initially published on 9 September 2017 at 7.51PM, updated on 27 September at 7.42PM and on 5 October at 0.41AM, 8 October at 0.23AM, 9 October at 10.55PM, 13 October at 1.39PM, 14 October at 10.45PM and 16 October at 9AM, at 5.58PM and at 10.32PM
While the official announcement will only take place on Tuesday 17 October in the Palais des Congrès in Paris, you're probably used now to find here on velowire.com early September the first rumours about the race route of the upcoming Tour de France, in this case for the Tour de France 2018 which will take place from Saturday 7 July till Sunday 29 July 2018. And in order not to lose our good habits, we'll discover little by little over the next few days and weeks in this article the whole race route of the 105th edition of the Tour!
In this article you sometimes find mentions of rumours which might develop further on or, the other way around, be discretited afterwards, but on the map you'll find only the stage which really seem to be confirmed. Little by little the article will get completer and give - at least I hope so - the complete race route before the 17th October ... What shows up as the general outline of this race's layout is a race route which explores much of the western side of France, after having left that part of the country on the side over the past few years, and then visit the Alps and finally the Pyrenees. This would, if this gets confirmed, be the first year since 2015 that the race finishes in the Pyrenees, before the transfert somewhere around Paris.
As far as possible, I'll also share here any rumours about the Etape du Tour 2018, the cyclosportive which is organised on the race route of one of the stages of the Tour de France 2018.
What's sure: the Grand Départ in the Vendée Pays de la Loire area
As it had been announced in February 2017 and confirmed at the end of February 2017, before being modified in terms of dates, the Tour de France 2018 will start in the Vendée department in the Pays de la Loire region, with the first stage being on Saturday 7 July 2018.3 stages and the start of the 4th stage will thus take place in the Pays de la Loire region, mainly in the Vendée department.
The programme of the Grand Départ of the Tour de France 2018 is a classical programme with:
Concerning the fourth stage, only the start city - La Baule - has officially been announced in February 2017.
For the rest, things remain more uncertain and that's where we get to the usual activity of velowire.com in September and October ...
What follows in the Tour de France 2018: the rumours about the stage cities of the 105th Grande Boucle!
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4/ Tuesday 10 July 2018 - La Baule > Sarzeau
After the start in La Baule, the official information comes to an end and we thus get onto rumours.And that's certainly something which doesn't lack for the Tour de France and this is again the case for the Tour de France 2018. More precisely for this stage (and the following), Ouest France gave the first informations about a visit of Brittany (Bretagne) at the end of February of this year, just after the presentation of the official elements of the Grand Départ of this Tour 2018. Later on, Le Télégramme mentioned on 10 July the first rumours, still quite conditional at that time ... However, 15 days later, the same newspaper reconfirmed te rumour about a stage finish in the "neighbour city" Sarzeau and its communauté de communes de la presqu'île de Rhuys (regroupment of villages), just south of Vannes.
Ouest France added at the end of February already that the mayor of Sarzeau is no one else than David Lappartient, President of the Fédération Française de Cyclisme (FFC) from 2009 till March 2017, of the European Cycling Union (UEC) since 2013 and vice-president of the International Cycling Union (UCI) - and now President!!, president of the Professional Cycling Council (CCP) since September 2013 and candidate for the presidence of the UCI for the election on 21 September.
For Sarzeau this would be the first time that the Grande Boucle visits the city!
UPDATE 5 October at 0.41AM : Ouest France announces in its latest publication on 30 September that the finish would take place on the RD780 in front of the Casino supermarket after 1.5 km in a straight line. David Lappartient, mayor and freshly elected president of the International Cycling Union, declared about this: This would probably be the most beautiful finish of the Tour de France. We have a 1.5 km long straight line, slightly uphill.5/ Wednesday 11 July 2018 - Lorient > Quimper Pointe du Raz (communauté de communes du Cap Sizun) ?? or Plouhinec ??
For the stage on the next day, the same articles by Le Télégramme and Ouest France already mentioned a stage start in Lorient and a finish at the Pointe-du-Raz.However, even though initially, in November 2016, Le Télégramme seemed to be quite convinced about a finish at the Pointe-du-Raz and while Ouest France keeps this information in its article at the end of February mentioned above, Le Télégramme mentioned another possibility on 10 July with Quimper in addition to the Pointe-du-Raz and that newspaper seems to indicate even more that it's unsure in its article at the end of July mentioning with a question mark "(Cap Sizun ?)" (no longer talking about Quimper ...).
Even though the Pointe-du-Raz seems to be quite sure anyway, the precise finish location will have to be announced by A.S.O. because due to the logistical constraints it seems difficult to use the small parking lot there. Still, even if the finish will be at a few kilometers from the "pointe" (the landslide which drops in the sea), the images from the helicopter will be really nice to see anyway and they might be completed by the images of dirt roads which could be part of this stage. Concerning the precise finish location, Ouest France for example mentions a finish "in one of the villages before the "pointe" (Plouhinec, Audierne or Plogoff?)". Earlier this year, in March, this same newspaper seemed to be quite sure however of the precise location: Coming from the Pointe du Van, via the Baie des Trépassés, the finish would be in Plogoff in front of the Sémaphore de la Pointe du Raz.
Concerning Quimper, Ouest France seems to have published contradictory articles indicating that for Quimper in 2018, the circumstances look pretty positive, but reading the article till the end, one understands that Ludovic Jolivet, the mayor of Quimper, already seems to have accepted the idea that it will probably only be a crossing through the city: "Where the Tour crosses or finishes in Quimper, that's interesting for me. Even if it's a stage start in the Morbihan department with a finish in the south of the Finistère, it's good news for the Cornouaille".
