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Philipsen wins Tour stage, Vingegaard keeps lead, Roglic out

Belgium’s Jasper Philipsen crosses the finish line to win the fifteenth stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 202.5 kilometers (125.5 miles) with start in Rodez and finish in Carcassonne, France, Sunday, July 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)

Stage winner Belgium’s Jasper Philipsen, front, cross the finish line ahead of third place Denmark’s Mads Pedersen, half hidden, in the fifteenth stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 202.5 kilometers (125.5 miles) with start in Rodez and finish in Carcassonne, France, Sunday, July 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Stage winner Belgium’s Jasper Philipsen, right, crosses the finish line ahead of second place Belgium’s Wout Van Aert, left, and third place Denmark’s Mads Pedersen, center, in the fifteenth stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 202.5 kilometers (125.5 miles) with start in Rodez and finish in Carcassonne, France, Sunday, July 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Stage winner Belgium’s Jasper Philipsen celebrates after the fifteenth stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 202.5 kilometers (125.5 miles) with start in Rodez and finish in Carcassonne, France, Sunday, July 17, 2022. (Tim De Waele/Pool Photo via AP)

Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard, wearing the overall leader’s yellow jersey, talks to teammate Belgium’s Wout Van Aert, wearing the best sprinter’s green jersey, after the fifteenth stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 202.5 kilometers (125.5 miles) with start in Rodez and finish in Carcassonne, France, Sunday, July 17, 2022. (Tim De Waele/Pool Photo via AP)

A motorcycle rider who drives one of the race regulators removes a climate activist who blocked the road during the fifteenth stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 202.5 kilometers (125.5 miles) with start in Rodez and finish in Carcassonne, France, Sunday, July 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Spectators wave from a vintage Citroen car during the fifteenth stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 202.5 kilometers (125.5 miles) with start in Rodez and finish in Carcassonne, France, Sunday, July 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Germany’s Nils Politt, front, and Denmark’s Mikkel Honore, ride breakaway during the fifteenth stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 202.5 kilometers (125.5 miles) with start in Rodez and finish in Carcassonne, France, Sunday, July 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

A girl looks at her mobile phone as other watch the riders on TV in a bar during the fifteenth stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 202.5 kilometers (125.5 miles) with start in Rodez and finish in Carcassonne, France, Sunday, July 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)

Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard, wearing the overall leader’s yellow jersey, follows teammate Belgium’s Tiesj Benoot during the fifteenth stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 202.5 kilometers (125.5 miles) with start in Rodez and finish in Carcassonne, France, Sunday, July 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

A spectator applauds for Belgium’s Wout Van Aert, wearing the best sprinter’s green jersey, who rides breakaway during the fifteenth stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 202.5 kilometers (125.5 miles) with start in Rodez and finish in Carcassonne, France, Sunday, July 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Catherine Leupe from Cassagnes-Begonhes is reflected in a mirror in her room as she watches the pack pass during the fifteenth stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 202.5 kilometers (125.5 miles) with start in Rodez and finish in Carcassonne, France, Sunday, July 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)

A cycling fan of Britain’s Tom Simpson with vintage clothing and bicycles watches the pack pass during the fifteenth stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 202.5 kilometers (125.5 miles) with start in Rodez and finish in Carcassonne, France, Sunday, July 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

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CARCASSONNE, France (AP) — Jasper Philipsen of Belgium braved a heat wave to win the 15th stage of the Tour de France in a sprint on Sunday as Jonas Vingegaard kept the leader’s yellow jersey.

Primož Roglič, the 2020 runner-up and a key teammate for Vingegaard, abandoned the race before the start on Sunday because of injuries he previously sustained in this year’s edition.

Philipsen beat points leader Wout van Aert and Mads Pedersen on the line to win a Tour stage for the first time.

“It makes it super unbelievable. I know what losing is like in the Tour de France. I was close many, many times,” Philipsen said. “But that it worked out today, it’s unbelievable.”

Philipsen was second behind Van Aert in the fourth stage of this year’s race.

“It’s been a massive search for this victory and we worked really hard for it,” said Philipsen, holding back tears. “I knew I had good legs, but we just had to wait until the right opportunity.”

Benjamin Thomas had tried to attack for the first win by a French rider on this year’s Tour but was caught on the final stretch.

Faced with temperatures peaking at around 40 degrees Celsius (104 F), organizers deployed measures to deal with extreme heat. They relaxed the rules on riders’ refreshments and the maximum time to complete the stage, which at 202.5 kilometers (126 miles) was the joint second-longest of this year’s Tour. Environmental protesters blocked the road at one point and were quickly removed.

Vingegaard’s lead remains unchanged at 2 minutes, 22 seconds over 2020 and ’21 Tour winner Tadej Pogačar of Slovenia after they both finished in the lead group. However, the Danish rider had to recover from a fall and he has lost two of his Jumbo-Visma teammates, including Roglič. That leaves Vingegaard with reduced support in the peloton as the race enters the Pyrenees following the rest day on Monday.

Roglič did not start the stage following injuries he sustained on stage five when he crashed into a hay bale which had been knocked into the road by a motorbike. Roglič reset his own dislocated shoulder on the side of the road and had been racing in pain ever since.

“To allow my injuries to heal properly, we have decided that I won’t start today,” Roglič said.

Another Jumbo-Visma rider, Steven Kruijswijk, was taken away in an ambulance following a fall.

Two more riders, Magnus Cort and stage-six winner Simon Clarke, withdrew from the race after testing positive for the coronavirus. Eight riders have left the race so far because of the virus.

More AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Belgium's Wout Van Aert claims Tour de France stage 11 on Mont Ventoux

Sport Belgium's Wout Van Aert claims Tour de France stage 11 on Mont Ventoux

Winning the Ventoux stage at cycling's biggest race is a rare and celebrated feat.

Key points:

• Belgian rider Wout van Aert won stage 11 of the Tour de France by more than a minute with a brilliant display 
• Yellow jersey Tadej Pogačar was dropped on the second ascent of Mont Ventoux, but recovered to lead overall by five minutes 18 seconds
• Australia's Ben O'Connor struggled on the climbs, dropping from second to fifth overall 

No wonder a champion like Wout Van Aert, with multiple titles across the sport's most prestigious events, felt like he posted his best victory ever after mastering the daunting and gruelling mountain twice in the same day at the Tour de France on Wednesday.

