After the 106th edition of the Classic of the falling leaves in Italy, the Tour of Lombardy - won last Saturday by Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha Team), this Sunday we'll see the 106th edition of Paris-Tours take place between Châteauneuf-en-Thymerais in the Eure-et-Loir and the Avenue de Grammont in Tours.

As usual, this classic is one of the last races of the season in France and the riders will thus want to show off at this occasion, just before the winter break.

In this article you'll find all you need to know about this end-of-season classic: the race route on Google Maps and a downloadable version of the race route in Google Earth, the profile and the time- and route schedule.

The Paris-Tours 2012 race route

In 2009, ASO signed a contract with the Eure-et-Loir department to organise the race start of Paris-Tours in this departement between 2009 and 2013 (in the same way, the organisor from Issy-les-Moulineaux signed a contract today with the city of Binche in Belgium [mainly known in the cycling world for Binche-Tournai-Binche which will take place tomorrow] for the start of the Flèche Wallonne 2013, the idea being to organise the start in another city in one of the Walloon provinces every year). After a start from Chartres in 2009, from La Loupe in 2010, and from Voves in 2011, this year it will be Châteauneuf-en-Thymerais' tour for the race start.

Concerning the future starts, now the partnership between the Eure-et-Loir and ASO for the start of this classic comes to an end, Olivier Marleix, vice-president of the Conseil Général declared last Tuesday during the presentation of this 106th edition that The project will be voted by the conseil early December. But we would love this partnership to continue.

The distance of the 2012 edition is similar to the previous editions with 235.5 kilometers compared to 230.5 last year and 233 in 2010. After the start from the Rue Maurice Viollette at 10.30AM in Châteauneuf-en-Thymerais, the riders will follow the rues de la Petite Frice, du Pont Tabarin, de Nogent-le-Roi and du Général de Gaulle in Châteauneuf-en-Thymerais before crossing Thimert-Gâtelles via the Grande Rue and the rue de Chartres to get to the D23 where the race will really start at 2.6 km from the place where the riders gathered together. They'll follow this departmental road straight south towards Illiers-Combray where they'll go a bit more east via the D941/D28/D144 until Bonneval where Paris-Tours espoirs 2012 will start and where the final time trial of the Tour de France 2012 took place. From there, they'll be back on the usual race route of Paris-Tours. The feeding zone will still be in Vendôme.

The end of the race route will be the same as last year when it was slightly modified. It'll still contain the Côtes de Crochu, de Beau Soleil and de l'Epan at 28.5, 10.5 and 7 kilometers from the finish. The finish line will still be in the Avenue de Grammont despite the fact that everyone thought in 2010 already that that would be the last year. The roadworks for the tramway in Tours had reduced the final straight part in the avenue where the finish is from 2,700 to 660 meters, but this year it got a little bit longer again: 800 meters.

This new final turned out to be victorious for Greg van Avermaet in 2011. According to André Greipel (Lotto-Belisol) in an interview for CyclingNews, his team mate Jurgen Roelandts, who just won the Franco-Belge or the Tour de l'Eurométropole, will win Paris-Tours 2012!

The Paris-Tours 2012 race route on Google Maps, the time- and route schedule and the profile

Hereunder you'll find the race route of Paris-Tours 2012 on Google Maps, its profile and the time- and route schedule. Click on each of the images to open them:

The Paris-Tours 2012 race route in Google Earth

Would you like to do a virtual fly-over of this race route? Or do you simply prefer to open it in Google Earth?
>> Click here to download the Paris-Tours 2012 race route in Google Earth (KML file)

Paris-Tours 2012 broadcast on TV

If you're not able to assist to the race live, you can still watch it on TV. It will be broadcast live in:

- France on France 3 between 3PM and 4.10PM and on Eurosport between 4.30PM and 5.15PM
- Belgium on RTBF and VRT (Sporza)
- Spain on Teledeporte
- Italy on RAI
- Norway on TV2 Zebra
- The Netherlands on Nederland 1
- Switzerland on RSI, RTS and SF
- Japan on J Sports
- several countries in Africa on Supersport

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Paris-Tours | OpenStreetMap/Google Maps/Google Earth

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