UPDATE 27 September at 7.42PM: In its latest article, Le Télégramme announces a finish in Plouhinec for this stage, one of the villages of the Pointe du Raz and according to the newspaper the stage would visit the protected site of the Pointe du Raz ...UPDATE 5 October at 0.41AM : finally Le Télégramme comes back on what it initially announced saying suddenly that the finish will not take place at the Pointe du Raz, but finally in Quimper, as already mentioned before (see above). It seems as if A.S.O. was indeed interested in a finish at the Pointe du Raz, but finally this turned out to be impossible because of logistical reasons! Inceed, the newspaper adds that it seems that the environmental constraints linked to the preservation of this exceptional site have cut short of Christian Prudhomme's dream and the mayor of Quimper would already have informed its teams of the venue of the Tour de France 2018, precising at this occasion that the finish of the Tour would take place in the higher parts of the city in Penvillers, not far from the cultural even hall Le Pavillon.UPDATE 8 October at 0.23AM: And this change of finish location now really gets confirmed, with France Bleu Breizh Izel which cites the mayor of Plouhinec, Bruno Le Port, who's also the president collaborating communities Cap Sizun Pointe du Raz, who clearly shows his deception: I'm wondering what will be the future of Cap Sizun, we are a "grand site de France", and if we can't do anything anymore on our territory, that'll be problematic and he also said: We have beautiful coast lines, we had all one needs to produce some nice images! They prefered Quimper... well, they'll show images of the cathedral! In order to exist, we won't erase the Pointe du Raz! Ouest France talks about the same deception but much less in detail.
6/ Thursday 12 July 2018 - Brest ? or Lannilis ? or Quimper ? > Mûr-de-Bretagne / Guerlédan (or Saint-Brieuc ?)
The exact same articles of Le Télégramme and Ouest France give us the indications about this 6th stage of the Tour de France 2018. Ouest France indicates that the start location could be the Pointe-du-Raz (in that case it would rather be Quimper actually ...) or Lannilis, which is quite well known of the superb race Tro Bro Leon which combines portions on the road, in the forest, on the sea side and on the "ribins" (dirt roads).Le Télégramme however rather mentions Brest as the start location.
UPDATE 27 September at 7.42PM: and it finally turns out to be Brest which seems to get confirmed for the start of this stage if we believe Le Télégramme and Ouest France on 22 and 23 September. Indeed, the mayor of Guerlédan, Hervé Le Vu, has indicated - during an audience of the administrative tribunal concerning the name of the municipality - that this stage would be called "Brest > Mûr-de-Bretagne" and not "Brest > Guerlédan"! This thus simply confirms the start and finish locations of this stage, even though the mayor of Brest, François Cuillandre, decided to send out a press release indicating that no final decision has been taken concerning this project and that the discussions are ongoing with the organisor of the Tour de France. Which is factually correct of course, but which doesn't change anything about the fact that the start in Brest thus seems to be almost confirmed! This would mean the Tour will go back to Brest 10 years after the Grand Départ of the Tour de France in Brittany and more precisely in Brest in 2008.Concerning the finish, it could take place on top of the climb of Mûr-de-Bretagne which already received a Tour finish for the 8th stage in 2015, coming from Rennes, and for the 4th stage in 2011, coming from Lorient. Furthermore, this climb was part of the 2nd stage of the Tour de France in 2008, on the road between Auray and Saint-Brieuc, and more recently this year two times in the Bretagne Classic-Ouest France. One thing is sure, in 2018 one cannot officially talk about a finish in Mûr-de-Bretagne because we should officially mention Guerlédan, the new municipality which is the result of the fusion between Mûr-de-Bretagne and Saint-Guen.
It's not 100% sure that the finish will be on the top of this climb this year, like in 2011 and 2015, or if, like in 2008, it will just be a crossing on top of this climb of the 3rd category of 2 km at 6.9%, and the stage would in that case finish in Saint-Brieuc.
UPDATE 13 October at 1.39PM: according to Le Télégramme this week, this stage will not contain the ribinous (gravel roads) known of the Tro Bro Leon but the newspaper indicates that this stage could however contain a sensational surprise: wit the possible introduction of a final circuit, just like in Culoz in 2016 (...), the famous climb of Mûr (two kilometers at 6.9% average with a part at 15%) could well be climbed twice.
7/ Friday 13 July 2018 - Fougères > Chartres Alençon
According to the Chronique Républicaine the 7th stage would be a transition stage between Brittany and the Eure-et-Loir department (indeed, as we'll see for the next stage, previous rumours already announced that stage starting in this department) and, without giving any explanation as where this information comes from, they mentioned a stage starting in Fougères and finishing in Alençon.Concerning Fougères, the Brittain weekly which has its head offices in this city, went to see the mayor of the city, Louis Feuvrier. He would have indicated that his city is a candidate (only!) since this spring, adding: "If our city is chosen that would be quite exceptional because it would be the fourth time in six years. The Tour de France has its rules. Every year, there are about 250 candidates for about thirty cities which are chosen. We'll get to know the answer in October".
The weekly newspaper then adds that it has seen hotel reservations in Rennes and some in Fougères, without having full hotels in the city for now however ...
Even though this information is thus not completely sure at this point, without any more specific information, there indeed needs to be a transition between Brittany and the Eure-et-Loir. In that context, a start in Fougères seems to be quite credible (considering that the finish the day before will be in Guerlédan, it'll be a bit less than 160 kilometers to Fougères and if most of the teams are located for the night in Rennes, that would be about 110 kilometers, which means a bit over one hour on the road - which is quite long but really feasible: when you know that there's about 415 kilometers between Guerlédan and Dreux, it's evident that there needs to be a transfer, before, after or before and after this 7th stage, because only about half of it can be done during the stage), but why would the stage finish in Alençon in that case? Didn't A.S.O. have another candidate city closer to Dreux? Why not go on until Chartres for example, with which A.S.O. has often worked together in the past (start of Paris-Tours in 2015 and in 2009 for example but also finish of a stage in line of the Tour in 2004 and of a time trial in 2012) and this is also the city where Géo Lefèvre, the journalist who was at the origin of the Tour de France, was born!
