Riders to face a toughened-up Tour

At yesterday’s presentation of the 2012 course, Tour director Christian Prudhomme said “more favourites can potentially be in the mix” in the quest for the leader’s yellow jersey over the 2,162-mile route.

The Tour’s 99th edition, which starts on 30 June in Liege, Belgium, will feature nearly 62 miles of individual time trials and 25 tough mountain climbs. The super-steep Planche des Belles Filles in eastern France will make its Tour debut in Stage 7.

“The route has been made so more favourites can potentially be in it [the title hunt],” Prudhomme told reporters before welcoming hundreds of riders, cycling personnel, sponsors and fans for the presentation at a Paris convention centre.

“So a guy who is good in time trials can say: ‘Ah, I might have a chance,’ and others will say: ‘Since there are fewer summit finishes, I have to attack from farther out’,” he said. “And there’s precisely the layout to allow attacks from farther out.”

This year’s Tour was one of the most exciting in years, with the yellow jersey up for grabs until the next to last stage. Prudhomme said organisers couldn’t rest on their laurels and needed to continue to shake things up.

“There is nothing worse than old routines. And teams adapt at an incredible speed. We have to try to bring new things each time so that they have to change,” he added.

The Planche des Belles Filles, with a patch of a staggering 20-degree gradient, is but one of nearly a half-dozen new mountain climbs for the Tour. Riders will also struggle up the Col de la Croix in the Jura mountains of Switzerland – a 3.7km climb with an average gradient of 9.2 per cent.

“On the Col de la Croix, even without attacking, you have to be in it. It can’t be otherwise, it’s too steep for there not to be a shake-up,” Prudhomme said. The climb comes just 15km from the finish line of Stage 8.

A group of cycling stars lined the front row for the glitzy presentation at a Paris hotel: Evans, new world champion Mark Cavendish of Britain, brothers Andy and Frank Schleck – who finished this year second and third behind Evans – and Belgium’s Philippe Gilbert, the top-ranked rider this year in the International Cycling Union scale.

Gilbert will join Evans’ BMC Racing team next year.

Major centrepieces for the Tour’s last two editions were the centennial celebrations of the race’s debut in the Pyrenees mountains – in 1909 – and the Alps the following year. For 2012, the theme will be novelty, Prudhomme said.

“This year we’re in the year of new things, with half-a-dozen new climbs, some of which are really hard,” he said.

Competitors quickly analysed the route, and tried to gauge their chances.

“Riders and fans don’t like when the races turn into waiting games,” said Andy Schleck, a three-time Tour runner-up. “Next year if you wait, you will lose. We have to be on the offensive from the first stage.”

Thomas Voeckler, who wore the yellow jersey ten days last summer before finally losing it to Schleck on the infamous Alpe d’Huez climb, said next year’s Tour “is very hilly”.

“Like in the past few years, the suspense will keep everyone breathless until the end,” Voeckler said.

Team Sky boss Dave Brailsford believes the route could play into the hands of his riders, such as Bradley Wiggins and new recruit Mark Cavendish.

He said: “It looks like a very exciting Tour route from Team Sky’s point of view.

“Notably, having 90km of time-trialling as well as the prologue is more than there has been in recent years and, in theory, this should favour our riders.

“We’ll now take this information away, really analyse it and work on the team’s gameplan before sitting down with riders to identify key goals.”