Monday 26 March 2007 at 00h37

On July 7, 2007 the Tour de France 2007 starts with the prologue in London. With a sidetrip through Belgium and one of the stages partly going through Spain (without stopping in the country though), the Tour de France then stops by in several cities in France.
These cities pay a relatively big amount of money to the Tour de France organisation to have the Tour start or finish in their city. This is interesting for those cities since the Tour de France is the third world wide most broadcasted sports event, after the Olympic Games and the World Championship Football, knowing that the Tour is organised each year while the other two are organised only once each 4 years. The Tour de France is being broadcasted, either live or as a recap, in 185 countries around the globe. In addition to that the Tour de France of course also leads to more tourisme in these cities with people spending money during their stay.

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UPDATE 7 May 2007: with only 2 months to go before the Tour de France departure from London, I made another round on the different city web sites and that allowed me to find some new information:
- first stage: addition of the Canterbury website (this website already existed but I simply didn't find it when I published the original version of this article)
- second stage: reference to the many events being organised by the city of Gent
- fourth stage: addition of Villers-Cotterêts website and photo exposition in Joigny
- fifth stage: addition of a game 'Grand Jeu de l'Avantour'
- sixth stage: addition of a new article on Semur-en-Auxois' web site and additional information for Bourg-en-Bresse
- seventh/eighth stage: addition of information for Le Grand Bornand
- fourteenth stage: additional information for Mazamet
- sixteenth stage: additional information for Orthez
- seventeenth stage: added information about A chacun son Tour for Pau
- eighteenth stage: addition mini web site for Angoulême
In addition to this, I did some minor modifications such as corrections of some of the links or adding the logos for departure / finish cities for Chablis, Le Grand-Bornand, Val d'Isère, Tallard, Mazamet and Angoulême.

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With less then 4 months to go before the start of the Tour I made a tour around the websites of the different Tour cities to see how much they communicate around their privilege of being a Tour city. It turns out to be very different from city to city: some cities really see the Tour as a very important event and have reserved a lot of space on their website around it, while others don't mention it at all!! Some websites contain the city council meeting notes and in those cases it's sometimes funny to read that there have been big discussions around the costs and the benefits of the Tour finishing or starting there.

Below, you can find an overview of what a quik tour on the different city websites gives in March 2007. During the following months, I'll regularly update this article with links to information on the websites of the different cities, departments or regions. This article also gives, whenever available, links to detailed stage itineraries and each stage is preceded by the logo which is a link to the page on the Tour website which describes that stage.

London

London has an important role in the Tour de France 2007: as the city where the prologue and the first stage start, London will probably be much more well known by cycling fans after this summer! A special website informs people who are interested about what's going to happen early July in and around London.
The party starts on July 6, 2007 with an opening ceremony on Trafalgar Square in London. This freely accessible party on this big place will probably allow the Tour fever to grow very high rather quickly!

The prologue

This year's Tour's prologue is an individual time trial in London with a distance of 8 kilometres which will lead the advertising caravan, the cyclists and their followers close to several London monuments on July 7, 2007 (a nice digital representation would be 07/07/07!!): after the start, they'll first see the Houses of Parliament and the Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Wellington Arch, Albert Memorial and the Serpentine Gallery (modern art).
Several information sources are available to get more information on the stage's itinerary: especially an interactive map and a very detailed overview projected on a map of London (, 16,69 MB).

The first stage: London > Canterbury

On July 8 juli the cyclists leave London for the first stage, through different parts of the Greater London area and through the county of Kent to Canterbury. This stage has 203 kilometres and in addition to a interactive map I also found a step-by-step stage itinerary and the following detailed maps:
- London: Overview map; 1/ Central London, 2/ Greenwhich, 3/ Plumstead, 4/ Erith and 5/ Dartford
- Kent: Overview map; 1/ Dartford > Gravesend, 2/ Medway Towns, 3/ Maidstone, 4/ Tonbridge & Royal Tunbridge Wells, 5/ Horsmonden > Tenterden, 6/ Tenterden > Ashford, 7/ Sellindge > Stowting and 8/ Canterbury

Finally the Tour de France London website also contains a nice 3D video flythrough of the prologue and the first stage and some interesting information can also be found on Canterbury's Tour de France web site, including the list of events organised around the Tour de France.

