Wind, cobbles and brutal mountaintop finishes for Tour de France 2022

Tour de France organisers have designed a highly treacherous route for the 2022 edition which will feature rides in gusting winds, cobblestones and punishing mountain stages. The race will start with a 13km individual time trial in Copenhagen before the second stage takes the peloton over the 18km Great Belt bridge.  

 “It’s windy 364 days a year, here,” Tour director Christian Prudhomme told reporters yesterday.  

 “This Tour can be lost as early as the second day.” Those who get past the three-day opening block in Denmark and fourth stage through the Flanders hills must cope with the fifth stage through cobbled sectors between Lille and Arenberg.  

 That is when light climbers are expected to suffer on a day that could be marred by crashes and mechanicals due to the tricky terrain which usually favours one-day race specialists. “To go through these stages and hope to win the Tour you will need to be a versatile rider and have a strong team at your disposal,” said Tour deputy director Thierry Gouvenou.  

The first test for climbers will come on the seventh stage with the first of five summit finishes at the top of the Planche des Belles Filles, where this year’s defending champion Tadej Pogacar effectively claimed his first title in 2020 by upsetting fellow Slovenian Primoz Roglic in the final time trial. 

-REUTERS