Thursday 04 October 2007 at 21h15

This article is maintained in its current state and no longer being updated; I recommend you consult my article about the official stage details of the Tour de France 2008

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In exactly 3 weeks (on Thursday October 25th, the last Thursday in October) the stage details and the theme of the Tour de France 2008 will be presented in the Palais des Congrès in Paris.
For the first two stages the start and finish cities have been announced by A.S.O. on January 25th. The start city for the third stage was also announced that day.

So for the next three weeks, apart from the final finish on the Champs-Elysées in Paris, the details of the other stages should still be secret, so what you'll read here is mostly based on rumours ... which might well become truth ...

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UPDATE 12 October 2007: additional details for July 20 till 23, 2008, overview of stages and a map
UPDATE 14 October 2007: added information on Pyrénées stages
UPDATE 15 October 2007: added finish for the stage Cuneo > Alpe d'Huez :-) and start for the stage Roanne > Montluçon
UPDATE 20 October 2007: several updates based on combined information from different sources + added detailed stage tracks for the first two stages + update of the interactive map
UPDATE 21 October 2007: information on Alp stages completed and updated
UPDATE 22 October 2007: added potential start for the last stage to Paris + finish Prato Nevoso

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The Tour de France 2008 will start on July 5th, 2008 in Brest and will finish in Paris on July 27th.

The 'Grand Départ' in Brittany

This year for the first time it will not be a city which will organise the 'Grand Départ' of the Tour de France (like Strasbourg in 2006, London in 2007 and Monaco in 2009) but a whole region, Brittany.

This is also said to be one of the reasons of not having a prologue in the Tour de France 2008 which will directly start with a regular stage which will connect two Breton cities and will go through a big part of this region. Brittany would have wanted this Tour start to be a party for the whole region and that was of course incompatible with a time trial prologue in the center of the start city (Brest). In the three Breton stages together the riders will see 500 kilometers of Breton roads!
Of course A.S.O. (Jean-François Pescheux - directeur des courses - , Christian Prudhomme - director of the Tour de France - and Bernard Hinault, ...) explain that not having a prologue is a wished change which will add something original and more excitement and suspense to the start of the Tour since any rider could win this first stage and start the Tour de France in the yellow jersey.
Marc Madiot, manager of the Française des Jeux team, said about this: this choice leaves all scenarios possible. That must be the organiser's goal, at least that's what I think ....

While for London the Tour start in 2007 was a first, this is definitely not the case for Brittany or for Brest. It will actually be the sixth time the Tour de France starts in Brittany and the thirs time from Brest (1952 - first start in Brittany, 1974 and now 2008). The other Tour starts in Brittany were in Rennes in 1964, Plumelec (prologue) and Vannes (first stage) in 1985 and Saint-Brieuc (prologue) and Dinan (first stage) in 1995.
Besides these starts there have been many other Tour de France stage which passed through Brittany, the first one being in Rennes in 1905. Brest is the most often visited start or finish city in Brittany: in 2008 it will be the 29^th time.

With four Breton Tour winners in the Tour history (Lucien Petit-Breton, whose real name was Lucien Mazan, in 1907 and 1908, Jean Robic who took the yellow jersey only at the end of the last stage in 1947, Louison Bobet in 1953, 1954 and 1955 and finally Bernard Hinault in 1978, 1979, 1981, 1982 and 1985) and many Breton supporters for all Tour de France stages (I even lost the count of the number of Breton flags I saw during the Tour de France 2007), it seems to be normal for the Tour de France to be back with a 'Grand Départ' after 13 years without it in Brittany. I think there will be many people along the tracks of the different stages!

First stage - Brest > Plumelec, Saturday 5 July 2008

The first stage of this 95th Tour de France will start in Brest in the Finistère and will finish in Plumelec in the Morbihan. As mentioned before, for the first time in 1967, this will not be a prologue but a regular first stage. Passing over the Monts d'Arrée, this first stage will probably be around 200 kilometers.
The Monts d'Arrée are part of the massif armoricain and have Roc'h Ruz as their highest point at 385 meters. This region is said to have the same kind of scenery as Ireland or Wales. The biggest atlantic heath land of France can be found here (over 10.000 hectares).
On 18 and 19 October, the Le Télégramme newspaper published the precise track of the first and part of the second stage. This information has been integrated in the interactive map and here's the track for the first stage: after the start in Brest the riders will take the pont Albert-Louppe to go to Loperhet followed by Daoulas, L'Hôpital-Camfrout, Le Faou, Quimerch, Brasparts, Plonévez-du-Faou, Châteauneuf-du-Faou, Spézet and the col de Toull-al-Laëron in the Finistère and before going further to Gourin and Plouray, Guémené-sur-Scorff, Pluméliau, Remungol, Locminé, Bignan, Saint-Jean-Brévelay, Plaudren and finally Plumelec with the côte de Cadoudal where the stage finish is planned at around 5PM. The stage's length would be 195,5 km.