Dunkerque > Gent

The second stage, on Monday July 9, goes from the Dunkerque in the north of France (in the Nord department in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region ) to Gent in Belgium: a distance of about 167 kilometres over the typical roads of the cyclist classics De Ronde van Vlaanderen, Het Volk and Gent-Wevelgem.
The start in Dunkerque is planned to be at 1.25PM and the cyclists will then go through Poperinge, Ieper, Diksmuide, Nieuwpoort, Middelkerke, Gistel, Tielt, Deinze (Wortegem), Bachte-Maria-Leerne and Drongen to Gent where they will go over the Deinsesteenweg, Drongensesteenweg, Rooigemlaan, Einde Were, Antonius Triestlaan, Martelaarslaan, Godshuizenlaan and IJzerlaan to arrive around 5.15PM at the Charles de Kerchovelaan. Based on this information I used Google Maps to create an overview of this stage's itinerary (exclusively based on cities they'll go through, the exact itinerary might be a little bit different).

While the website of the city of Dunkerque only contains a very short message about the start of this stage Gent has a detailed article about the arrival of the stage, some information about the stage's itinerary and even a dedicated website, tourgent.be .
Gent organises a very complete program of events around the Tour de France : with the name 'Feest mee aan den arrivée' (party with us at the finish) the Tour finish and the period before it will become a big party for Gent and Flanders. Some examples are a theater show about the Tour de France 1948 called Tour de Force , turning the Sint-Pietersplein into a second Montmartre on 7, 8 and 9 July with amateur artists and a 'La douce France' atmosphere and a training program called Start to bike having as final goal to come to Gent on July 9th by bike! Many other events will be organised, and on the day of the Tour a big screen will not only show the Tour, but also movies such as Les Triplettes de Belleville.

Waregem > Compiègne

The third stage, on Tuesday July 10, 2007, will bring the cyclists back from Belgium to France, to Compiègne, in the Oise department , Picardie region over a distance of 236 kilometres.
Waregem created a dedicated Tour website on which we can find the whole programme of activities around the Tour which runs since March 5 and will continue till the day on which this Tour stage will take place. On the same website we also find the address of a real Tour shop which recently opened its doors in Waregem.

The start in Waregem will be at the Regenboogstadion.

Not sure whether that's even possible, but it looks like Compiègne has created an even more complete Tour website gemaakt . On this website we find information about the finish of this third stage of the Tour de France 2007, but also a retrospective of the previous Tour stages in this city with a lot of photos and newspaper articles which were published at that time: in 1980 and in 1981 .

Nice to know

This third stage of the Tour de France is the longest stage of the Tour de France 2007!

Villers-Cotterêts > Joigny

On Wednesday July 11, 2007 the fourth stage of the Tour de France is a 190 kilometres trip from Villers-Cotterêts in the Aisne, region Picardie, to Joigny in the Yonne, region Bourgogne.
Villers-Cotterêts' homepage now refers to a page which is completely dedicated to this stage of the Tour de France and which contains detailed information about for example the advertising caravan parking, the village départ, the team parking, the start location, a map of the stage, 4 contests (!), etc. but also about the 14 beech trees which have been or will be planted as a symbolic compensation to absorb the pollution of the Tour vehicles. Joigny's website contains an article on the arrival and now also announces an exposition of photos, drawings and caricatures on the Tour de France (14 to 27 May). This stage finishes in Joigny with a sprint in front of the town hall!

Chablis > Autun

The next day the cyclists will go in 184 kilometres from Chablis in the Yonne to Autun in Saône-et-Loire.
The Yonne department's website contains a dedicated page on the Tour de France, which among others contains an overview of the cities they'll go by during this stage. The same website now also announces a game called Grand Jeu de l'Avantour which allows, by just putting a sticker of the Tour de France in the Yonne on your car, to win several prizes such as a Skoda Fabia!

Chablis' website only contains information on the Tour de France in its events calendar for July 2007.
Autun however has created a dedicated website, Autun accueille le Tour de France. On this site we find information about several events the city organises since February 22 (that night the Tour stage arrival was announced at a specific party) until the arrival of this stage. On the day of the arrival Autun also organises several events and a big party which starts at 11.00AM and which will continue deep into the night .