Near the site where his fellow Belgian Eddy Merckx — a cycling legend with five Tour wins — had to be given oxygen soon after winning the stage to Ventoux back in 1970, Van Aert triumphed following an unprecedented double ascent of the iconic mountain.

The lively stage also gave a glimmer of hope to the rivals of race leader Tadej Pogačar that he can be taken off his perch, after the defending champion briefly got dropped on the second ascent but erased the deficit on the downhill to keep his yellow jersey.

Van Aert was part of a breakaway that formed in the early stages of the nearly 200-kilometre Stage 11 in southern France.

The one-day classic specialist and multiple cyclo-cross world champion made his decisive move on the final ascent to drop his breakaway companions, then kept his advantage on the descent leading to the town of Malaucene.

"I know I'm not the best climber, but when I pick my day I know I have my chances," said van Aert.

"The first time I climbed the Ventoux I was 10. It was my first big one. I was very motivated to try something today, this region is really famous in Belgium, and it's a mythical Tour climb."

Pogačar was fourth, one minute and 38 seconds behind. He did not lose ground on his main rivals, even increasing his overall lead after his closest opponent at the start of the stage, Ben O'Connor, suffered a hard day and dropped to fifth overall.

But for the first time since the start of the race, Pogačar showed weaknesses when he lost ground to Jonas Vingegaard near the summit.

"I could not follow all the way up, it was just a little bit too much," he said.

"It was a super-hard, hot day."

In the end, it was just a scare and Pogačar holds a comfortable overall lead of five minutes and 18 seconds over Rigoberto Uran, with Vingegaard in third place, 5:32 off the pace.

"I had to stay calm and find a new rhythm," Pogačar added.

"I did not panic and that was a good thing."

At 26, van Aert is a jack of all trades. He can sprint, climb and time trial, but did not fight for the general classification, working in support of Jumbo-Visma leader Primož Roglič.

He was given more leeway by his team after Roglič retired from the Tour last week, setting his sights on a stage win.

Van Aert went solo during the second ascent of the Ventoux, about 11km from the summit. As he approached the finish line, he smiled to TV cameras and clenched his fist, then raised on his pedals and yelled in triumph with his arms outstretched.

It was van Aert's fourth career stage win at the Tour.

The Ventoux is part of the Tour's lore. It was the site of an incredible scene back in 2016 when four-time champion Chris Froome had to briefly run toward the summit after he damaged his bike in a crash.

An epic contest between Lance Armstrong and Marco Pantani in 2000 also took place on the slopes of the "Bald Giant," where British rider Tom Simpson died in 1967 from a combination of amphetamines and alcohol.

The stage got off to a lively start as world champion Julian Alaphilippe broke away with Nairo Quintana, but the Colombian climber could not follow his pace and got dropped.

Alaphilippe was joined by a group of three riders and created a three-minute lead over the main pack across the vineyards and rolling landscape of the Luberon region. Behind the quartet, a group of counter-attackers chased hard in the first big climb of the day, the Col de la Liguière, but could not fill the gap.

In sizzling hot weather, Pogačar rode in the main pack with his yellow jersey wide open. Others tried to cool down with small bags of ice cubes applied to their necks.

The downhill from La Liguière led the breakaway to the town of Sault and the start of the first ascent of the Ventoux via a 22-kilometre climb. They were joined at the front by the chasing group as the real suffering began.

The leading pack split with Alaphilippe and six others, including Van Aert, moving away 12 kilometres from the summit surrounded by hordes of excited fans. Riding in rarefied air, Alaphilippe was first to reach the barren summit, where swirling cloud added to the ominous lunar-looking landscape.

Paced by 2018 champion Geraint Thomas and his Ineos Grenadiers teammates, the peloton struggled to cut the gap. Alaphilippe was clocked at a top speed of 99 kilometres per hour on the descent.

Julian Bernard took over the lead as the group went back for its second ascent of Mont Ventoux, a shorter but steeper climb compared to the first. Kenny Elissonde attacked alone but his move was countered by Van Aert.

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Belgians win six Tour de France stages for first time since 1985

As the 2022 Tour de France came to an end Sunday on Champs-Élysées in Paris, Jasper Philipsen won the 21st and final stage, bringing the number of stage wins by Belgian riders to six.

The total is proof of the strength of a few Belgian riders. The next most-winning nation was Denmark with four stage wins, while Slovenia followed with three. This is the first time since 1985 that Belgian cyclists emerge victorious in six stages.

Yet though the number of stage victories by nationality makes for some interesting statistics, the world's most prestigious bike race is not contested by individual countries but by teams composed of many nationalities. The Danish cyclist Jonas Vingegaard was the overall winner, riding for Dutch Team Jumbo Visma.

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Among the Belgian stage winners was ​​Wout van Aert – arguably the strongest all-round cyclist of the present era – who wore the yellow jersey for four days at the start of the race and won the points classification and most-combative rider award. After moving to the top of the general classification in stage 2, Van Aert won the fourth stage in Calais, the eighth stage in Lausanne and the time trial in Rocamadour (20th stage).

Although Van Aert was widely tipped to take the first stage in Copenhagen (the Tour sometimes starts outside of France), it in fact his compatriot Yves Lampaert who came across the line first. Jasper Philipsen triumphed in the 15th stage in Carcassonne and the final sprint stage in Paris yesterday.

In 1985, Belgian riders Rudy Matthijs won three stages, Eric Vanderaerden two, and  Ludwig Wijnants one.

Yet though six stages is impressive, the Belgian record is far greater — 15 stage wins set in 1927. In 1972 and 1974 though, Belgian cyclists came close with 14 stage wins, with Eddy Merckx alone winning 6 and 8 of them. Merckx, whose professional career spanned from 1965 to 1978, won more races than any rider in history and is considered the greatest cyclist of all time.