Second stage - Auray > Saint-Brieuc, Sunday 6 July 2008

Connecting Auray in the Morbihan with Saint-Brieuc in the Côtes d'Armor, this stage will have a hilly track with the Mûr-de-Bretagne (a 1,6 km hill at 7,5%), also visited during the Tour de France 2004 and 2006, as a nice bonus.
I think even more people will be on the road during this stage! In 2006 it was very crowdy!!

> Click here to see a very nice picture of Mûr-de-Bretagne during the Tour de France 2006

Again according to the information in the Le Télégramme newspaper this stage - with a total length of 170 km - would be as follows: start in Auray going to Landaul, Pluvigner, Camors, Baud, Pont-Augan, Bubry, Melrand, Boderel, Guern, Le Sourn, Pontivy, Neulliac and Saint-Jean in Côtes-d'Armor. The stage would continue to Saint-Brieuc, its finish.

Third stage - Saint-Malo > Nantes, Monday 7 July 2008

For this stage only two things are for sure now: the stage will start in Saint-Malo and it will go southwards while crossing through the Ille-et-Vilaine department ...

While going through the Ille-et-Vilaine it is well possible to pass through or close to Rennes and at the end of the department the first big city is Nantes, so this could well be the finish city of the third stage of the Tour de France 2008 (this would mean that the stage would have the same start and finish cities as the 9th stage in the Tour de France 1980 ; won by Jan Raas from The Netherlands).

According to Cyclismag the newspaper Ouest France would also have mentioned Nantes as the finish city of this third stage.

In this scenario, the stage would do somewhere between 205 and 230 kilometers.

The other stages

Tuesday 8 July, the fourth stage

Also according to Cyclismag this stage would start in Vallet in Loire-Atlantique.
According to La Nouvelle République the finish city of this stage could be Châteauroux.
The start from Vallet would have been cancelled and this stage could thus well become Cholet > Châteauroux, but that would then be one day later; this day would become a team time trial around Cholet.

Wednesday 9 July, the fifth stage

According to the information on Wikipedia and from La Nouvelle République this stage would start in Châteauroux or in La Châtre (about 40 km south-east from Châteauroux). This will thus probably be La Châtre after a finish the day before in Châteauroux.

According to these same sources the finish city of the 5th stage could be the beautiful city Limoges (cf. the many nice pictures in the Wikipedia entry).

According to the Le Populaire du Centre newspaper, the hotels are indeed fully booked in that period, but despite that it is very well possible that the stage won't finish in Limoges but in Super-Besse and one day later, after the stage Cholet > Châteauroux

On Wikipedia, Châteauroux was first mentioned as the finish city of the 5th stage by someone living close to Dijon on 15 September before being mentioned as one of the two possible start cities for this stage by someone working at the Journal La Montagne newspaper on 20 September.

Thursday 10 July, the sixth stage - a time trial?!

Again according to the information on Wikipedia written by the employee of the Journal La Montagne, this would be a time trial at the Lac de Vassivière (at about 60 km east of Limoges).

This could however well become a stage La Châtre > Super-Besse (see above).

Friday 11 July, the seventh stage

The same source mentions Aurillac as the finish city of the seventh stage and hotels in the Cantal department would have confirmed this. No information is available on the start city, but if the finish in Super-Besse on the day before gets confirmed, that could well be Besse.

Going to the Pyrénées

The Tour then continues towards the Pyrénées, probably with a stage going from Toulouse to Bagnères-de-Bigorre (via the col de Peyresourde and the col d'Aspin) followed by a rest day in Pau on 13 July, but that could also be a stage Aurillac > Montauban followed by Toulouse > Bagnères-de-Bigorre, pushing the rest day to July 15th and removing the finish and start in Perpignan.
14 July would be the stage Pau > Hautacam via the col du Tourmalet, followed by the stage Lannemezan > Foix on 15 July. 16 July the stage would start in Lavelanet. There were rumours about a finish in Ax-3-Domaines for this stage, but it seems that that has definitely been cancelled because the stage would then be too heavy.

The second week will thus be the Pyrénées week: the order of the Alps and the Pyrénées is again inversed since the second week was in the Alps during the Tour de France 2007.

