BRITON Chris Froome’s bid for a fifth Tour de France title will come on the shortest route of the 21st century and see a return to Alpe-d’Huez.
A hilly time-trial in the Basque Country could be decisive on the penultimate day of the race, which begins on July 7 and concludes in Paris on July 29.
Organisers unveiled the route in Paris yesterday. Alpe-d’Huez is not likely to be as decisive as it was in 2015 when Froome won overall by one minute 21 seconds.
Froome (Team Sky) clung on to claim a second Tour victory, after his 2013 triumph and crashing out of the 2014 edition, when struggling with a chest infection on Alpe-d’Huez, where Colombia’s Nairo Quintana’s attack up the 21-hairpins almost brought him victory.
The 105th edition of the Tour will see a reduced peloton, with each team reduced by one rider from nine to eight in Grand Tours in a bid to make the racing less controllable. Some suggested it was targeted at Froome’s dominant Team Sky.
Froome has won four of the last five editions of the Tour, while Sir Bradley Wiggins won in 2012 to give Team Sky five victories in six years.
It was already known the race will begin on Noirmoutier-en-l’Ile and the peloton will cross the Passage du Gois causeway.
The route features a very short 65km mountain stage in the Pyrenees which is the shortest road stage since half-stages ended.
Just 15km of the race takes place outside France, in Spain on stage 16, while a team time-trial on stage three should suit Team Sky.
Tour director Christian Prudhomme said: “We especially wanted to emphasise stage variety and the routes that may prove decisive, whilst combining legendary climbs with brand new ascensions or ultra-dynamic formats, to provide a vision of modern and inspired cycling.”
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