This stage's track, which will lead the cyclists and their followers from Chablis through Avallon, Bazoches, Château-Chinon, Bibracte, Etang sur Arroux and Mesvres to the future parc des expositions close to the RN80 in Autun, can be found in the PDF file on Autun's website . In addition to this, it also contains an overview of the times at which the cyclists will be in the different cities of this stage (as far as I know this is the first stage for which this is completely available already!!). Finally, their website also contains a detailed overview of the arrival in Autun and a Flash animation of that same arrival.

Semur-en-Auxois > Bourg-en-Bresse

On Friday the 13th the Tour will briefly go back north to the start city Semur-en-Auxois whose website contains an article about the start of this Tour stage including a short movie of the announcement of this event in the city council meeting . Recently, Semur-en-Auxois has published an article on its website which is called 'Semur attend son Tour' (this of course means Semur is waiting for the Tour, but also Semur is waiting its turn). This article contains some information about the fêtes de la Bague in Semur for which Christian Prudhomme, Tour director, will be the President and it also contains detailed information about the stage, the village départ, the start place and the stage on which the cyclists will sign before starting that day's stage.

After exactly 200 kilometres this stage will arrive in Bourg-en-Bresse (in the Ain department), which also is the start city for the next day's stage. While Bourg-en-Bresse's website only contained a very short article about it some time ago, they have now added some information about the program towards the Tour, the preparations and the program in July and also a lookback to the Tour in Bourg-en-Bresse in 2002.

Bourg-en-Bresse > Le Grand-Bornand

The seventh stage - which will take place on France's national holiday, July 14, 2007, will take the cyclists from Bourg-en-Bresse to the skiing area of Le Grand-Bornand in 197 kilometres. Le Grand-Bornand (in the Haute-Savoie, Rhône-Alpes) also is a start and finish city and - now the winter season is over - they have found the time to publish some information about this event on its web site: a dedicated page contains inforation on the arrival and departure of the stages on July 14 and 15 and another dedicated page presents the program of the activities around Ŕ chacun son Tour which will be at the Grand-Bornand on June 9 and 10.

Le Grand-Bornand > Tignes

The previous day's stage arrives here and on July 15 the Tour starts again in Le Grand-Bornand. 165 kilometres from there, this stage arrives in Tignes in the Savoie. Tignes, a skiing area like Le Grand-Bornand, did have enough time to put a dedicated page on its website which includes an overview of the stage's profile and photomontage which welcomes the Tour to Tignes.
Tignes welcomes the Tour. The stage on July 15 arrives in Tignes and on July 16 the cyclists and their followers will spend the rest day here as well.

Val d'Isère > Briançon

After the day off, the Tour continues on July 17 with a 161 kilometres stage from Val d'Isère in Savoie to Briançon in the Hautes-Alpes (PACA region - PACA is short for Provence - Alpes - Côte d'Azur). The ski area of Val d'Isère doesn't have anything about the Tour on its website (yet), but the Club des Sports de Val d'Isère's website does contain some information about it.
On Briançon's website we currently only find a very short text which has been published in February when the Tour's track was announced, and a comment stating Plus d'information dans les jours à venir... but so far nothing more has been published!!

Tallard > Marseille

Tallard is a small city in the Hautes-Alpes with 1500 to 2000 inhabitants (depending on which page of their website you're visiting ;-). Tallard's website is still under construction and when you take a detailed look at it, it seems like it was created especially because of the Tour de France stage starting in Tallard!
The city where this stage finishes, Marseille, a very big city compared to Tallard, doesn't come up with any results on its website when using their search engine to search for 'Tour de France'.

Marseille > Montpellier

Marseille also is the start city of Thursday July 19th stage which will take the cyclists and all the following cars over a distance of 180 kilometres to Montpellier in the Hérault department (Languedoc Roussillon region).
Montpellier's website also doesn't contain any information about the Tour de France and when you do a search in their online agenda for events on July 19th, the website simply says there's no event planned on that day ...

Montpellier > Castres

The next day, July 20, the 12th stage also starts in Montpellier. This stage arrives in Castres after 179 kilometres.
Castres very recently added a page about the Tour stage arrival to its website. This page contains a map of the arrival which will be around 5.00PM close to number 14 on Avenue Charles-de-Gaulle. The party in the city will start at 1PM and the advertising caravan will arrive around 3.30PM in Castres.

