Prudhomme presents 2010 Tour de France weighted with Pyrenean stages
2010 Tour route unveiledMadiot wants pavés every year at the Tour de FranceTough Tour in store for Cavendish and the sprintersTop riders react to 2010 Tour routeTour 2010: Hushovd hopeful for green and yellow------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Finally, Carlos Sastre Candil with some words:
Sastre: 2010 Tour is spectacular for climbersHaussler looking forward to cobbles------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------2010 Tour de France presents plenty of opportunities for CervéloCervélo TestTeam will have plenty of opportunities to shine in what’s a
varied and challenging route for the 2010 Tour de France, unveiled
Wednesday in a lavish ceremony in Paris.
The 20-stage, 3,596km route for the 97th Tour starts in Rotterdam,
Holland, on July 3 and ends on the Champs-Élysées on July 23 in the
heart of Paris. In between, the season’s most important and prestigious
race offers ample ground for Cervélo TestTeam to perform.
“It’s an interesting Tour, above all for us, a very interesting first
week,” said
Cervélo TestTeam sport director Jean-Paul Van Poppel. “The
weather conditions will mark the race and there will be some
opportunities for us to do something when we are up in the north.
Especially the third stage, with some cobblestones, we have a lot of
riders who can do something on the cobblestones.”
The route offers something for everyone. With an opening week across
Holland, Belgium and northern France,
Cervélo star sprinter and
defending green jersey-winner Thor Hushovd will have chances to go on
the hunt for sprint victories and make a run for the yellow jersey.
“I like the parcours. It’s very difficult, especially the final week,
which is good for me. A lot of the sprinters won’t be able to make it
through the Pyrénées,” said
Hushovd after watching the 45-minute Tour
presentation in Paris. “My goals are the same as always, to win stages
and try to win the green jersey again. It’s never easy, but the Tour is
always hard. Last year was good for our team and I think next year,
we’ll be even better. I like the return of the prologue. We haven’t had
one in a few years and I always do pretty well. It’s a chance to take
the yellow jersey.”
Week two, which enters the Jura Mountains and the Alps, opens things up
for stage-hunters and breakaway artists, like Cervélo’s
Heinrich
Haussler, who won a breakthrough stage victory across the Vosges
Mountains this year.
“It’s definitely harder than last year’s Tour. That last week won’t be
easy for anyone.
Carlos should be able to really do well in the
Pyrénées and we’ll be working for him,” said
Haussler, who also
attended the presentation. “There are some very interesting stages,
especially in the first half of the Tour. I’m not a pure sprinter, but
with the stages that go over the cobblestones and later in the second
week will present a good chance to try to win a stage. After winning a
stage this year, I will only have more confidence and motivation going
into 2010.”
Week three sees the GC favorites stepping forward, with a demanding and
decisive string of stages across the towering peaks of the Pyrénées.
This year’s route underscores the historical importance of the rugged
Pyrénées by setting them up as the Tour’s centerpiece in what’s the 100
th anniversary of the first true mountain stages, introduced a century ago in 1910.
That’s music to the ears of Cervélo’s GC captain and 2008 Tour de
France champion
Carlos Sastre Candil, who won a breakout stage victory in 2003
at Aix-3 Domaines, which is the setting of the finish for stage 14.
A summit finish up the Tourmalet in stage 17 will prove decisive to
anyone hoping to win the Tour. The stage is ideally situated for
Sastre, who rises to the occasion in the third and final week of a
grand tour.
Close proximity to Spain will allow thousands of
Sastre’s fans to pour
over the border to cheer on the Spanish climber as he takes on the Tour
after not quite having the legs to successfully defend his Tour crown
in 2009.
A penultimate-day time trial, held on a 51km flat course in Bordeaux,
will keep fans and riders alike sitting on the edge of their seats
until the final moments of the race.
“I think the most important stages are the climbing stages to Aix-3
Domaines and the Tourmalet, but there are a lot of other stages in
between where we can do something,”
Jean-Paul Van Poppel said. “The time trial
is long and going north, so perhaps it will be against the wind. It’s
long, but we only have to do it once. It’s an interesting Tour, but
from what I see now, it’s a very interesting first week. A lot will
depend on the weather conditions.”