Some of you might mention that Ouest France has confirmed for Alençon this Tuesday but knowing how this article was written, I don't really consider this as a confirmation ... Looking this article closely (at least for the online version which is publicly accessible, I don't know for the subscribers version) we clearly see that it doesn't give any additional argument to confirm a stage finish in Alençon.
UPDATE 5 October at 0.41AM : L'Orne Hebdo however comes back on this finish in Alençon indicating that "There's nine chances out of ten", according to our informations, without however indicating on what this statistics are based. The newspaper indicates however that Joaquim Pueyo, former mayor of Alençon and deputy of the Orne department, « has created and defended the candidature of Alençon towards the organisation of the Tour for 2017 and 2018. But in 2017, it didn't visit the west of France at all ».UPDATE le 8 October at 0.23AM: Ouest France at its turn confirms this stage once again, especially concerning the start city. This article doesn't bring any new information however.
UPDATE 9 October at 10.55PM: what I already indicated right from the start as a doubt about the finish in Alençon now gets confirmed, this was a rumour which was completely invented if we believe L'Orne Hebdo today and I think we should since this same information was provided to me by a personal source today. This is thus a confirmation of my initial idea of a finish in Chartres, which perfectly corresponds to the hotel reservations which were made right in July already!UPDATE 13 October at 1.39PM: L'Echo Républicain also confirmed this information, presenting it as something new and surprising while it was actually not that new for me ..., even though the mayor of the city, Jean-Pierre Gorges, indicated from his hotel on holidays: Oh really, I didn't know that ... It's surprising, they could have told me. However, if they ask me if I'm OK, I would definitely be!
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8/ Saturday 14 July 2018 - Dreux > Amiens
For the next day, the 8th stage on Saturday 14 July 2018 seems to be more sure. Indeed, CYRILLE95, who I want to thank at this occasion for the information he provides which is always very interesting and reliable :), indicated on 12 July 2017 already that there were hotel reservations in Chartres and in Dreux on the night of 13 July (more recently, a reservation in Villennes-sur-Seine was added to this: that's not extremely close but not that far either) and that thus seemed to indicate a stage start on this national bank holiday from Chartres or Dreux.This information, combined with the information from L'Echo Républicain last year indicating that Dreux would receive the Tour in 2018 or in 2019 if the city passed "the test" of the start of Paris-Tours, thus pointed towards a stage start in Dreux. This would make Dreux a never before visited start city, after having received the start of Paris-Tours in 2016!
It almost seems as if L'Echo Républicain also reads the information provided by CYRILLE95, but with quite some delay because it was only at the end of July that the newspaper ran its research to discover that several hotels were indeed booked by A.S.O. For this research, the newspaper went to see the mayor of the city, Gérard Hamel, who of course doesn't want to confirm anything but who did mention he was contacted by Christian Prudhomme: "He asked me what I thought of this year's race. I exchanged some analyses with him and he invited me at the Palais des congrès, on 17 October. I hope it won't be just to attend to the presentation. It's been ten years we renew our candidature every year! But I can't give you any further comments .... And if that might reassure Mister Hamel, a mayor rarely gets invited to the presentation of the Tour race route for no reason!
The same newspaper again spoke about this start in Dreux on 5 August, with local comments and an article about the possible gains.
According to France Bleu Picardie, the finish of this stage should take place in Amiens and surprisingly this stage would thus go north to come back to Amiens, after 2015 when the stage finished there coming from Arras. Courrier Picard also took over this information the same day, adding something else .. which you'll find a bit further in this article!
3 days later, Courrier Picard did its research in the shadows of the local criterium, the Prix Jean-Renaux, and quotes Alain Gest, president of Amiens Métropole: "We've decided to candidate for 2018 or 2019 and, apparently, ASO is more interested for 2018, probably because of the rest of the race route. The only difficulty for us is that the ongoing big roadworks will not allow the finish to take place in front of the circus, like two years ago. We suggested other finish locations. Franck Perque came here last week to check the feasibility. Next week, it will be the turn of the responsible of the stage finishes. We have good hope, but we don't know anything more, just like we don't know the date either".
Concerning the finish location, the newspaper mentions the Boulevard Beauvillé after the train station as a possible location.
9/ Sunday 15 July 2018 - ??? [[ Compiègne Arras > Roubaix ?? > Verdun ???]]
The start and finish locations of the 9th stage on this Sunday 15 July are not very clear for now, even more because it's most probably the day before the first rest day and the location where hotels are booked thus not necessarily correspond to the finish of this stage. And that's what we see in the hotel reservations mentioned by CYRILLE95 by the way since these are in Aix-les-Bains but also in Saint Dizier. The last mentioned could however give an indication about where this stage is going, if we consider that it's a place where members of the organisation or the advertising caravan will sleep after the stage, so they can continue the route the next day during the rest day.However ... If we believe Le Parisien on 11 August, Compiègne would be a good candidate for the start of this stage, which would be a symbolic way to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War. Indeed, the Armistice was signed at the clairière de Rethondes (which, contrary of what its name could make us think, is not on the territory of Rethondes but on Compiègne's territoy) in the forest next to the city which receives the start of Paris-Roubaix every year, and 100 years later it would thus be a respectful symbol to visit that location.
The additional hotel reservations indicated by CYRILLE95 in Saint-Dizier might correspond to this possibility. Indeed, Saint-Dizier is at about 75 kilometers from a hypothetical finish in Verdun and could be the place where some staff members will spend the night, before they continue their trip towards the rest day location the next day ...