The finish of the 17 July stage would be Perpignan followed by the stage Perpignan > Nîmes the next day.

Nîmes would also be the start of the stage on 19 July.

And then the Alps

On July 19th and 20th the Tour de France will be in Digne-les-Bains at the south side of the Alps (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence).
On 19 July this city will have the stage finish while the stage will start from Digne-les-Bains on 20 July.
This city was elected most sporty city of France in the category of cities with less than 20 000 inhabitants by l'Equipe in 2006.

According to the Dauphiné Libéré the stage which start in Digne-les-Bains on July 20 would go to the top of the Prato Nevoso< in the Italian Piemonte (province of Cuneo) and the next day (21 July) would be a rest day in Cuneo.

According to new information from Alpes 1 and the Dauphiné Libéré newspaper, on July 22, the Tour stage would start in Cuneo and go to Jausiers via the col de la Lombarde, Isola 2000 and the col de la Bonette > Restefond (2802 meters, the 'roof' of the Tour), continuing the other day, 23 July - still according to Alpes 1 and Dauphiné Libéré and according to this article more or less confirmed by the mayor of Embrun, Chantal Eyméoud - the stage start would be in Embrun in the Hautes Alpes with its finish on the famous Alpe d'Huez.

On 24 July the Tour would start from Bourg d'Oisans to go to Roanne.

After the Alps and the Massif Central, there should be a stage which starts in Roanne and finishes in Moulin or in Montluçon (the Tour would thus come back close to Châteauroux ... it's clear that the center of France is definitely part of the Tour again in 2008 !).
Montluçon has several times requested the Tour to come there and is an important cycling city in the Auvergne with its own club Montluçon-Montmarrault and a former Tour winner - Roger Walkowiak - living there.

Saturday 26 July 2007, the time trial

The famous last time trial before going to Paris would, according to La Nouvelle République, go from Saint-Amand-Montrond in the Cher to Cérilly in the Allier.

Sunday 27 July, finish on the Champs-Elysées in Paris

And finally, there should be a transfer to somewhere close to Paris (there seem to be less transfers than in 2007 by the way :-)!!) for the final stage which will almost definitely finish with its famous 8 tours on the Champs-Elysées in Paris !
A well-informed person told me - without however being 100% sure of it - that this stage could well start in Clairefontaine or in Etampes.

Come back here after 25 October to read all about the official stage tracks of the Tour de France 2008. You can also follow the official presentation from the Palais des Congrès in Paris on 25 October around 11 AM live on the blog Orange dans le Tour, the blog which gives you a look behind the scenes of the Tour de France !

> Read about the 'Grand Départ' of the Tour de France 2008 on the official Tour de France website

Overview of the different stages

Whenever two possibilities are mentioned below, the most probable one is always mentioned first.

• 5 July 2008: Brest > Plumelec
• 6 July 2008: Auray > Saint-Brieuc
• 7 July 2008: Saint-Malo > Nantes
• 8 July 2008: team time trial Cholet
• 9 July 2008: Cholet > Châteauroux or La Châtre > Limoges
• 10 July 2008: La Châtre > Super-Besse or Lac de Vassivière (time trial)
• 11 July 2008: Besse > Aurillac
• 12 July 2008: Aurillac > Montauban or Toulouse > Bagnères-de-Bigorre
• 13 July 2008: Toulouse > Bagnères-de-Bigorre or rest day (Pau)
• 14 July 2008: Pau > Hautacam
• 15 July 2008: rest day or Lannemezan > Foix
• 16 July 2008: Lannemezan > Foix or Lavelanet > ???
• 17 July 2008: Lavelanet > ??? or ??? > Perpignan
• 18 July 2008: ??? > Nîmes or Perpignan > Nîmes
• 19 July 2008: Nîmes > Digne-les-Bains
• 20 July 2008: Digne-les-Bains > Prato Nevoso (Cuneo, Italy)
• 21 July 2008: rest day (Cuneo, Italy)
• 22 July 2008: Cuneo (Italy) > Jausiers
• 23 July 2008: Embrun > Alpe d'Huez
• 24 July 2008: Bourg d'Oisans > Roanne
• 25 July 2008: Roanne > Montluçon
• 26 July 2008: Saint-Amand-Montrond > Cérilly (time trial)
• 27 July 2008: Clairefontaine > Paris Champs Elysées or Etampes > Paris Champs Elysées

Preliminary map of the Tour de France 2008 stages

Click on the map to see an interactive version of it.


> Read how the invitation for the Tour presentation gives some ideas for the theme of the Tour de France 2008!

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Tour de France 2008 | Tour de France

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