Copyright © 2024 The Brussels Times. All Rights Reserved.

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Tour de France starts in Belgium today with "yellow" Wout Van Aert as extra attraction in Binche

The Tour de France comes to Belgium today. The official start will be given in Binche (Hainaut province) at 15 minutes past noon. 

Binche, the carnival city that is the home of its renowned "Gilles", is hosting the Tour de France for the second time in 3 years. The 220 km stage will take the riders soon across the border with France, for a ride through the French Ardennes with a finish in Longwy. 

Tour de France was in Binche: taste the atmosphere in this video

This morning, many cycling fans seized the opportunity to visit the Tour. They have an extra attraction today, with Belgium's Wout Van Aert still in the Yellow Jersey as overall race leader. Van Aert managed to save the Yellow on the cobbles on northern France yesterday. "I didn't expect this during the race (when he was behind after a crash) but I will enjoy the stop in Belgium, of course," Van Aert told reporters. 

Wout Van Aert also possesses the Green Points Jersey as the best sprinter after second places in the first three stages. The Green Jersey was/is his main goal in this Tour de France. Antwerp resident Van Aert hopes to take the Green home after the final stage in Paris. 

The mayor of Binche Laurent Devin said that he hopes that the Flemish successes in the Tour (with stage wins for Yves Lampaert in the opening time trial and a stage win, the Yellow and Green for Van Aert later on) will also inspire Walloon youngsters to pick up cycling.  

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• Tour de France

How cycling can define a country

The Tour de France is a wicked test of physical and mental prowess that only Belgium could love so acutely.

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Belgium claims to be the most cycling-obsessed country in the world, which says a lot about Belgium. This year, it is hosting the Grand Départ of the Tour de France, the largest competition in a sport rooted in a form of madness, and in mad people comfortable communing with the weirdest parts of themselves.

In many ways, Belgium embodies the Tour better than its eponymous nation. France likes to wield the Tour with a subdued sense of duty. Belgium, a country lopped onto France’s head like a brain slug, wields it like the sack of firecrackers that it is. Belgium regularly gets Tour stages, but not regularly enough to get used to the novelty. Saturday in Brussels will be the first Belgian start for the Tour de France since 2012, and the city is filled to the cracks with decorative yellow and green and polka dot nods to the race.

Belgians are certainly more passionate about the sport on the whole, up to creating a robust state-sponsored development system that offers stipends to riders who may never sniff a pro contract. Early in the sport’s history, provincial races were so popular and narrowly focused that everyone knew their fastest local butcher, fishmonger, or paper boy. A Belgian cyclist named Eddy Planckaert once rode so fast he claimed he reached a divine state and ejaculated .

SB Nation’s guide to Le Tour

The Tour de France isn’t very good at being a sporting event.

The score is largely meaningless, and it’s hard to keep anyone in the lines, including the oft-wild fans. Better to think of it as a multi-course meal, an event that flows and shifts and ends only when you’ve had enough of it.

Click here to read more

Belgium also produced Eddy Merckx, and no one has ever been better than him. The Cannibal won everything there is to win. Briefly: Five Tour de France titles among a record 11 grand tours, every one of cycling’s five one-day monuments at least twice, and three world championships. That success more than 40 years ago still motivates Belgium to fling its most physically gifted youth at a beastly sport.

All this is to say that there is something special about cycling even if it may seem dull and alien to some. And if you don’t get it , that’s OK. Even Belgium, now, is in the process of figuring out why the hell it was ever attracted to the sport. Mike Carremans is the curator of the VeloMuseum, which covers 150 years of Brussels’ cycling history. It opened in September and was supposed to end last January, but was so popular that an extension was granted through the 2019 Grand Départ in Belgium.

Carremans says that 15 years ago, cycling’s popularity in Belgium had been waning, “It was folklore. It was something you’d do while visiting your grandparents,” but has since gotten hip again, if not quite returning to heyday levels. Velodrome stands have carnival atmospheres, where young folk drink and party while cyclists race round-and-round-and-round into wee morning hours. And lately academics have flocked to the sport to document how it sunk roots into Belgium, and what that says about the country.

Carremans isn’t a traditional researcher. He was a burly, jolly painter before he became a burly, jolly academic for this project. He has a thick black beard beneath a thin Rollie Fingers-mustache beneath a set of glasses that his eyes light up whenever he remembers a piece of lore he’d like to tell you. VeloMuseum was in part an excuse to examine his own passion for cycling. He took on the VeloMuseum project, he says, because “I never got a driver’s license,” and as a tribute to his late father-in-law, who used to pepper him with cycling stories — “I really regretted that he didn’t live to see this project.”

Brussels is in the process of rebuilding itself as a cycling city, a distinction it carried until the 1958 World’s Fair, when, according to Carremans, it destroyed its biking infrastructure for car parking. On the day before the first stage of the 2019 Tour de France, the city will rename a street after Willy De Bruyn , a transgender cyclist who was born Elvira and dominated women’s cycling in the 1930s before coming out as a man and undergoing gender reconstruction surgery in 1937.

Despite achieving cycling stardom, De Bruyn struggled to hold on to jobs after he came out. He would continue to research and publicly discuss intersexuality, however (Carremans claims as part of a traveling circus show), and eventually opened a bar in Brussels that advertised using his image and two facts: “World champion cyclist” and “Became a man.”

Not all the details of De Bruyn’s story are comfortable by modern standards, but they highlight a common trait among the best pro cyclists: They’re fully themselves. Explaining why might be a matter of physiology. To win a race like the Tour de France, you need to be able to live with one’s mind. Otherwise, mental stress leads to adrenal stress, which leads to the body’s severe deterioration at the end of three hellish weeks. The best tend to have some combination of naive, monastic, masochistic, or sociopathic personality traits. Whatever the mix, they’re able to obfuscate or repurpose the immense pressure that comes from outside their bicycles.

It’s fitting then that the Belgian cycling boom took place between the two World Wars, when cycling became a cheaper, more democratic sport at a time when everyone needed hard distractions from everything else. During World War II, pro cyclists were some of the only people who were allowed to travel around and outside of the country for competitions, the Germans believing that people could use something fun to do besides being occupied.

