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le Tour de France: |
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2010 tour de france routeThe 2010 Tour de France will start at Rotterdamwith a short individual against-the-clock through eight kilometres of the city home to the biggest port in Europe. The next day, the Tour races from the Netherlands to Belgium, then from Belgium to France; The third stage, from Belgium to France, Wanze-Arenberg to Porte du Hainaut, will have 13.2 km of cobbled (pavé) road, with three sections in Belgium (2.2km) and a further four in France (11km). Anyone who has watched the annual Paris-Roubaix race will appreciate what a bone-shaking experience it is. Mind you, for the Tour de France it should be somewhat easier, the race being in warm and probably dry Summer, instead of wet and wild Spring. The 2010 race will include nine stages on the flat, six mountain stages with three finishes on a summit and one individual against-the clock of 51 km. There will be two rest days and twenty-three climbs of either category 2, cat. 1 or hors catégorie (unclassifiable). The famous, and often dreaded, Col du Tourmalet will feature twice, once as the Tour goes over it, and the next day when the stage will end at its 2115 metre summit. It is clear that the global financial collapse has hit the Tour de France, with the number of expensive mountain stages reduced, one even being used twice, and only one real against-the-clock stage. Instead, the organisers are trying to offer other cycling excitement with seven sections of cobbled road and twice using the daunting Col de Tourmalet, including for a stage finish. A further novelty, unusually for the Tour de France, more mountains in the Pyrénees than the Alps. the stages for 2010There will be a prologue [short opening stage] and 20 stages, with six mountain stages [Alps 2, Pyrenees 4], two medium mountain stages, and one individual against-the-clock [contre-le-montre] time trial. The first days prologue is also a short individual against-the-clock [contre-le-montre] time trial. There are 2 rest days. All other days are ‘on the plain’ - relatively flat days, almost touring through France. The total distance ridden will be about 3,600 kilometres, or roughly 2 237 miles.
last year (2009): the first ten riders
the teams, 2010
some historyThe first Tour de France took place in 1903, with a first stage from Montgeron to Lyon, lasting an overwhelming 467 kilometres. There were six stages. The first Tour was 2,428 kilometres long and the prize was 6,075 francs. watching TDF broadcasts[Note that several links are to pages in French, but are often fairly intuitive.] In 2010, 118 TV channels will broadcast the Tour de France in 186 countries, of which 60 provide live coverage of the race. There will be 260 cameramen, 30 for France Television. 75 radio stations are also reporting from the Tour. Currently (26 June), live broadcast details are not yet available for most organisations. Below is a mix of last year’s and this year’s information - this year’s should be pretty similar to last year’s.
As well as the traditional 625-line broadcasts, from 2007 there will also be broadcasts in Full HD (High Definition - 1080 lines) for those who have the new HD televisions ( HD Ready televisions - 720 lines -can also benefit from the better image quality). However, the HD broadcasts will only be available to viewers in France using the TNT system, those with a broadband [ADSL] HD subscription or those subscribing to Canal Satellite. British Eurosport Live also has an HD service. Online information can be found at the Tour de France site, of course. Other independent online sources are Eurosport and l’Equipe [in French]. : the tour de france on googleIt appears that Google is not doing anything officially to show the Tour de France, as they did in with Street View in 2008, but maybe they will be doing something even nearer the time. However, there are Google Earth-savvy Tour followers who have made overlays for Google Earth. These do not not include street views. Also, at least some of the satellite images are of over five years vintage, so planning your Tour watching with the help of Google Earth may be dodgy. tedvdw has made a .kmz file that shows the stage routes in Google Earth. If you have Google Earth installed on your computer, clicking on this link, Tour de France 2010.kmz, will launch your installed copy of Google Earth with the line of Tour stages overlaid. Thomas Vergouwen has made a more detailed Tour de France KML file. When reduced to a small version, this overlay looks very crowded. However, when expanded so you can see an individual stage, this overlay shows the various events on that stage, such as sprints, hill climbs and feeding sections. (Note that the overlay is in French.) ubilabs.net have coded a “Tour de France 2010 Live Tracker” that will show the current positions of several riders in real time on Google Maps.
background art to the TourI have been trying to get round to doing a section illustrating another part of the fun of the Tour. Everywhere that you go on the Tour route, in among the banners and other festivities, you will see installations by farmers, school children, local villages, trade organisations and individuals. I hope to collect these together. The best way to give you a flavour is to collect a picture gallery. Welcoming guardian, with Occitan flag, at the entrance to Bastanes village, 2007
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new! Cathedrale Saint-Gatien at Tours
the perpendicular or English style of cathedral the fire at the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris Stone tracery in church and
cathedral construction stained glass and cathedrals in Normandy fortified churches, mostly in Les Landes cathedral labyrinths and mazes in France Germans in France on first arriving in France - driving Transbordeur bridges in France and the world 2: focus on Portugalete, Chicago,
Rochefort-Martrou France’s western isles: Ile de Ré Ile de France, Paris: in the context of Abelard and of French cathedrals Marianne - a French national symbol, with French definitive stamps la Belle Epoque
Pic du Midi - observing stars clearly, A64 Futuroscope the French umbrella & Aurillac 50 years old:
Citroën DS the forest as seen by Francois Mauriac, and today bastide towns |
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