Tour de France is underway
Sunday July 4, 2010 - Email this article to a friend

The most famous cycle race in the world started in Rotterdam at the weekend. The race is likely to be decided once again in its mountain stages in The Pyrenees and The Alps.

This year it passes through a number of ski resorts including Morzine, Avoriaz, Les Gets and La Clusaz in The Alps and some smaller ones in the French Pyrenees including Bareges.

It goes near Geneva, Grenoble and Gap.

It started on Saturday with the so-called 'prologue'. The British cyclists, David Millar and Geraint Thomas, finished 3rd and 5th as the Swissracer, Fabian Cancellara, won his 4th Tour de France prologue.

The race itself started on Sunday with a 223km stage from Rotterdam to Brussels.

It is early days, very early days, but at the moment it stands like this after Stage 1:

1. Fabian Cancellara (Swi/Saxo Bank) 10mins
2. Tony Martin (Ger/Columbia) + 10s econds
3. David Millar (GB/Garmin) + 20 seconds
4. Lance Armstrong (US/RadioShack) + 22 seconds
5. Geraint Thomas (GB/Team Sky) + 23 seconds

Last year we followed the race closely from The Alps and PlanetSKI was in Verbier, Switzerland, where the race was effectively won and lost on the climb up from the valley in La Chable.

See this report form a year ago as Alberto Contador conquered Lance Armstrong on the road up to the Swiss ski resort.

It was quite a day.

This year Armstrong has said it will be his last Tour and he has been down on this form in the build-up so expectations have been lowered.

Last year the 38-year old came third in Team Astana. This year he has formed a new group; Team RadioShack.

But he is one of the greatest riders the Tour has ever produced, so we may be in for a few surprises.

Armstrong in Verbier, 2009

The favourite is Contador, a two-time winner and the defending champion.

He is unrivalled in mountain climbs and we expect to see some dramatic racing in the Pyrenees and The Alps.

The British cyclist Bradley Wiggins is a sprint and time trial specialist, but he surprised last year's Tour, when he did well during the climbs and finished fourth overall.

He made a huge impression in 2009 and it will be interesting to see what he does this time around.

The Tour starts in Rotterdam on Saturday before moving to Belgium and then France.

The 2010 route

In a move not seen since 2004 a13km of the race will be on cobbled roads that should pose a few problems for the riders.

The 2010 Tour de France will not be won on the cobles, but it could be lost if someone takes a bad tumble.

It then moves through France heading towards what everyone will be waiting for; the mountains.

The course features 6 mountain stages including two ascents of the Col du Tourmalet, and four medium mountain stages.

The Alpine mountain stages come first, before Le Tour heads off to The French Pyrenees.

Most of the major climbing stages come in this range during the final week, including stages 16 and 17, which are separated by a rest day.

Riders will climb the Tourmalet during both stages, with the summit serving as the end to stage 17.

The race itself end on The Champs Elysee in Paris on July 25^th.

Once again PlanetSKI wil be reporting on Le Tour as it heads through its mountain stages, hopefully though our content editor won't get quite so obsessed by it this time round.

He really became quite an anorak!