Those cyclists became part of the resistance by dismantling their bike frames, stuffing them with travel documents, letters, photos, and fake IDs, and reassembling them to ride off and distribute the contraband from town to town. Italian cyclist Gino Bartali was one of these couriers , a three-time winner of the Giro d’Italia, and two-time Tour winner, who risked his life under Benito Mussolini’s regime. Bartali’s story was only publicized after his death in 2000.

“When people were telling him, ‘Gino, you’re a hero’, he would reply: ‘No, no - I want to be remembered for my sporting achievements. Real heroes are others, those who have suffered in their soul, in their heart, in their spirit, in their mind, for their loved ones. Those are the real heroes. I’m just a cyclist.’”

My favorite story that Carremans told me is about three Belgian cyclists during World War II who took off ahead of a train full of Jews being transported to Auschwitz. The trains only stopped when they saw a red light, so the cyclists hid until the train approached, brandishing a lantern and a red piece of paper. Once they had fooled the train into slowing down, they popped out from their hiding place, opened a cargo door, and released more than a hundred captives.

Carremans can — and did — talk for hours about cycling. There’s no end to the stories, and it’s in their accumulation that one begins to get any sense how such a strange sport can actually matter to a country, even one roughly the same size Maryland. The answer isn’t divinity — though any individual might feel that way — but unity. Cycling is a tool to conquering an environment, a way to live with oneself and with nature, and so a way to live among humanity.

Over time, across a winding path, cycling became an example in Belgium of how anyone can learn to live alongside their darkness. That is its saving trait as a sport — that even when it’s deathly dull to watch, there’s no way to defeat the sense of awe that anyone is disciplined or crazy enough to take on mountains.

And even if cycling wanes as the primary obsession in a cycling-obsessive country, it will persist as a guiding light. It’s too late to kill cycling: The stories are all too damn good to die.

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Baloise Belgium Tour

•   »  

• 1 JAKOBSEN Fabio
• 2 DECLERCQ Tim
• 3 LAMPAERT Yves
• 4 MØRKØV Michael
• 5 PEDERSEN Casper
• 6 STEIMLE Jannik
• 7 VAN TRICHT Stan

• 11 VAN DER POEL Mathieu
• 12 PHILIPSEN Jasper
• 13 DE BONDT Dries
• 14 LEYSEN Senne
• 15 RICKAERT Jonas
• 16 SINKELDAM Ramon
• 17 VERMEERSCH Gianni

• 21 STUYVEN Jasper
• 22 NYS Thibau *
• 23 LIEPIŅŠ Emīls
• 24 SKUJIŅŠ Toms
• 25 HELLEMOSE Asbjørn (DNF #5)
• 26 VACEK Mathias *
• 27 VERGAERDE Otto (DNF #1)

• 31 THIJSSEN Gerben
• 32 DE GENDT Aimé
• 33 PAGE Hugo *
• 34 ROTA Lorenzo
• 35 BYSTRØM Sven Erik
• 36 VAN POPPEL Boy
• 37 VLIEGEN Loïc

• 41 EWAN Caleb
• 42 DRIZNERS Jarrad
• 43 FRISON Frederik
• 44 GRIGNARD Sébastien
• 45 GUARNIERI Jacopo
• 46 DE BUYST Jasper
• 47 VERMEERSCH Florian

• 51 DEGENKOLB John
• 52 BRINKMAN Joost * (OTL #1)
• 53 EDMONDSON Alex
• 54 EEKHOFF Nils
• 55 MÄRKL Niklas
• 56 VAN UDEN Casper *
• 57 WELSFORD Sam

• 61 BOL Cees
• 62 NATAROV Yuriy (DNS #5)
• 63 NURLYKHASSYM Nurbergen
• 64 SCARONI Christian
• 65 BOARO Manuele
• 66 MARTINELLI Davide
• 67 SYRITSA Gleb

• 71 VANMARCKE Sep
• 72 HERMANS Ben
• 73 REYNDERS Jens (DNF #5)
• 74 KOGUT Oded *
• 75 SAGIV Guy
• 76 VAN ASBROECK Tom
• 77 FRIGO Marco

• 81 BERCKMOES Jenno *
• 82 BRAET Vito
• 83 COLMAN Alex
• 84 DE PESTEL Sander
• 85 MARIS Elias
• 86 VAN POUCKE Aaron
• 87 VANHOOF Ward

• 91 DESAL Ceriel
• 92 MERTZ Rémy
• 93 MALUCELLI Matteo
• 94 ROBEET Ludovic
• 95 VAN BOVEN Luca
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Tour de France 2022 route: Every stage assessed for bruising 109th edition

Updated 19/07/2022 at 18:01 GMT

A Danish Grand Depart, forays into Belgium and Switzerland, the Arenberg cobbles, the return of Alpe d’Huez, and a long time trial on the penultimate day all feature at the 2022 Tour de France. More summit finishes than sprints, six breakaway days, an additional two punchy uphill finishes, and 53.9km of racing against the clock, makes for one of the most challenging courses in recent years.

Cycling Show: Episode 43 - Primoz Roglic: 'I would love to win the Tour de France'

'I was quite emotional' – Pogacar dedicates win to fiancée's late mother

21/04/2024 at 17:42

2022 Tour de France route map

Stage 1: Copenhagen – Copenhagen, 13.2km (ITT)

Stage 2: Roskilde – Nyborg, 202.2km (Sprint)

Stage 3: Vejle – Sonderborg, 182km (Sprint)

Stage 4: Dunkirk – Calais, 171.5km (Break)

Stage 5: Lille – Arenberg, 153.7km (Cobbles)

Stage 6: Binche – Longwy, 219.9km (Punchy)

Stage 7: Tomblaine – La Super Planche des Belles Filles, 176.3km (Summit)

Stage 8: Dole – Lausanne, 186.3km (Punchy)

Stage 9: Aigle – Chatel, 192.9km (Medium mountains)

Stage 10: Morzine – Megeve, 148.1km (Summit)

Stage 11: Albertville – Col du Granon, 151.7km (Summit)

