Tour de France 2013 - the rumours

At this time of year I start to spend too much time on the internet trying to follow the rumours surrounding the course of the Tour de France for the following year. I try to convince Anne it is important for us to know what direction the Tour is likely to take but I am not sure she buys into that. She does have a point as, in reality, we always have to wait for the official course to be announced before we can finalise our itinerary for the Cycle Hame Tour de France Alps week anyway.

The 2013 TdF course will be announced on October 24th, a little over 2 weeks from now and the rumour mill has gone into overdrive. It appears they now have a good idea for most of the course but there are a handful of stages they are struggling to work out, particularly in the final week when the race is expected to be in the Alps. The latest rumour is that the race will finish on Alpe d'Huez rather than the usual finish in Paris - ooh la la.

It is known that the race will start on Saturday 29 June with the first 3 stages taking place on Corsica and stage 4, a team time trial in Nice. This part has already been announced by ASO, the organisers of the Tour. From there it is expected to head West with 1 or 2 stages in the Pyrenees. The second week should start in Brittany and it is widely expected that one of the stages will be a time trial up Mont St Michel, I love that place and it should make a great stage setting. From there it will head back East through the centre of France, and on to Lyon by the end of the second week.

July 14 falls on a Sunday next year and it looks as though there will be a finish on Mt Ventoux for Bastille day. It all looks like a decent race so far.

Then we move into the final week and as I mentioned earlier the amateur detectives seem to be having the difficulty in deciding where it will go, here is what it looks like at the moment:

Monday - rest day
Tuesday - finish in Gap
Wednesday - not sure, possibly a time trial around Lac Serre Poncon
Thursday - the rumour is that the riders will finish the stage by climbing Alpe d'Huez ...twice!
Friday - finish in Savoie/Haute Savoie
Saturday - no idea but plenty of rumours including a stage around Annecy, a time trial from Annecy up to     Semnoz, and a stage from Annemasse to Dole
Sunday - traditionally this is the finish at the Champs Elysée but the latest rumours are for a stage finish on Alpe d'Huez.

Something will need to change, it is unimaginable that the race will climb Alpe d'Huez 3 times! At the same time we are expecting some sort of surprise as 2013 will be the 100th Tour de France.

You can take a look at the velowire website if you want to follow the rumours, most of the forum discussion is in French.