It's not the first time that Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne will see the Tour de France finish or start in its streets.
Anyway, the city in the Rhône-Alpes is still making an event of it to celebrate as it should the visit of the Tour de France 2012, for a stage start of the 12th stage on Friday 13 July. Tonight it was thus the occasion to inaugurate the start line of this stage, with the FDJ BigMat team being present in town!
The Tour de France 2012 in Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne
In recent years, Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne saw a stage start of the Tour de France in 2006 (going towards Morzine) and a finish (coming from Morzine) in 2010. In 2012, there will again be a stage start, in the Rue de la Libération and it was thus at this place that the city inaugurated officially tonight the start line of this 12th stage going towards Annonay Davézieux today.
This was done with the presence of the FDJ BigMat team, on training camp since yesterday and until the 18th of May. The riders of the team present at this inauguration were Matthieu Ladagnous, Yauheni Hutarovich, Cédric Pineau, Arnold Jeannesson, Thibaut Pinot and Jérémy Roy and after some balloons were left to fly away and a lap by bike in the city, the riders of the French team took time to sign some autographs while the public was offered a drink.
In addition to the FDJ BigMat team, other big names of the cycling world were present, especially with Bernard Thévenet as a representative of Amaury Sport Organisation (A.S.O.), the organisor of the Tour, and the French local mountain biker Damien Spagnolo, specialist of the descent and vice world champion.
In addition to the stage start on Friday 13 July, the 11th stage on Thursday 12 July will also run through Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne, between Albertville and La Toussuire-Les Sybelles.
Here are some images of the event tonight and some photos of the Tour visit in 2006:
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It's not the first time that Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne will see the 
by Guillaume over 
by Meamegal over