Tour de France (FRA) - 07-29.07.2007

(This event is on the 2007 UCI ProTour calendar but does not hold a UCI ProTour licence)

The Tour de France is organised in the middle of the cycling season and captures the attention of millions of cycling fans around the world. The 2007 Tour de France has an international flavour with London hosting the opening prologue time trial and first road stage and early other stages in Belgium. It is the first time the Tour de France visits London and the prologue will honour the city by passing iconic monuments such as the Houses of Parliament, Hyde Park and even Buckingham Palace. London decided to host the Tour de France start as a way of promoting bicycle use for transport and fitness and the event is expected to give a huge boost to cycling in Great Britain. The 2007 Tour follows a clockwise loop around France with three testing mountain stages in the Alps before stages along the Mediterranean coast and then the decisive mountain stages in the Pyrenees. The final time trial starts in the town of Cognac and then a train transfer takes the riders to Paris for the final stage on the Champs-Elysées. After Lance Armstrong’s record-breaking seven-year domination the 2006 Tour de France was a very open race and this year looks set to be similar. Ivan Basso will lead the Discovery Channel team but is expected to face serious competition from Alexandre Vinokourov and Alejandro Valverde.