Tour de France 2022 route details: Alpe d’Huez and cobblestones are back

Copenhagen, cobbles, chronos, and climbs — the 2022 Tour de France route has it all. And more.

Alpe d’Huez is back, and so is a foray across the punishing cobblestones. The “grande boucle” starts in Copenhagen, lands at Dunkirk, and sweeps east into Switzerland, before tackling the Alps and then the Pyrénées.

“It’s a race with a bit of everything,” course designer Thierry Gouvenou told AFP. “The word that best captures how to describe the 2022 route is that it’s complete. But anyone who wins will need to be a complete rider because there are five finishes at high altitude and one of them is at 2,400 meters. You have the entire palate of what it’s possible to provide on a Tour de France.”

The famed 21 switchbacks on l’Alpe d’Huez returns for its 32nd ascent — and for the first time since 2018 — and will be among five uphill mountain finishes in the 2022 Tour.

The Tour’s most famous climb will come on France’s July 14 Bastille Day, and will be an exact replica of the 1986 stage won by Bernard Hinault, where he crossed the line hand-in-hand with Greg LeMond, who went on to become the first American winner of the yellow jersey.

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Tour officials confirmed course details Thursday for the 109th edition (July 1-24), which starts in Denmark and ends as it has every year since the 1970s on the Champs-Élysées for its 47th straight year.

Like any modern Tour, there is a mix of stages and terrain.

There will be five mountain-top finales; the first at Planche des Belles Filles, two more in the Alpes, with the Col du Granon and l’Alpe d’Huez, and two in Pyrénées, at Peyragudes and again at Hautacam.

Denmark is the 10th nation to host a foreign “grand départ” for the Tour de France, following the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Spain, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and Monaco.

Time trials also play a key role. The Tour has not started with a time trial stage since Geraint Thomas won in Düsseldorf in 2017. A late-race time trial in the final week at a monster 40km — long by modern standards — could decide the final podium.

The treacherous cobbles are back, something that not all of the skinny grand-tour riders like to see. Stage 5 from Lille Métropole to Arenberg Porte du Hainaut will feature 11 cobbled sectors totaling 19.4km, making it a decisive stage, but it will not cross the feared Arenberg Forest sector.

Sprinters will have their chances. This year’s route returns to Carcassonne, where Mark Cavendish made history this past summer with a 34th stage victory, equalling Eddy Merckx’s all-time stage-win record.

Stages of the 2022 Tour de France

1 July: S1 Copenhague to Copenhague, 13 km (ITT)
2 July: S2 Roskilde (DEN) – Nyborg (DEN), 199 km
3 July: S3 Vejle (DEN) – Sönderborg (DEN), 182 km
4 July: transfer
5 July: S4 Dunkerque – Calais, 172 km
6 July: S5 Lille Métropole – Arenberg Porte du Hainaut, 155 km
7 July: S6 Binche (BEL) – Longwy, 220 km
8 July: S7 Tomblaine – La super Planche des Belles Filles, 176 km
9 July: S8 Dole – Lausanne (SUI), 184 km
10 July: S9 Aigle (SUI) – Châtel, 183 km
11 July: rest day Morzine
12 July: S10 Morzine – Megève, 148 km
13 July: S11 Albertville – col du Granon, 149 km
14 July: S12 Briançon – Alpe d’Huez, 166 km
15 July: S13 Bourg d’Oisans – Saint-Etienne, 193 km
16 July: S14 Saint-Etienne – Mende, 195 km
17 July: S15 Rodez – Carcassonne, 200 km
18 July: rest day Carcassonne
19 July: S16 Carcassonne – Foix, 179 km
20 July: S17 Saint-Gaudens – Peyragudes, 130 km
21 July: S18 Lourdes – Hautacam, 143 km
22 July: S19 Castelnau-Magnoac – Cahors, 189 km
23 July: S20 Lacapelle-Marival – Rocamadour, 40 km (ITT)
24 July: S21 Paris La Défense Arena – Paris Champs-Elysées, 112 km

Route map for 2022 Tour de France

Here is is, the of the #TDF2022!

Voici le du #TDF2022 ! pic.twitter.com/4eccacs9Ip

— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) October 14, 2021