By Phi Liggett
October 25, 2007

2008 TDF Route	2007 TDF Montage

Four mountain-top finishes tempered by only 51 miles of individual time trialling, will give the pure climbers of the Tour de France the chance to have a final say in the 2008 race route announced in Paris on Friday.

Of course, as the riders so often remind us, it is they and not the organizers who make a race route decisive and occasionally a flat-road breakaway can spoil the final result for the most highly-talented athletes of our sport.

So, given all things to be equal, defending champion Alberto Contador, should he ride, will be in the best position of all to win the race again next July. His runner-up, the Australian Cadel Evans, relies heavily on a good time trial performance, but he may find that the first one at Cholet will be too short at only 18 miles, while the next one, the day before the finish at Montrond, too late.

The biggest departure is the announcement that there will be no time bonuses on any of the stages, following the pattern of the Vuelta e Espana in September. It means that you earn what you get in real time and this could mean a number of leadership changes in the opening days before the climb to Super Besse.

The Versus team will be off to the most westerly corner of France to Brest in Brittany for the start on July 5th, but it will be a brief visit as the Bretons have saved all their euros and bought the Grand Depart as a department rather than a single town. Nearly 300 of the 2,200 miles will have been covered before we leave this region of France, which has given us champions like Bernard Hinault and three-time Tour winner, Louison Bobet.

Sadly, there will be no Prologue or Preface (the latter reminding us of when Bob Roll crashed and never actually started the Tour in 1988), so the sprinters will rip into the field on the road to Plumelec as they are certain to decide the destiny of the first Maillot Jaune.

Brest, although it will see the race for the 29th time, has not been on the routes since my second Tour in 1974 when Eddy Merckx won the Prologue and never looked back. This was also the first year the race travelled to Britain to race near Plymouth for a day and maybe, after the outstanding success of the Prologue in London this year , it was a good move not to try and repeat it again in 2008.

So after three days of touring around la region de Bretagne, the Tour de France will head into the Loire and onwards towards the Pyrenees which, this time, will come before the Alps as we go around against the direction of the clock.

With a healing of a rift between the major European organizers and the Union Cycliste Internationale at last in the air, 2008 could be a year of renaissance for our sport. It also means that any thoughts the Tour de France may have had to invite national teams instead of fully-sponsored professional ones, have been laid to rest.

So, along a route which has no transfers (which will mean earlier nights in the hotels for the overworked Versus crews!), 20 less miles of time trialling and only five stages that can be considered really mountainous, this will be a race in which at least at dozen riders will feel they can win.

The climbing starts on the ninth day between Toulouse and Bagneres. An hors d’oeuvres up the 2nd category Col des Ares, last climbed in 2006 when Michael Rasmussen was first over en route to the King of the Mountains title. This time, 25 miles later, the field will then cross the first category Peyresourde to be followed by the same-rated Aspin before going down to finish in Bagneres de Bigorre.

The second and last day in the Pyrenees will be harder and comes on the eve of the first rest day in Pau. Here the riders cross the giant outside category, Col du Tourmalet at 6,950 feet followed by the finishing climb to Hautecam, near Lourdes. This is an eight-mile brute where Javier Otxoa was almost caught by a raging Lance Armstrong the last time it was climbed in 2000.

Then, after the rest day, there are five days of “transitional” stages to the Alps, where the riders must stay alert and bare the heat of the far south of the country.

No doubt, had Armstrong been riding, he would be perusing the maps right now to find out the location of the first Alpine finish line as the race has never before been to the Italian ski station of Prato Nevoso. It sits 4,500 feet atop the seven-mile climb to the finish after a long day of 135 miles from Dignes-les-Bains.

Not far from Sestrieres, the mountain faces northwest and is an ideal base in the summer for mountain bikers and a top ski resort in the winter.

The media and Tour followers have a perfect place for the second rest day, although for most this will be spent in the province’s capitol town of Cuneo, where the race resumes on the road to Jauziers.

This will be a vicious day, especially as Alpe d’Huez follows within 24 hours. The 15-mile (!) climb of the Col de la Bonnette-Restefonds (the top goes around in a circle and looks like a ladies bonnet)is a horrible climb and definitely for the purist. The last winner here was Britain’s Robert Millar when it was last climbed in 1993.

Then, it is onwards to cycling’s Mecca as “The Alp” is faced on what must be the Queen Stage, with five days left to go to Paris. It is a long and cruel day of 130 miles from Embrun, taking the survivors over the giants of the Alps – the Col du Galibier, first climbed in 1911 and standing at over 8600 feet, and then the cruel and narrow Col de la Croix de Fer (the iron cross).

The day finishes atop Alpe d’Huez bringing an end to the pain of 40 miles of climbing in one day!

With the race leader feeling safe (perhaps), the race travels north up the map towards Paris via St Etienne and Montluçon. The latter is where it makes its rendezvous with the final time trial of 33 miles from Cerilly-Saint Amand to Montrond before we all enter the Champs Elysees -- for the 33rd time since the race first ended here in 1975 -- for the big homecoming on July 27.

This is a different route that should result in a very competitive race. One thing is for sure: Versus will be covering every pedal stroke. My advice is to prepare for 21 days of great action and  get plenty of sleep before we hit the road on the small screen on July 5, 2008!