Running from Saturday July 1st to Sunday July 23rd 2017, the 104th Tour de France will be made up of 21 stages and will cover a total distance of 3,540 kilometres, and we at Paddy’s will be following them closely from our screens around the bar!

This years Tour is full of Thrilling events. Keep reading to get a hint of the most important Multiple Stage Bicycle Race of the world.

The route

• 9 flat stages
• 5 hilly stages
• 5 mountain stages including altitude finishes (La Planche des Belles Filles, Peyragudes, Izoard)
• 2 individual time-trials stages

The 2017 Tour de France will include a total of 23 mountains climbs or hills and altitude finishes ranked in second, first or HC class.

The geographic distribution will be as follow:

• 1 in the Vosges
• 6 in the Jura
• 8 in the Pyrénées
• 2 in the Massif central
• 6 in the Alps

Distinctive aspects of the race

HEXAGON + 3

The 104th Tour de France will visit three neighboring countries: Germany, Belgium and Luxemburg. In France, 34 counties will be visited.

25 YEARS AFTER…

It hadn’t happened since 1992. The five main mountain ranges of France will be on the program in 2017. The Tour will visit, in the following order, the Vosges, the Jura, the Pyrenees, the Massif Central and the Alps. The highlight will be the very first stage finish at the top of the Col d’Izoard.

OPENING AND (ALMOST) FINISH IN SOLO

It’ll be after a 14-kilometre time-trial in the streets of Düsseldorf that the first Yellow Jersey of the 2017 Tour de France will be awarded. In Marseille, after the 20th and penultimate stage, a 22.5 kilometre time-trial, the winner of the 104th edition of the Grande Boucle will be crowned.

BONUSES

Re-introduced in 2015 after a seven-year absence, bonus seconds will again be up for grabs at the finishes of all the normal stages. There will indeed be 10, 6 and 4 seconds to be gained for the first three of each stage.

POINTS

The green jersey will be awarded to the leader of the points classification. These points will be given out at the finishes of each stage as well as on the unique intermediate sprints of normal stages.

The polka-dot jersey will be on the shoulders of the leader of the best climbers’ classification. Points will be awarded at the top of each Col or Côte and the three altitude finishes (La Planche des Belles Filles, Peyragudes, Izoard).

10 new sites and stage cities

• Düsseldorf (1st stage and start of stage 2)
• Mondorf-les-Bains (start of stage 4)
• Nuits-Saint-Georges (finish of stage 7)
• Nantua (start of stage 9)
• Eymet (start of stage 11)
• Laissac-Sévérac l’Église (start of stage 15)
• Romans-sur-Isère (finish of stage 16)
• La Mure (start of stage 17)
• Izoard (finish of stage 18)
• Salon-de-Provence (finish of stage 19)
• The stages