Albi > Albi

The 13th stage - on July 21st - is an individual time trial of around 54 kilometres which starts and finishes in Albi.
This will be the 11th time already the Tour de France visits Albi and they therefore have a dedicated page on their website which contains information about this stage. On this page you can find several things, including an overview of the part of the stage's track which is on Albi's ground. Based on the information which can be found on the same page I created a map using Google Maps which shows the complete track of this time trial stage.
Finally, the same page includes a short interview with Cédric Coutouly of the Agritubel team, who is the local cyclist who did his first Tour last year and finished 87th, but for some reason this interview has been removed at the last update of that page.

Mazamet > Plateau-de-Beille

Mazamet in de Tarn does have a picture of two cyclists on its website and recently also added an announcement of this Tour de France stage . Plateau-de-Beille, 197 kilometres further in this stage, in the Ariège doesn't say anything about the Tour de France either on its website.

Foix > Loudenvielle - Le Louron

The start of July 23rd's stage will be in Foix (Ariège) and will lead the cyclists over 196 kilometres to the finish in Loudenvielle in the Vallée du Louron (Hautes-Pyrénées department in the Midi Pyrénées region).
A week before, this stage will already be disputed between amateur cyclists who participate in the Etape du Tour.
On Foix' website we find a short article about the Etape du Tour on July 16 and an even shorter article about the real Tour stage on July 23rd. The Vallée du Louron website contains a little bit more information, such as a retrospective on previous Tour de France stages in the area in 1991, 1997 and 2003.

Pau

On July 24 the cyclists will get their second rest day in this Tour. This day will be spent by the cyclists and their followers in Pau.

Orthez > Gourette - Col d'Aubisque

The Orthez to Gourette / Col d'Aubisque stage is another long mountain stage over 218 kilometres. Orthez' website (Pyrénées-Atlantique department, Aquitaine region), contains Orthez' ville départ logo, and now also some information about the start of the stage on July 25th, but unfortunately this page only works correctly when using Internet Explorer :-(.
Gourette's website - Eaux-Bonnes Gourette actually, in the same department and where this Tour stage will finish - contains a dedicated page about 'the event' including an overview of the different mountains which are part of the stage (Col de Larrau, Col de la Pierre Saint-Martin, Col de Marie-Blanque and finally the finish mountain the Col de l'Aubisque). There's not much further information, but maybe that'll change between now and July 25th!

Pau > Castelsarrasin

Pau (Pyrénées-Atlantique) and Castelsarrasin (Tarn et Garonne) apparently don't feel the Tour stage which connects these two cities on July 26th is that important yet to talk about it on their websites. However, Pau now does talk about the activities around the Ŕ chacun son Tour program on its web site.

Cahors > Angoulême

Cahors, in the Lot, has created a dedicated mini-site within its own website. Although this site is pretty difficult to find, it gives a pretty complete overview of this stage and a retrospective on the Tour stages in Cahors in 1994 with the different news paper articles which were published at that time.
On its website, Angoulême recently also created a mini site dedicated to the Tour de France : in its intro Angoulême especially mentions the fact that they've been waiting to get the Tour de France back in the city for over five years ... after 30 years of absence they finally got it back ... and not once but even twice since Angoulême is the finish city for both July 27th as July 28th.

Cognac > Angoulême

For the forelast day of the Tour we'll again see an individual time trial (as usual) which takes the cyclists in 55 kilometres from Cognac to Angoulême.
Cognac dedicated an article about this in its Cognac Le Mag' in December 2006 on page 18.
The arrival in Angoulême might be quite exciting, since it will probably heavily influence the final ranking of the Tour de France 2007 ...

Marcoussis > Paris - Champs-Elysées

After a trip by TGV from Angoulême to Parijs, the final stage on Sunday July 29 starts in Marcoussis. While Marcoussis is at only 37 kilometres from Paris, this stage is 130 kilometres long!
This stage is usually not very important for the final ranking and is often used to have some fun in the peloton.
For Paris the arrival of the Tour has become that ordinary that the website paris.fr doesn't talk about it at all (yet). Marcoussis doesn't mention the start of this final Tour stage on its website either.

At the end of these 3 weeks of Tour de France the cyclists, their followers and the advertising caravan will have went over a distance of 3547 kilometres ... we'll see who will be able to celebrate that in a yellow jersey on the Champs Elysées!!

Did you find any further information about the Tour de France on any other website and which might be interesting to complete this article or to write a new article, please let me know by posting your comment below!!

door Thomas Vergouwen
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