Le Tour de France Begins Today! A Look At the Route and the Stage

Here we go! After an odd Le Tour last year, we're finally back to normal dates as high hills, broad flat lands and speedy men on bicycles move across the landscape of France. Le Tour de France returns in fine style today, and through the 18th of July, these men on their machines will be enlivening my morning blog and my life. For those of you in the USA wanting to watch, it's on NBCSN and also streaming for free on Peacock. Choose whatever is best for you. 

This is the full route of the 2021 
Le Tour de France. It starts out in the 
upper left in Brittany, then crosses 
central France to spend two days in 
the massive mountains of the Alps. 
Then, crossing the southern diagonal, we'll 
wrap up in the Pyrenees before flying into 
Paris for the final sprint and awards. 

The race starts out with four days in Brittany, starting with today's rather demanding course of hills, sweeps of ocean views and possible weather issues. Brittany weather is always unpredictable. Two of the four days in Brittany will feature hills, so our mountain experts will have an opportunity to exercise their muscles while the sprinters will also have a chance because these are not the big mountains that will come later. Day five, (the first day out of Brittany), will feature one of the two Individual Time Trials to be run this year The second Time Trial will be the day before Paris, on July 17th . 

Here is a closer look at the first four stages of Le 
Tour de France in Brittany. Brest and Landerneau 
are actually quite close, but the route the boys are 
taking to get from A to B is anything but close. 

Today we go from Brest to Landernaeu, not a huge distance in kilometers as the crow flies, but with the large number of contenders wanting to spread their wings in Le Tour once again, and a rather convoluted course for the day, it should prove to be a highly competitive stage of ups and downs with a good downhill sprint at the end. 

As you can tell from the profile, there's not a lot of 
serious ups and downs today, but it's certainly not 
a flat run either. There are a lot of hills that the boys 
will be stretching their legs out on, and if the weather 
is uncooperative, some of those could get gnarly. 

Sunday's stage again features hills, nothing very large, 
but enough topography to keep things interesting. This 
is the time when the riders will jostle one another, trying 
to get under the skin of the competitors. It's also when 
the teams will jell with one another and start to work 
out their dynamics under race conditions. As long as 
the weather holds, we shouldn't lose any riders in 
Brittany. If the rains come, slick roads can take out 
riders early in the game. 

As is my usual, I'll be showing the profile of each stage as we enter that day's ride. Today I'm also showing the full Tour map as well as a smaller map giving you a better detailed look at these first four days in Brittany. We won't have a day off until July 5th, so there's a lot of bike racing to come. I'm so happy to have Le Tour back in full force once again. Vive Le Tour! Let the games begin! 

I'll be back on Monday with a look at Stage Three. Until then, please be kind and stay safe.