The 2013 Tour de France is the 100th Tour
de France. It will run from 29 June 2013 to
21 July 2013.
Del Woodford joins us in studio to talk
about this years tour and we also speak to
Paul Jesson - Paul rode the tour in 1979 and
is a former stage winner of the Tour of
Spain in 1979. A cycling accident left
him an amputee and as a NZ Paralympian Paul
won a bronze medal in Athens in 2004, as
well as being a double world champion (4000m
pursuit and road time trial 1998 Colorado
Springs),
The race will start in Corsica, in the city
of Porto-Vecchio. The island will host the
first three stages. Corsica is the only
Metropolitan department which the Tour has
never passed through and the organisers
wanted to
combine the 100th
edition of the Tour with the Tour's
first ever visit to
Corsica.
The tour is to be the first to be completed
only on French soil since 2003. It will
feature a final set of stages which have
been described as "brutal", including three
Alpine stages in the last week along with a
"viciously hard" time trial.
These include a double ascent of
l'Alpe d'Huez, the first time the
tour will feature a double climb of
this scale. There will be seven flat
stages, five hilly stages, six
mountain stages (with four summit
finishes), two individual time trial
stages and one team time trial stage
covering a total of 3,403 kilometres
. The Tour will finish at dusk in
Paris.