In the same article, Le Parisien also mentions Saint-Quentin as a potential other candidate (in addition to Amiens but that would already be the stage finish the day before) but it's quite less symbolic and at the same distance from Amiens, so it would be more logical that Compiègne wins the race. More recently, on 6 September, Le Parisien (also mentioned by Courrier Picard and Evasion FM the next day) announced that Beauvais is a new candidate for the Tour de France 2018. According to a press release of the city this day, In a few days, the official letter will be handed out to Christian Prudhomme, director of the race, in order to make our candidature official. Despite the support of four cycling champions who come from our territory, more precisely Arnaud Démare, Guillaume Levarlet, Christophe Riblon and Eddy Seigneur, this seems relatively or even much too late to be chosen for 2018. As usual, people say you have to be patient when you're a candidate for the Tour de France to come to its city and it seems like Beauvais didn't really understand this principle when asking to have the race visit the city in only 10 months ... Even though Thierry Gouvenou declared to Courrier Picard "90% of the cities are chosen already for next year. We are currently visiting many of them but it's still feasible if we need a city in this area", I don't think this is really feasible, at least not for 2018. Except if the stage turns out to be an individual time trial between Beauvais and Compiègne, but there again it would probably have been better to send the candidate letter much earlier if they wanted to plan a time trial at this time of the race!
UPDATE 27 September at 7.42PM: for the finish of this 9th stage, it would finally more probably be Roubaix if we believe La Voix du Nord (also mentioned later on by France 3 Hauts-de-France and the Lille edition of 20 Minutes). Indeed, even though Roubaix didn't naturally show up in the rumours so far, the newspaper seems to be quite confident indicating that there's no more doubt possible about the finish of the nineth stage of the next edition of the Tour de France! The local newspaper adds however that the mayor, Guillaume Delbar, prefers to remain excessively evasive about it but indicates at the same time that if there's a doubt possible, it will more probably only be about the start city and not about the finish of this stage.According to the newspaper ASO, the organisor, has already booked all the hotels in the city and its surroundings. It also adds that this stage will not be a « copy of Paris - Roubaix » but could visit cobble stone sections of the Carrefour de l'Arbre and of Gruson, at less than twenty kilometers from the finish without any indications as where these supposed informations are based upon.
UPDATE 8 October at 0.23AM: If we still had some doubts, France Bleu Nord reconfirmed the stage between Compiègne and Roubaix, indicating that the programme of this stage will contain three or four cobble stones sections, including the carrefour de l'Arbre but there again this seems to be more speculation than something else when we read The only problem is to send 200 riders in the small road which goes from Camphin-en-Pévèle to the carrefour de l'Arbre. A cobble stones section of 2,100 meters. The organisors will probably take the option of several cobble stones sections before that in order to prevent the peloton from getting full speed in the carrefour de l'Arbre. France Bleu Nord also reminds that the precise location of the finish in Roubaix is not known yet.
As by thunderstrike however, this article and another article from La Voix du Nord suddenly announced this stage has changed. Indeed, Frédéric Retsin, journalist at La Voix du Nord who's always very well informed about the rumours on the race route of the Tour in the north of France, now anounces in these articles that - because of the final of the World Championships Football in Russia this same day and of which the TV broadcast starts at 6PM French time - this stage has to be relatively short, in order to allow it to finish early. In order to do so, Compiègne would no longer be on the list and Arras would be the happy elected city (for the 3rd time in 5 years, after 2014 and 2015) for the start of this 9th stage this Sunday 15 July 2018. Located only about sixty kilometers from Roubaix via the most direct road, this stage should however be about 150 kilometers long, with a visit of a limited number of cobble stones sections but still including the carrefour de l'Arbre (2,100 m) and the secteur de Gruson (1,100 m) and maybe in addition to that only the secteur de Camphin-en-Pévèle (1,800 m). La Voix du Nord gpoes even further, presenting what could be the full race route of this stage: the stage should start from the "Citadelle d'Arras", and then (...) visit several villages all the long the Scarpe (Saint-Nicolas, Saint-Laurent, Athies, Feuchy, Fampoux, Roeux), and leave the Pas-de-Calais department to get on the usual race route of the classic Paris-Roubaix including the famous cobble stones of the Nord department. Up to the vélodrome of Roubaix, or in front of the parc Barbieux! The Courrier Picard newspaper gives the same information saying that the start would finally be moved to Arras.
R1/ Monday 16 July 2018 - rest day close to Aix-les-Bains
The hotel reservations in Aix-les-Bains would correspond to the rest day location, which could thus be Aix-les-Bains.In any case, it seems to be that - once again - there will be quite a long transfer on this rest day!