Stage 12: Briancon – Alpe d’Huez, 165.1km (Summit)

Stage 13: Le Bourg d’Oisans – Saint-Etienne, 192.6km (Break)

Stage 14: Saint-Etienne – Mende, 192.5km (Medium mountains)

Stage 15: Rodez – Carcassonne, 202.5km (Sprint)

Stage 16: Carcassonne – Foix, 178.5km (Medium mountains)

Stage 17: Saint Gaudens – Peyragudes, 129.7km (Summit)

Stage 18: Lourdes – Hautacam, 143.2km (Summit)

Stage 19: Castelnau-Magnoac – Cahors, 188.3km (Sprint)

Stage 20: Lacapelle-Marival – Rocamadour, 40.7km (ITT)

Stage 21: Paris La Defence Arena – Paris Champs-Elysees, 115.6km (Sprint)

'It was quite emotional' – Pogacar dedicates win to girlfriend's late mother

'a titan of our times' – pogacar storms to solo victory, 'all i'm thinking about now is the giro' - thomas focused on first grand tour of the season.

16/04/2024 at 07:39

Fri 26 Apr 2024

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Tour de France 2022 route map: Stages list, full schedule, and where the race starts and ends today

Covering a total of 3,328 kilometres, the 2022 tour route includes forays into belgium and switzerland and a stage in northern france that features 11 sections of bone-jangling cobbles.

The most northerly grand départ in Tour de France history sees the 176 riders kick off the 109th edition with a flat but technical 13.2km time trial around Copenhagen ahead of two sprinter-friendly stages in Denmark , where potential coastal crosswinds will put the yellow jersey contenders on red alert.

Covering a total of 3,328 kilometres, the 2022 Tour route also includes forays into Belgium and Switzerland, a stage in northern France that features 11 sections of bone-jangling cobbles, six summit finishes, and a 40.7km time trial on the penultimate day – the longest solo TT for a decade.

Stage 5 to Arenberg, with almost 20km of cobblestones, could well be the stand-out moment of the opening week. It comes two days before the race’s first summit showdown at the Superplanche des Belles Filles, the climb where Slovenia’s Primoz Roglic relinquished his yellow jersey in dramatic fashion to compatriot Tadej Pogacar in 2020, just one day from the finish.

Back-to-back finishes on the Col du Granon and Alpe d’Huez for stages 11 and 12 will light up the second week. Unused since 1986, the brutal Granon was the highest finish in the Tour’s history for a quarter of a century until the Col de Galibier hosted a mountaintop finish in 2011. Both sides of the lofty Galibier feature on successive days, most notably ahead of the infamous 21 hairpin bends of Alpe d’Huez – back for the first time since Welshman Geraint Thomas won in yellow in 2018.

How to watch Tour de France 2022 UK cycling fans will be spoiled for choice when it comes to watching this year’s Tour de France, with extensive coverage being shown on ITV4, Eurosport and GCN+. ITV4  will be showing hours of live racing each day as well as a  daily highlights show at 7pm  (aside from rest days, of course). You can see all the key timings for its live coverage on ITV’s website  here . Each and every stage of the Tour will be shown in its entirety on  Eurosport  and subscription service GCN+. The Breakaway, a daily analysis show, will be shown at the start and end of each stage across both services.  Short and extended highlights   packages  are also available on  GCN+ . You can see the full breakdown of Eurosport’s coverage  here  and the GCN+ coverage  here .

High-altitude finishes in the Pyrenees include stage 17 to the steep airstrip at Peyragudes and stage 18 to the ski resort of Hautacam, returning to the menu after an eight-year absence. A flurry of ramped finishes and undulating stages cater for the puncheurs and breakaway specialists alike, and there could be up to six stages that climax with a bunch sprint – including the traditional final day circuit race on the Champs-Élysées.

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The final stage in Paris coincides with the opening stage of the inaugural women’s race, the Tour de France Femmes, which runs for eight days between Sunday 24 July and Sunday 31 July, culminating with a tough summit finish at the Superplanche in the Vosges.

Tour de France 2022 stage guide

• Stage 1 – 1 July – Copenhagen to Copenhagen – 13.2km (ITT)

The opening time trial around Copenhagen is pretty much pan flat, but there are plenty of tight corners to make it a technical challenge as well as a measure of pure power. Denmark’s own Kasper Asgreen will be among the favourites to pull on the first yellow jersey of the race.

• Stage 2 – 2 July – Roskilde to Nyborg – 202.5km – Flat

A bunch sprint is expected on stage two as the race heads west along the coastal roads, but there there is one major obstacle hiding from view on the race profile. The Storebaelsbroen is the 18km-long bridge across the Great Belt linking eastern and western Denmark. The possibility of gusting winds on this exposed bridge is high, so teams will have to be on high alert for splits on the road into Nyborg.

• Stage 3 – 3 July – Vejle to Sonderborg – 182km – Flat

There should be no barrier to a pure sprint on stage three as the peloton heads south, passing through Asgreen’s home town of Kolding. The three categorised climbs on the route will barely register, and none of them come in the final 60km.

• Stage 4 – 5 July – Dunkerque to Calais – 171.5km – Hilly

After a day off for teams to make the journey across to France, the Tour continues with a lumpier day, going west to get east as the route cuts inland through the Pas-de-Calais before returning to the coast. It’s one for the stronger sprinters, but wind could again be a factor in determining how this one plays out.

• Stage 5 – 6 July – Lille Metropole to Arenberg Porte du Hainaut – 154km – Hilly

It’s a mini Paris-Roubaix in reverse as the feared cobbles return to the race on stage five. Arenberg is famous for its trench of cobbles through the forest, but do not expect to see that as the Tour has opted for a number of unfamiliar sectors, but unusually challenging ones. It will make for a nervous day all around.

• Stage 6 – 7 July – Binche to Longwy – 220km – Hilly

The Tour dips a toe into Belgium for a start in Binche, and what follows on the longest stage of this year’s race is one for the puncheurs – with a series of short climbs on the road through the Ardennes and into Longwy, and a rise of 800 metres at 12.3 per cent comes just before the road up to the finish.

