Le Tour De France

I've been watching the Tour De France a little bit and have just been fascinated by it. I never really realized just how long this race actually was. Here's some information about the race in case anyone is interested. Oh, and Lance Armstrong is currently in 3rd place.



The route

Running from Saturday July 4th to Sunday July 26th 2009, the 96th Tour de France will be made up of 21 stages and will cover a total distance of 3,500 kilometres.

These 21 stages have the following profiles:

* 10 flat stages,
* 7 mountain stages,
* 1 medium mountain stage,
* 2 individual time-trial stages,
* 1 team time-trial stage.


Distinctive aspects of the race

* 3 mountain finishes,
* 2 rest days,
* 55 kilometres of individual time-trials,
* 20 Category 1, Category 2 and highest level passes will be climbed.


8 new stop-over towns

Brignoles, Gérone (Espagne), Issoudun, Martigny (Suisse), Saint-Fargeau, Tonnerre, vatan, Verbier (Suisse).