10/ Tuesday 17 July 2018 - Aix-les-Bains Annecy > Plateau des Glières - Le Grand-Bornand
The day after the rest day, one could think there would also be a stage start in or close to Aix-les-Bains but that's not confirmed for now and the destination of this stage also remains unknown for now. If we are in Aix-les-Bains for the first rest day, it's quite evident that we're there in order to enter the Alps and this stage could thus be the first mountain stage of the Tour de France 2018.UPDATE 5 October at 0.41AM : in a Facebook publication a company with commercial interests in cycling laconically announced being able to already inform you that the Etape du Tour 2018 will take place between Annecy and Le Grand Bornand (151 km) on Sunday 15 July. If a stage will take place between Annecy and Le Grand-Bornand, this could well be this 10th stage and apparently it could thus also become the Etape du Tour, the cyclotourist stage organised by the organisor of the Tour for several thousands of enthousiasts! It however remains quite unclear where the information of this company come from in order to assure this ...UPDATE 9 October at 10.55PM: today, Le Dauphiné seems however to confirm this stage between Annecy and Le Grand-Bornand in an article announcing two stages in the Savoie. Concerning L'Etape du Tour, the local newspaper for now leaves a doubt about the date, either on Sunday 8 July 2018 or on 15 July 2018, indicating that the date (is) still uncertain. Still according to this newspaper, this stage should not visit the Savoie and contain, in the final part of it, the côte de Romme and Col de la Colombière following up on each other.UPDATE 16 October at 5.58PM : finally it might be just around the corner that the stage will end, in a emotionally charged location of the Resistence. Indeed, France 3 Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes indicates that this first mountain stage would be one of the highlights of this Tour, directly based on the source since Christian Prudhomme has already presented this stage to the local branch of France 3. In order not to make it a mountain top finish right from the start, a dirt road allows the organisation to put the finish away from the end of the climb towards the "plateau": the climb towards the Plateau des Glières, 6 kilometers at 11 % average, is very difficult. It will be followed by almost 2 kilometers dirt road, the roads the Tour used to take way back in history, before they arrive at this location charged full of emotion of the Resistence.CONTINUE READING AFTER THIS ADVERTISEMENT
11/ Wednesday 18 July 2018 - Albertville > La Rosière-Montvalezan
UPDATE 9 October at 10.55PM: Still according to the same article from the Dauphiné newspaper, the 11th stage on this Friday 18 July 2018 would start in Albertville whose mayor, Martine Berthet, addmitted recently that « it was going in the right direction ». For Albertville, this would mean the Tour would be coming back after only one year of absence since last year, in 2016, the 19th stage started there, going towards Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc (with the victory for Romain Bardet).For the finish however, it would be a first, because this would be La Rosière-Montvalezan, the station which has already seen stage finishes of other cycling races, with the Tour de l'Avenir and the Tour des Pays de Savoie. In its paper version, Le Dauphiné goes even further, saying And since the organising company of the Tour de France likes to "test" the finish cities of mountain stages, in the Tour de l'Avenir, and afterwards in the Critérium du Dauphiné, we can imagine that if La Rosière-Montvalezan receives the Tour de France 2018, it would also receive a stage finish of the Critérium du Dauphiné a few weeks before the big party in July. Finally, the newspaper adds that apparently the Collaborating communities of the Haute Tarentaise don't want to stop there because It would be planning to receive a finish on top of the col de l'Iseran, at 2,764 meters, which would make it the highest finish ever in the history of the Tour! The project had been presented to Christian Prudhomme, in 2012 in Albertville.
12/ Thursday 19 July 2018 - Bourg-Saint-Maurice > Alpe d'Huez
And when we're in the Alps, the Alpe d'Huez of course make its comeback among the rumours since the eldest mountain top finish of the Tour de France hasn't been on the programme since 2015. As of today, it's difficult to say whether that will be during this 11th stage or the day before that the race will finish on AdH, like in 2001 when a stage took place between Aix-les-Bains and Alpe d'Huez."Tourtour" and "ctrdy01" mention in their comments even two finishes on top of the Alps ski station, of which one stage in line via the col de Sarenne and one as a time trial, even though ASO seemed to have regretted the conditions in which the time trial took place in 2004 when the public came a little bit too close to the riders!
We'll see whether this gets confirmed or if it is, like in 2013, a circuit visiting Alpe d'Huez before going down and another climb followed by a finish on top ... If that's the case, and if we believe Le Dauphiné in July 2016 this would be in a new form. Speaking of Christian Prudhomme, director of cycling at A.S.O., Jean-Yves Noyrey, the mayor of the Alpe d'Huez, declared then: "He doesn't want to officially confirm a finish every two years and prefers to add one more waiting year before coming back with something which has never been done before" and that's what seems to be what's happening now after an absence in 2016 and in 2017. More precisely, the mayor mentioned "A special climb, via Villard-Reculas or via Sarenne for example", and added "but it's too early to talk about that". Maybe the Dauphiné will go see the mayor again in the next few days to see whether it's still too early to talk about it?! ;-)
UPDATE 9 October at 10.55PM: And today, Le Dauphiné indeed mentioned this stage again, not after having returned to check with the mayor of Alpe d'Huez but to discuss more precisely the start location, which would - according to the newspaper - be Bourg-Saint-Maurice where the waiting time has been much longer than in Albertville since "BSM" hasn't received the Tour de France since the finish and start of two different stages in 2009!13/ Friday 20 July 2018 - Bourg d'Oisans > Valence ??
UPDATE 9 October at 10.55PM: Le Dauphiné publishes another short article, in which the local newspaper announces a start at the foot of the Alpe d'Huez, in Bourg d'Oisans, in direction of the Drôme, with a possible visit of the Vercors.UPDATE 27 September at 7.42PM: France Bleu seems to confirm a finish in Valence, but mentions the date of 20 July 2018 for that, which seems to be one day off compared to the schedule which seemed to sketch out so far. Le Dauphiné also talks about Valence the next day (on 19 September) and indicates that Valence will indeed receive a Tour de France stage on 20 July 2018 but also mentions the dates mentioned so far here in the sentence Some even talk about a finish on the 19th and a stage start on the 20th. The newspaper adds that the mayor, Nicolas Daragon, recognises « being confident about the result of the candidature ».The date thus remains a bit uncertain, but the finish in Valence seems to be confirmed. Either A.S.O. changed its plans to integrate an additional stage or the information about the 20 July is incorrect. In the first case, the article from France 3 Hauts-de-France which mentioned a time trial(...) around the Louvre-Lens based on a hotel source which strangely apparently didn't known the date, could maybe fit in on Monday 16 July - even though France 3 mentions the Saturday 14 July - , thus moving the rest day to Tuesday 17 and so on, to get to Valence on the 20th. To be followed ...
