Tour de France 2009 Route Change

As if the Tour de France needed to be any tougher, now Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme has unveiled the route for the 2009 Tour. Next year the worlds best cyclists will face a brutal change in strategy. The tour still promises the great climbs albeit a few less than in recent years, however the main change is the days of both the final climb as well as the time trails.

Starting July 4 in Monaco and ending July 26 in Paris, the Tour will cover 3,445 kilometers, or 2,140 miles, in a clockwise direction around France, with excursions into Spain, Andorra, Switzerland and Italy.

Given the numerous doping scandals that have rocked the cycling world as well as turned off a great deal of fans perhaps the change is an attempt to keep fans watching as well as start renewed interest in the race dubbed as the toughest road cycling event in the world. This years inclusion of Mont Ventoux. The notorious mountain ascent will be featured on the race’s next-to-last day in a tradition-busting innovation aimed at keeping the suspense going to the very end.

The Tour course usually finishes with a time trial on the penultimate day, deciding the overall results. While the last day is usually nothing more than a ceremonial ride to Paris. The 2009 tour promises the brutal Mont Ventoux climb as the 20th of the 21 stages. After 19 days of racing, the leg and lung searing climb on which British rider Tom Simpson died in 1967 will no doubt test the cyclists exhausted legs and minds, and as a result could decide the ultimate winner of the Tour.

Mont Ventoux is a huge barren chuck of rock in Provence that has for years been the nemesis of many riders due to not only the steep climbs but also the lack of shade from the brutal sun and insane winds (193 mph have been recorded at the summit). Ventoux has been dubbed the “God of Evil” by French philosopher Roland Barthes. Lance Armstrong has described it as “the hardest climb on the Tour, bar none.” He never won there at his height. Now given the 3 year break in professional cycling this may be the reversing point to Lance’s commitment to return to next years Tour!!

If your excitement over the Tour has waned in the past few years from either the doping scandals or from the lack of an American cycling Icon, 2009 promises to breath fresh life into this insane race!