The battle for the yellow jersey at next year’s Tour de France will conclude with a time trial at La Planche des Belles Filles before the traditional sprint stage in Paris.
Organisers ASO on Tuesday unveiled a route which visits all five mountain ranges in France, is short on sprint opportunities and designed to favour attacking riders.
Though the 36-kilometre battle against the clock on stage 20 may come to define the race, it is the only time trial in the entire three weeks with the focus instead on medium and high mountain stages.
There will be no return to either Alpe d’Huez or Mont Ventoux next summer and only two stages in the traditional battleground of the Pyrenees, but the Massif Central and the Alps will play a key role before a final phase in the Jura and Vosges.
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