14/ Saturday 21 July 2018 - Valence ??? or Montélimar ??? Tain-l'Hermitage Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux > Mende
While CYRILLE95 has published the information about hotel reservations in Valence, he indicated that the city "would be a stage city", which means there will be a finish and a stage start and thus that this 13th stage would also start in this city which the Tour visited for the last time in 2015, for a stage coming from Mende. However, A.S.O. has also booked hotel rooms in Montélimar so it could well be a possible candidate for the start of this stage on Saturday 21 July 2018 as well! UPDATE 13 October at 1.39PM: and since according to France Bleu, the collaborating cities of Valence-Romans have voted the financial envelope to receive the two races (the Tour and the Dauphiné as well apparently!) and the fact that the radio indicates that this will be for a stage finish, I thus imagine that the stage start will indeed not be in Valence.UPDATE 16 October at 5.58PM : and at this day before the presentation of the Tour de France 2018 we find out that it'll indeed not be Valence which will be on the map for the start of this stage, but that it won't go further south to a start in Montélimar as I imagined, but And it would precisely be in Mende that we would see the finish of the 14th stage in the second weekend of the race, if we believe France Bleu Gard Lozère and the radio which is one of the sponsors of the Tour de France seems to use local hotel reservations to come to this conclusion. Of course we knew Mende for its Montée Jalabert (Côte de la Croix-Neuve), where the last finish of the Tour took place in 2015 (see the stage race route map and profile), at the level of the aerodrome.
This finish apparently seems to be a problem for the semi-marathon Marvejols-Mende as we can read in this article from France 3 Occitanie, following which the mayor of Mende, Laurent Suau, commented in this article from Midi Libre in which the mayor mainly declares: "I'm surprised by what's being said in the press and on the social networks about the organisation of the semi Marvejols-Mende 2018. Surpriced and shocked by the direct attack against the city of Mende. They talk about the "death" of the semi, about "guilty people" who would, if I understand correctly, be local elected people and more in particular the mayor of Mende. This all is quite violent and exaggerated. Because the choice of the stages and dates is not done by local elected people. Otherwise I would of course have chosen the 14th of July" ... He adds that the semi-marathon has already been delayed for one week in 2010, when Jean-Claude Moulin (the same guy who talks about the impossibility to do so!) was representative for sports at the city of Mende and he also says that the argument saying that, 20 years ago, it was impossible to organise this event the last weekend of July "because of the heavy traffic on the roads" is no longer a problem, explaining "that we then were" (20 years ago) "in the particular context of the construction of the A75 and everyone still has in mind the traffic jams and the heavy traffic in Mende in the weekends of July and August. Today, things are really different" ... It thus seems that this sports event might have a bigger problem to survive because of its communication methods which don't seem to be very fair-play than by the venue of the Tour de France, even though, fortunately, the mayor immediately reassures the organisation about that: "I keep working with the organisors of the semi-marathon Marvejols Mende in order to make sure this event will be present in the 2018 calendar and in the one of the upcoming years" ... Fortunately the mayor of Mende is not looking for revenge :) !
After the article from France Bleu, Midi Libre published this same information (just like France 3 Occitanie which publishes in the same article with this serious rumour a map which is completely fake, taken from a contest in which people create maps which almost look exactly like the official one, with no single respect for brands rights and other rights about the elements which are in fact protected and should not be used in this way), explaining that Christian Prudhomme would have said to Alain Bertrand, senator, and Laurent Suau, the mayor of Mende, "that a start and a finish in Mende, like last time in 2015, was complicated because teams had had to sleep one hour driving from Mende, which creates a discrimination between the groups", indicating furthermore that he "also confirmed he was looking for a city close to Mende for a stage which would allow to keep things equal for all the teams".
In this contexte, the newspaper mentions a stage Millau-Mende, but it in fact should have said a combination Millau and Mende ...
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15/ Sunday 22 July 2018 - Millau > Narbonne Carcassonne
And that perfectlyt fits to what CYRILLE95 confirmed us about hotel reservations in Millau and Rodez on 21 July at night and the Journal de Millau indicates that a stage start in Millau seems to get confirmed (also mentioning, probably making a mistake there, a stage Millau > Mende), but doesn't seem to be completely convinced about it. According to Centre Presse Aveyron (a version freely accessible of the same article on Midi Libre), it would be possible that the start would take place on the famous viaduct of Millau, explaining at the same time that the organising company, A.S.O., would have sollicited Millau in order to solve the problem about the hotels in Mende mentioned above: during the previous visit in the main city of the Lozère there were big housing problems, for the technical teams mainly. In order for the Tour to come back, there should thus be a stage start the next day from a city not far from there which has complimentary infrastructures. That's the case for Millau, which already had several members of the advertising caravan that year. Concerning the start from the viaduct itself, nothing seems to be confirmed so far ...For the finish of this stage,
UPDATE 27 September at 7.42PM: L'Indépendant (and more in detail here for its members) indicates that it would finally be the medieval city of Carcassonne which would have a big visit of the Tour, from 22 till 24 July, with a finish, the rest day and the start the next day! According to the newspaper this would be the result of an idea which was born on the start line of the stage of the Tour de France 2016 in Carcassonne about a « very big stage » in 2018, which would in fact have been a time trial in the center of Carcassonne, using the « magnificant decor of the "Cité" ». Even though the change of dates of the Tour de France 2018 prevents this idea from becoming reality, Carcassonne would finally be a lucky candidate anyway, maybe even better than with a time trial, with this combination of finish, rest day and start.R2/ Monday 23 July 2018 - rest day in Carcassonne Narbonne
16/ Tuesday 24 July 2018 - Carcassonne > Luchon or Vielha (ES) ???
