by Ron Bernthal
During an October, 2021, presentation in Paris, race organizers announced that the route of the 109th Tour de France, scheduled for July 1-24, 2022, will begin in Copenhagen before moving on to France. The Alps will then set the stage for a series of showdowns to decide who gets to take the yellow jersey home, including the Super Planche des Belles Filles in the Vosges.,
the Col du Granon and Alpe d’Huez to wrap up the Alpine chapter of the race, before Peyragudes and the Hautacam in the Pyrenees, where the climbers will have the chance to set their own records.
In a historic first, riders from the women’s peloton attended the presentation to witness the birth of the Tour de France Femmes. Race director, Marion Rousse, announced that the women’s edition of the race will start on July 24th, the day of the men’s finish. The women will head east before finishing on the Super Planche des Belles Filles on July 31. Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme made the long-awaited announcement that Amaury Sport Organization (ASO) will launch a a women’s Tour de France Femmes with the title sponsor Zwift. Zwift announced that that the women’s Tour be held from July 24-31 in 2022, and begin on the Champs-Élysées in Paris in conjunction with the final stage 21 of the men’s Tour de France.
The women’s peloton raced their first official Tour de France Femmes in 1984, won by American Marianne Martin. It was an 18-day race held simultaneously as the men’s event and along much of the same but shortened routes with shared finish lines. The Société du Tour de France, which later became part of ASO in 1992, managed both men’s and women’s events. The women’s Tour de France ended in 1989, and while ASO went on to organize women’s one-day races like La Flèche Wallonne, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, La Course, and the inaugural Paris-Roubaix (in 2021), the women’s peloton had not been included as part of the official Tour de France for the past 30 years.
In the men’s 2022 race. riders such as Julian Alaphilippe, Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert will have plenty of opportunities to go on the attack throughout the Tour, starting with
the Danish stages, where many of the riders will be right in their element in the 11-mile bridge crossing of the Baltic Sea, coming after a time trial for power riders in Copenhagen, the world capital of cycling, and before the sprint stage that will cap the Scandinavian adventure in Sønderborg.
The peloton will return to French soil in the Nord department, with an exhausting ride to Calais, a serving of Roubaix cobblestones, a launch pad for punchers in Longwy, and the first clash between the crown pretenders at La Planche des Belles Filles, this time in its “Super” version. Unless the weather turns the race into a war of attrition, the 2022 Tour offers mountain riders a good path to the overall title.
Route map of the Tour de France. (image ASO)
The Alps will start with a summit finish on the Col du Granon, 7,900-feet above sea level, on the same road that Bernard Hinault wore the yellow jersey for the last time in his career back in 1986, followed by a carbon copy of the stage from Briançon to the Alpe d’Huez, won by the Frenchman after crossing the finish line hand in hand with Greg LeMond. On the way to the Pyrenees, the Saint-Étienne and Carcassone stages have sprint finish written all over them, unlike the one to Mende. At this point, the bell will call the leaders back into their mountain rings. Tadej Pogačar could soar on the ascent to Peyragudes after the Col d’Aspin and the Hourquette d’Ancizan have softened up the legs of the contenders.
Regardless of whether he is in yellow by this point, the reigning Tour champion, Slovenian Tadej Pogačar, will have to tame his rivals on the road to Hautacam, which will offer no respite with the climbs up the Aubisque and the Col de Spandelles, making its debut in the race. The final time trial will also enter uncharted waters with its finish on the Rocamadour promontory. It will be time to see where everyone stands 24 hours later, when the winner will be celebrated on the Champs-Élysées.