• Stage 7 -8 July – Tomblaine to La Super Planches des Belles Filles – 176.5km – Mountain

In the decade since it made its debut on the Tour, La Planche des Belles Filles has become a favourite and for good reason. This will be the sixth stage finish on the climb since 2012, and the first since Tadej Pogacar dramatically snatched overall victory from Primoz Roglic in the time trial here in 2020. The race will include the unpaved section at the top of the hill first used in 2019.

• Stage 8 – 9 July – Dole to Lausanne – 186.5km – Hilly

There’s a nod to those who have led the way out of the pandemic on stage 8 with a start in Dole, hometown of Louis Pasteur, the French chemist who developed the first vaccines some 150 years ago. From there the stage heads into Switzerland where a punchy finish awaits.

• Stage 9 – 10 July – Aigle to Chatel les Portes du Soleil – 193km – Mountain

The first mountain passes of the Tour come in the Swiss Alps over the Col des Mosses, the Col de la Croix and the Pas de Morgins before a relatively flat run back over the border to a finish on the approach to the ski station at Portes du Soleil.

• Stage 10 – 12 July – Morzine les Portes du Soleil – Megeve – 148.5km – Hilly

After the first proper rest day (the transfer day from Denmark notwithstanding), more Alpine challenges await, though relatively sedate. The final climb up to Megeve is long at 19km but relatively easy at an average gradient of 4.1 per cent with the steepest section, at 7.1 per cent, in the final kilometre.

• Stage 11 – 13 July – Albertville to Col du Granon Serre Chevalier – 152km – Mountain

Three of the Tour’s most famous climbs come on a demanding stage 11, with the Col du Telegraphe, Col du Galibier and Col du Granon packed into the second half of the day. A Tour stage has not finished here since 1986, on the day Greg Lemond famously took yellow from Bernard Hinault.

• Stage 12 – 14 July – Briancon to Alpe d’Huez – 165.5km – Mountain

The hairpins of Alpe d’Huez await on stage 12, but only after the peloton has doubled back and undone its work of the day before – back over the Galibier and down the Telegraphe before the Col de la Croix de Fer and the Alpe d’Huez make it a trio of hors categorie climbs in one brutal day. In another nod to Lemond and Hinault, this replicates the stage on which they crossed the line hand in hand 36 years ago.

• Stage 13 – 15 July – Le Bourg d’Oisans to Saint Etienne – 193km – Flat

After a long wait since Denmark it is hard to imagine the sprint teams will not keep a firm handle on the breakaway and ensure a sprint finish in St Etienne as the peloton shifts away from the Alps.

• Stage 14 – 16 July – Saint Etienne to Mende – 192.5km – Hilly

The steep climb up to the airport in Mende has provided some spectacular finishes to Tour stages in recent years, none more so than when Steve Cummings broke away to deliver a first-ever Tour stage win for an African team, MTN-Qhubeka, on Mandela Day in 2015.

• Stage 15 – 17 July – Rodez to Carcassonne – 202.5km – Flat

Stages into Carcassonne have usually favoured breakaways but last year Mark Cavendish won here to match Eddy Merckx’s record of 34 Tour victories, and the sprinters will be eyeing another bunch finish ahead of the final rest day.

• Stage 16 – 19 July – Carcassonne to Foix – 178.5km – Hilly

The Pyrenees will define the final week but this is only an hors d’oeuvre with a trip into the foothills on the road to Foix, a finish town which has again been kind to breakaways. These might not be on the scale of the mountains to come, but the Mur de Peguere finishes with gradients of 13 and 18 per cent during the final kilometre.

• Stage 17 – 20 July – Saint-Gaudens to Peyragudes – 130km – Mountains

There’s room for James Bond references on Stage 17 as the peloton cross the Col d’Aspin, Hourquette d’Anzican and the Col de Val-Louron-Azet on their way to the climb to the airstrip of Peyragudes, made famous in the opening scenes of Tomorrow Never Dies. Romain Bardet was the winner when the peloton last took on this climb, which hits 13 per cent in the finale, in 2017.

• Stage 18 – 21 July – Lourdes to Hautacam – 143.5km – Mountain

The last of the mountain tests come on stage 18, with the hors categorie climbs of the Col d’Aubisque and the rise up to Hautacam punctuated by the category one Col de Spandelles. It will be the last chance for the pure climbers to make their mark.

• Stage 19 – 22 July – Castelnau-Magnoac to Cahors – 188.5km – Flat

A flat stage looks like one for the sprinters though they might want to think back to stage 19 of last year’s race, when an exhausted bunch allowed a breakaway to stay clear with Matej Mohoric claiming victory.

• Stage 20 – 23 July – Lacapelle-Marival to Rocamadour – 40.7km – ITT

The battle for the yellow jersey will be settled with a penultimate day time trial, and a long and challenging one at that. The nearly 41km route is the longest battle against the clock seen in the Tour since 2014, and with two late climbs there could be a twist in the tail.

• Stage 21 – 24 July – Paris La Defense Arena – Paris Champs-Elysees – 116km – Flat

Love it or hate it, the largely processional final stage of the Tour lives on (at least for now, if rumours about 2024 are to be believed). Champagne glasses will clink in the suburbs of the capital before the sprinters do battle on the Champs-Elysees and the sun comes down on the 109th Tour de France.

* Additional reporting by Press Association

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"Tour de France Cycle City" label: soon 150 towns and 10 countries in the loop?

As part of its "Riding into the Future" programme to promote sustainable mobility, the Tour de France launched the "Tour de France Cycle City" label in 2021, encouraging all the initiatives taken by towns and cities that have already hosted the Grande Boucle to promote everyday cycling.

For this fourth edition, the Tour de France and the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift have received bids from 24 cities, including six outside France. This year, 16 towns on the 2024 Tour de France route have applied, and two are on the 2024 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift map, which should take the number of approved cities to 150... in 10 different countries!

The results will be announced on 15 May as part of the “Mai à vélo” (Bike in May) campaign.