UPDATE 5 October at 0.41AM : After the start in Carcassonne, the destination of this stage remains unknown for now, but La Dépêche decides to give some background which could make us believe in a stage finish at Superbagnères or by default in Luchon ... to be continued!UPDATE 9 October at 10.55PM: and according to my informations this could well be Luchon which wins the right to be the finish location, or maybe Vielha, just on the other side of the border with Spain!!17/ Wednesday 25 July 2018 - Bagnères-de-Luchon > Saint-Lary-Soulan - Col de Portet Pau
After a rest day in The stages which will take place there more precisely remain unknown for now, but that's normal at this time of the year!
UPDATE 27 September at 7.42PM: And it's certainly not the article from Presselib.com which gives us any specific new information, gathering together, without any hierarchisation, all infos which we more or less vaguely heard before concerning the Pyrenean visit of this Tour, and the same goes for La Rép des Pyrénées which is pretty much the same thing ...UPDATE 8 October at 0.23AM: What comes back all the time however is the famous "4 days in Pau". I haven't mentioned it here so far, simply because that doesn't indicate that much in terms of start and finish cities of the different stages and that is what this article is all about. Personally I don't really care whether people sleep in Pau for 4 nights or not ;-). We thus know that the Tour de France 2018 will spend 4 days in Pau. What would we do there during for this if the city of Pau itself wouldn't have the honour to figure on the map of the Tour? UPDATE 13 October at 1.39PM: According to Sud Ouest, it will be a stage finish and the newspaper imagines that this can be on Wednesday coming from the Occitanie region, without however giving any idea about the precise start location, nor about the precise date of the finish in Pau (it could well be on Friday 27 as well). For the start, no information available so far but one could imagine that it would take place close to Luchon, but not necessarily in the same city as the finish the day before, especially also because Sud Ouest talks about two stage starts (of which one would logically be this one) and two finishes.
UPDATE 16 October at 9AM : In the latest article by La Dépêche the local newspaper reintegrates in its usual article the day before the presentation a finish in Pau, coming from Luchon. And looking at the map which seems to be the final one, that's the least that Pau could expect since, without this finish, the only privilege (economically a very big one!) would be to house the teams and a part of the followers for 4 days ...UPDATE 16 October at 5.58PM : according to my informations this will however not be the finish location of this stage .. but of the next one!
Indeed, the stage would actually go towards Saint-Lary-Soulan as initially expected, and more precisely to the Col de Portet, instead of the usual Pla d'Adet! France 3 mentions for that roadworks which need to be planned to transform the farmer's road into a real road to finish at a 2,115 meters altitude!
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18/ Thursday 26 July 2018 - Trie-sur-Baïse > Pau Lourdes > Luz Ardiden
However, according to the information I recently got and which clearly remain to be verified, one of the stages from this logistical base could be a stage between Lourdes and the ski station Luz-Arrdiden (in the village of Luz-Saint-Sauveur). No final confirmation so far about this stage and not a confirmation of the date either. It thus remains to be seen whether this gets confirmed thanks to the local media!UPDATE 13 October at 1.39PM: talking of local media, Sud Ouest seems to mention rather Le Pla d'Adet which is part of Saint-Lary-Soulan. Let's see which one of the two ski stations will be the happy winner!UPDATE 16 October at 5.58PM : according to my informations, this would thus be a bit of a surprise stage, with a finish in Pau after a start from Trie-sur-Baïse north of Lannemezan. Indeed, the name of this small village has been mentioned by France 3 Occitanie (starting at 13'10") and this has also been confirmed to me by two personal sources later today. What's been added by one of these sources is that this will be the stage which finishes in Pau ... we'll see tomorrow which roads will be used to get to this city which is used to be on the map of the Tour!19/ Friday 27 July 2018 - Pau ?? Sare Lourdes > Laruns-Artouste - time trial???
UPDATE 16 October at 9AM : And concerning the start of this last stage in line before the final in Paris, La Dépêche seems to have found the location in the village of Sare which seems to have been added to the map out of the blue and which is not bigger than only a small number of less than 3000 inhabitants. This would thus be a never before seen start location, in the Bask country, and the Saratars (people who live there) and the riders of the Tour de France 2018 will thus most probably see a beautiful mountain stage ahead that day.UPDATE 16 October at 5.58PM : finally, according to my informations, the start from Lourdes would be this day and the Tour would thus not go do a big and useless detour in Sare to come back to sleep in Pau ...UPDATE 13 October at 1.39PM: the newspaper La République des Pyrénées announced yesterday that there's a big suspicion about a finish on the territory of the city of Laruns. Without knowing further details, the newspaper mentions a possible mountain top finish and mentions for that the huge parking at the ski station of Artouste ... The newspaper however ends its article saying: But that's just an hypothesis, of course ... so this all remains to be confirmed!20/ Saturday 28 July 2018
UPDATE 5 October at 0.41AM : these days, la Semaine du Pays-Basque, of which we only find the first page on its Facebook page, but also France Bleu Pays Basque indicated that the Tour de France 2018 would have a stage start in Saint-Pée-sur-Nivelle in the Bask country and even that this would most probably even be the last mountain stage before the finish on the Champs-Elysées (which doesn't indicate the date of this stage however because it can still be followed, or not, by a time trial before the transfer to Paris). The finish of this stage also remains unknown for now.EITB at its turn indicates on one hand that it's writing based on the information provided by France Bleu Pays Basque, but suddenly also says that this would be a time trial of about thirty kilometers, going towards Espelette. Surprising however that EITB mentions France Bleu as its source, but also -at first sight- provides informations which are on one side complimentary and on the other contradictory. We'll see the next few days what gets confirmed in the end ...
