Germandy will find the bulk of the challenge lies in the Alps, where three days of difficult climbing await.
The summit finish at Alpe d’Huez, which last featured as an individual time trial in 2004 after which Armstrong finally held off German rival Ullrich in what was an epic race, returns as part of the 187km long 15th stage from Gap.
The following day is a 182km epic over two legendary Cols (passes) — the Col du Galibier, the Col de la Croix-Fer, then the Col du Mollard before finishing on the La Toussuire summit.
The final of three days in the Alps is the 199km 17th stage, in which four Cols and one medium-sized climb will be negotiated before the peloton races down towards Morzine — where the now-retired Richard Virenque won after an epic stage in 2003.
The final test for any of the main contenders will come on the 19th stage, a 56km individual time trial from Le Creusot to Montceau-les-Mines.
The final 20th stage is from Antony to the south of Paris to the traditional finish on the Champs Elysé es. – AFP