150! That's the symbolic milestone the "Tour de France Cycle City" label could reach in its fourth edition. This initiative, created in 2021, enables towns that have already hosted the Grande Boucle to have their commitment to developing cycling in all its forms assessed and rewarded. Whether they are French or foreign, rural or urban, towns applying for the label must highlight all the existing measures to encourage cycling in their application and present local short- and medium-term development plans (infrastructure deployment, improving rider safety, learning to cycle with the "How to ride a bike" campaign, parking and combating theft, maintenance and repair, etc.). All these measures contribute to the growth of cycling as a means of daily transport, a source of leisure, and exercise.  

Since 2021, 133 cities in eight countries have already received at least one level of accreditation. With 24 applications, the 2024 campaign could see the number of towns and cities recognised for promoting cycling rise to 150. In addition to the new French and Belgian cities that could appear on the map, two new territories are about to join the club, representing ten countries with towns awarded the label! Italy, where the Tour de France will set off on 29 June for the first time in its history, has three candidates: Rimini, Piacenza and Pinerolo. More exotic still, Japan, which for over ten years has welcomed the champions of the Grande Boucle to Saitama in the middle of autumn as part of a festive criterium reminiscent of the Asian craze for the event, could also be in the running!  

Sixteen French towns on the route of the 2024 Tour and two others on the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift submitted bids, from Evaux-les-Bains, the least populous of the candidate towns, to Nice, the host town of a new and spectacular finish of the Tour de France on 21 July, reflecting the diversity of bids once again this year for a label that allows towns to showcase their assets on their scale. Four French cities that have hosted the event in the past have also applied, while two municipalities that have already received the label have requested a reassessment of their rating. The jury is now studying all the applications. The results will be announced to the candidate cities on 15 May 2024 as part of the "Bike in May" campaign.  

Composition of the jury for the "Tour de France Cycle City" label: Christian Prudhomme, Director of the Tour de France; Émilie Defay, deputy editor-in-chief at France Bleu Paris; Jean Ghedira, director of communications, sponsorship and general secretariat at LCL; David Lazarus, mayor of Chambly and chairman of the "Sports" working group of the Association des Maires de France; Olivier Schneider, president of the FUB (French Federation of Bicycle Users); Karine Bozzacchi, CSR manager for the Tour de France.  

Candidate cities for the 2024 label:  

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Pogacar wins Liege with epic solo break, launching bid for Giro d’Italia and Tour de France

Tadej Pogacar won the Liege-Bastogne-Liege bike race on Sunday thanks to a solo break 30km from home launched on a steep climb and sustained to the finish line.

Issued on: 21/04/2024 - 17:07

Ahead of Pogacar 's Giro d'Italia and Tour de France double bid the 25-year-old Slovenian blew the opposition away with a maverick acceleration that none could answer on the 254km race in the Ardennes forests that marks the end of the spring classics.

Billed as a duel between Pogacar and winner of Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders Mathieu van der Poel, the Dutchman came in a commendable third but was far from going shoulder-to-shoulder for the title.

Frenchman Romain Bardet was second, also solo 1min 39sec off the pace with Van der Poel leading a bunch home at 2min 02sec.

Another pre-race favourite was Briton Tom Pidcock, who was 10th on the day after a mechanical problem at a key moment hindered his day.

The win puts to bed Pogacar's fall here last season that broke his wrist and blighted his Tour de France bid.

"It was an emotional day of riding for me," a drained-looking Pogacar said.

"Not just because of my hand but also because two years ago just before the race Urska's mother died, so I was riding for her today," Pogacar said referring to his professional cyclist partner Urska Zigart.

Pogacar also won here in 2021 and this was his sixth one-day Monument win with three wins at the Tour of Lombardy and his 2023 Tour of Flanders triumph.

Champion Remco Evenepoel, former winner Primoz Roglic and Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard would all have been suited to this course but are injured after a mass fall at the Tour of the Basque Country.

Pogacar came into the race fresh from altitude training and at the start line said he had "no regrets about not racing la Fleche", referring to the frozen and drenched midweek race in the same region.

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"Belgium is famous for Tintin, Hercule Poirot, beer and chocolate but has a great deal more to offer and I love exploring it with our travellers"

Peter, Travel Director

Stroll through the beautiful Bruges

Horse drawn carts, brick façade buildings and waterfront windmills make Bruges a place to savor. Climb the 83-meter Belfry Tower for sweeping views and to watch treats being made at the Chocolate Line. Charm is packed into these flower dressed streets.

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Step back in time to a cultural heritage delicately laced since the 15th century. Though some points in history saw nearly 50,000 people dedicated to this craft in Belgium, it is now a unique specialty. Experience the country’s romantic white lace at the interactive Kantcentrum museum.

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Designed in homage to the country’s metals industries and in celebration of the atomic age, the Atomium is a symbol of modern European architecture. Step inside one of nine 18-meter spheres to dine, admire views and browse its exhibitions.

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Sample one too many delightfully smooth blocks of milky cacao in the city of Brussels. You’ll find many chocolate shops along the streets. Visit Choco-Story the Museum of Cocoa and Chocolate to immerse deeply and deliciously into this culinary wonder.

Learn about Flanders farm life

Feel a deep connection to the land by visiting one of almost 500 organic farms and conservation areas spread over Flanders in the north of Belgium. Outside, you’ll be delighted by fields of blueberries, rows of brightly colored flowers and free-roaming animals, before stepping inside the charming farmhouse for a local meal.

Our top 5 things to do in Belgium

Waltz through fields of blueberries, see a masterpiece of modern European architecture and be charmed by waterfront windmills. Discover the true heart of the country on a Belgium travel experience with Trafalgar.

Royal Palace

Stand before The Royal Palace of Brusselsin awe ofthe imperial magnitude of the neoclassical façade – one that measures 50 percent longer than that of Buckingham Palace. Soak in the opulence as you get escorted through lavish ceremonial rooms including the Mirror Room encrusted with 1.4 million iridescent jewel beetles.

Plantin-Moretus Museum

Explore the ancient city of Antwerp and immerse yourself in the publishing dynasty of Plantin and Moretus. Browse through the UNESCO World Heritage Listed museum and see priceless typographical antiquities including two of the oldest printing presses in the world. Lose yourself in the collection of 30,000 books and visit the bookshop dating back to 1700.