UPDATE 13 October at 1.39PM: France Bleu Pays Basque however came back on this stage (just like Sud Ouest), presenting it now indeed as an individual time trial and thus as the decisive stage in the Bask Country, adding what could be the race route of it. It should, according to the radio be a hilly race route which should take the col de Pinodieta but not the Rhune. For the rest, I invite you to read the article because I prefer not announcing any information about a precise race route of a specific stage.For the night of this stage, CYRILLE95 indicates surprising hotel bookings in Niort, too far from Bordeaux for a time trial and even if a stage in line would be possible (let's not exclude it for now!), it is also pretty much possible that these reservations simply corresp to the location where people from the staff will sleep during there transfer towards Paris where the race will be the next day ... to be continued thus!
21/ Sunday 29 July 2018 - Compiègne ??? Houilles > Paris - Champs-Elysées
About the very last stage of the Tour de France we always know, and thus also for the Tour de France 2018, that it finishes in Paris, on the Champs-Elysées.However, the start city is often much more difficult to find and that's apparently also the case this year ... at least for now! UPDATE 8 October at 0.23AM : unless the cancellation of Compiègne for the 9th stage towards Roubaix would lead to the choice of Compiègne as the start location of the very last stage of the Tour de France 2018?
UPDATE 16 October at 5.58PM : finally it would not be Compiègne which would be placed back here for the start of this last stage! Indeed, the start would be in Houilles which also saw the prologue of Paris-Nice in 2013! Situated west of Paris, this city would most probably allow to get to the capital, passing in front of the new headquarters of A.S.O. in Boulogne-Billancourt.The table with the stages of the Tour de France 2018 based on the rumours
Hereunder you'll find the list of stages which could form the race route of the Tour de France 2018 according to all these rumours. As usual there's no use in copying this tablea and reproduce it elsewhere because only here this table will be updated regularly based on any new rumours coming up! All copies of the contents (even partially) of this article is by the way strictly forbidden.| # | date | start | finish | comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sa. 7 July 2018 | Noirmoutier-en-l'Île | Fontenay-le-Comte | 195 km |
| 2 | Su. 8 July 2018 | Mouilleron-Saint-Germain | La Roche-sur-Yon | 185 km |
| 3 | Mon. 9 July 2018 | Cholet | Cholet | team time trial - 35 km |
| 4 | Tue. 10 July 2018 | La Baule | Sarzeau (presqu'île de Rhuys) | |
| 5 | Wed. 11 July 2018 | Lorient | Quimper | |
| 6 | Th.12 July 2018 | Brest | Mûr-de-Bretagne | |
| 7 | Fri. 13 July 2018 | Fougères | Chartres | |
| 8 | Sa. 14 July 2018 | Dreux | Amiens | |
| 9 | Su. 15 July 2018 | Arras | Roubaix | |
| R1 | Mon. 16 July 2018 | rest day in Aix-les-Bains | ||
| 10 | Tue. 17 July 2018 | Annecy | Plateau des Glières - Le Grand-Bornand |  |
| 11 | Wed. 18 July 2018 | Albertville | La Rosière-Montvalezan | |
| 12 | Th.19 July 2018 | Bourg-Saint-Maurice | L'Alpe d'Huez | |
| 13 | Fri. 20 July 2018 | Bourg d'Oisans | Valence | |
| 14 | Sa. 21 July 2018 | Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux | Mende | |
| 15 | Su. 22 July 2018 | Millau | Carcassonne | |
| R2 | Mon. 23 July 2018 | rest day in Carcassonne | ||
| 16 | Tue. 24 July 2018 | Carcassonne | Bagnères-de-Luchon | |
| 17 | Wed. 25 July 2018 | Bagnères-de-Luchon | Saint-Lary-Soulan - Col de Portet | |
| 18 | Th.26 July 2018 | Trie-sur-Baïse | Pau | |
| 19 | Fri. 27 July 2018 | Lourdes | Laruns-Artouste | |
| 20 | Sa. 28 July 2018 | Saint-Pée-sur-Nivelle | Espelette | ITT |
| 21 | Su. 29 July 2018 | Houilles | Paris Champs-Elysées | |
The map of the Tour de France 2018 based on the rumours
As usual, I created a map of the Tour de France 2018 based on the rumours in order to make all this easier to understand with a visual representation. There again, no need to copy the map and reproduce it elsewhere (which is by the way strictly forbidden, as indicated on the copyright page) because only here, this map will be updated regularly based on new rumours coming up!(in order to zoom in on the map, click on it when the magnifying glass shows up, and click on the arrows in the bottom right corner to show the full size map)
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While this first stage should have started on the Passage du Gois, like in 2011, this touristical visit of the submersible road will finally not be possible! Indeed, starting the race one week later will have the high tide make it impossible for the race to take this route (the low tide will be at 5.57AM and at 6.36PM that day).
Currently A.S.O. is studying alternative ways to organise the official start of the race, for example via Fromentine after a start on the island of Noirmoutier
UPDATE 13 October at 1.39PM: apparently a solution has been found, which will be - according to Ouest France - to have a fictive start of the race (...) at 11.20AM, place Florent-Caillaud, in Noirmoutier-en-l'Ile followed by a neutralised ride of 5.3?km in the salt evaporation ponds. The real start will be in between L'Épine and La Guérinière (...) The riders will get onto the continent via the bridge of Noirmoutier.
For this stage, Yves Auvinet, president of the conseil départemental of the Vendée, precised in Ouest France that the finish of this stage will take place on the boulevard Eylau in La Roche-sur-Yon.
UPDATE 13 October at 1.39PM: and this information has now been confirmed according to Ouest France, just like the start location in Mouilleron-Saint-Germain which will be the Place de la Poste.
Cholet has already started showing advertisements in the streets announcing the venue of the Tour !