Magritte Museum

Pay homage to Belgian artist René Magritte at Magritte Museum. Behold the largest collection of Magritte’s work including some 230 paintings, drawings, and sculptures as well as his experiments with photography from 1920 and short films from 1956. Trace his development across surrealism, and Magritte’s “vache” period, through to his signature bowler hats.

Best museums in Belgium

An often underrated destination, Belgium attractions are a surprise to many. Step a little closer on our trips to Belgium and you’ll find a place bursting with culture and museums, from an ancient printing press to a decadent royal palace.

Moules-Frites

Erase your appreciation for fish and chips with its far superior Belgian alternative, mussels and fries. The mussels are usually boiled with fresh herbs and oil – use the left-over juices as dipping sauce for your thin cut fries.

Belgian Beer

The perfect way to wash down Moules-Frites – or any meal, in fact – is with a Belgian beer. Perfecting their brew since the 12th century, fermented cereal grains are part of this country’s heritage. Even fussy beer drinkers will find a variety to love.

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Loose-fitting clothes

Between the beer, waffles, fries and chocolate, no amount of walking will fend off the feeling of gluttony. Pack loose-fitting clothes so you can indulge in Belgium’s food without any discomfort.

A book or app dedicated to flowers

A country famed for its biennial Flower Carpet festival, Belgium is alive with floral colors at many times of the year. Take a book or download an app and you’ll quickly learn to differentiate varieties of begonias and poppies.

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What is the Muur van Geraardsbergen? Inside Omloop Het Nieuwsblad's toughest climb

Once a crucial part of the Tour of Flanders, now the cobbled berg holds sway as a key Opening Weekend launch point

The cobbled climb of the Muur van Geraardsbergen, also known as the Kapelmuur, was once seen as such an integral part of the Tour of Flanders finale that when it was axed when the finish was shifted in 2012 fans and riders alike mourned its removal – some carrying fake coffins up the climb in protest while one commentator decreed that the race had been “decapitated” .

The Ronde van Vlaanderen, however, continued on without the Muur van Geraardsbergen as its penultimate climb, but it certainly has not been forgotten.

Not only has it returned to the race at times since, playing a pivotal role when it was first re-introduced in 2017 even though it was 95km from the end – with eventual winner Philippe Gilbert among an elite group that escaped on the climb. The Kapelmuur may have been completely missing from recent editions of the Ronde, but it has been regularly used elsewhere.

The revered climb which curves up the cobbles past a chapel perched atop the hill to reach a maximum altitude of 110 metres, has featured in races as varied as the Tour de France, Lotto Belgium Tour and even the self-supported Transcontinental but it is as part of the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad finale that it has truly found it's new home.

The steep, punishing and always spectator-packed climb which delivered memorable late race battles at the Tour of Flanders since its introduction in 1970 – like Fabian Cancellara surging away from Tom Boonen in 2010 – had long been included at an earlier point in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad until 2018.

That year, however, the finish of the opening Classic moved from Ghent – first to Meerbeke and then next year the neighbouring Ninove – reviving the once much-loved finishing climb duo that was last used as the race finale of the monument in 2011.

Once again the Muur van Geraardsbergen slotted into its role as a crucial race-defining part of the finale. Just like it once was at the Tour of Flanders, it would deliver a tough penultimate climb, with the Bosberg to follow shortly thereafter, just at a different race this time instead.

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The Muur, or wall, is the penultimate climb at both the 202.2km men’s and 127.1km women’s Omloop Het Nieuwsblad , comes at 15.7km from the line and is followed soon after by the Bosberg at 11.8km to go.

The written race guide says the Muur of Geraardsbergen – or the Kapelmuur as the document refers to it – is officially 475m long with an average gradient of 9.3% and a maximum of 19.8%, though it’s perhaps a description that downplays the extent of the effort.

Most profiles, including the Strava segment and even the Flanders Classic video description of the climb, put the total distance of the ascent at over one kilometre – starting out in the town square and stiffening up in the final few hundred metres with the steep bend towards the church at the end.

“It’s an honest climb, where the strongest riders can make the difference,” says Sep Vanmarcke in the race guide. “Positioning at the foot is crucial. The second half of the Muur is the most demanding. Anyone who has still has a little in reserve will usually launch an attack there. At the top, it is still about 15 kilometres to the finish in Ninove. So this is the perfect springboard to victory.”

The Belgian, who won the race in 2012 tried to execute on that by launching on the second half of the ascent in 2018, when it was first introduced as the penultimate climb in the race and while he wasn’t quite able to use it as a springboard to victory, he still came third.

At the Tour of Flanders, the climb has provided iconic moments in the race's history, from Eddy Merckx dropping breakmate Frans Verbeek to win his final title in 1975 to Peter Van Petegem's battle with Frank Vandenbroucke in 2003 and the famous Fabian Cancellara vs Tom Boonen duels.

In recent years at Omloop it has provided a successful final launching point for Annemiek van Vleuten in 2020 and Chantal van den Broek Blaak in 2019, who both used the Muur to launch toward a solo victory.

It's also where 2023 winner Lotte Kopecky bridged to leader Arlenis Sierra in sight of the chapel, before attacking on the Bosberg to claim the solo victory.

Last year, Dylan van Baarle (Jumbo-Visma) was the first man to utilise the tricky cobbled climb in his charge to victory. He finally dropped his last break companion Mathis Le Berre (Arkéa-Samsic) on the way up to the chapel on top of the hill, before holding off the charging peloton behind to claim victory by 20 seconds.

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Simone is a degree-qualified journalist that has accumulated decades of wide-ranging experience while working across a variety of leading media organisations. She joined Cyclingnews as a Production Editor at the start of the 2021 season and has now moved into the role of Australia Editor. Previously she worked as a freelance writer, Australian Editor at Ella CyclingTips and as a correspondent for Reuters and Bloomberg . Cycling was initially purely a leisure pursuit for Simone, who started out as a business journalist, but in 2015 her career focus also shifted to the sport.

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