The route for the 2020 Tour de France was announced Tuesday morning in Paris. The 107th edition of the Grand Boucle will follow an unconventional, mountainous route that lends itself to the aggressive racing of French contenders Julien Alaphilippe and Thibaut Pinot, rather than the controlled format favored by Chris Froome, Egan Bernal, and Team Ineos ...

The race includes 29 mountain categories, 6 mountain finishes, and gravel roads, but only a 36 km time trial. There is no team time trial. There are no finishes at L'Alpe d'Huez or the summit of Ventoux, and race organizer ASO has highlighted the lesser-known but historic finishes at Puy Marie in Massif Central and the Col de la Rose in the central Alps. In 2020, the Tour de France will start a week earlier than usual on Saturday, June 27, and end on Sunday, July 19, in time for the Tokyo Olympics road race on Saturday, July 25. Vincenzo Nibali and others have already targeted the Giro d'Italia and the Olympic mountain road race, hinting that they will miss the 2020 Tour de France, while Chris Froome's terrible crash at the Criterium du Dauphiné will force him to miss the 2019 Forced to miss the Tour de France, he is working hard to return next year; the road to the 2020 Tour de France will determine whether Froome or 2019 winner Egan Bernal will be the leader of Team Ineos. Bernal, Alaphilippe, Pinot, Romain Bardet, and Froome attended the route presentation at the Palais des Congrès in Paris.

The Tour de France 2020 Grande Paix will be held in Nice, and the opening weekend will consist of three 170-km laps through the Var Valley, with a sprint finish expected on the Promenade des Anglais. The second stage enters Nice-aux-Pays, with 3700m of climbing over 190km. The Col d'Eze will make an appearance later in the day, and the Col des Cattle Chemin, just 9km from the finish, will again appear on the Promenade des Anglais. These two stages will produce two different winners who will wear the yellow jersey of the Tour de France. This is the second time that the Grand Depart in the capital of the Alpes-Maritimes department, the first being in 1981. It will be the fourth time in the last 10 years that the Tour de France has been held in France, and the third time in five years. 2021, the Tour de France will start in Copenhagen. After the Grande Pearl, the 2020 Tour de France will head northeast, finishing in Sisteron, Aussières-Mellette, and Mont Aigoual on stage 6. The last time Aussières-Mellette appeared in the Tour was in 1989, when Steven Loucks won the individual time trial and Greg LeMond took the yellow jersey. The 1840-meter ascent is not too demanding, averaging 5.9% and 11km in elevation, but the summit finish early in the race will show the overall ambition of each rider. The second mountain finish at the Mont Aigoual lookout will be another early test for the overall contenders. No one can afford to miss the start of the 2020 Tour de France. The route heads into the Pyrenees via Millau and Cazères in the Garonne region, with climbs throughout the weekend. There are only two mountain stages in the Pyrenees with no summit finish, but stage 8 to Roudenviere will climb the Col de Mante, Porte de Balès, and Col de Peyresseur. The ninth stage from Pau to Larns, with the Col de la Ousserre and the Col de Marie Blanquet, will be as much about downhill technique as it is about climbing.

After nine days of racing, there will be an initial rest day before the riders and the race caravan travel 400 km north to La Rochelle and Chatelayon on the central Atlantic coast on Monday, July 6. Racing resumes on Tuesday with Stage 10, a great but potentially windy 180 km stage around the bay. Stage 11 to Poitiers, along with the southward stage from Limoges to Salins, will be an opportunity for the sprinters. Stage 13 will finish at the Pas de Peyrolle (Puy Marie), 1,589 meters above sea level, in the heart of an extinct volcano in Auvergne. It will be another testing day for the overall contenders and their teams.

Week 2 will end with summit finishes from Clermo Ferrand to Lyon and Lyon to Grand Colombier, with a second rest day on Monday, July 13.

Week 3 begins with a rugged stage to Villars de Reims on Bastille Day, including a punchy climb to Saint Nizier de Moucherotte before a drop to the finish.

The intense 17th stage from Grenoble to Méribel includes a finish on the newly constructed cyclists' road to the Col de la Rosé at 2,304 meters. This pass will be the seventh highest in France and will be the queen stage of the 2020 Tour de France, as the stage also includes the spectacular Madeleine Pass.

More Alps will follow, passing through Colme de Roselin, Col de Saissy, Col de Aravis, and Plateau de Glières before finishing in La Roche-sur-Follon on stage 18. The transition stage to Champagnol will take the race northward and could have a thrilling conclusion. In the last 10 years, the Tour's final stage has been a mountain stage five times: the Mont Ventoux (2009), Semnos (2013), Alpe d'Huez (2015), Morzine (2016), and Val Thorens (2019). 2020's 20th stage is, 36km mountain time trial to La Planche des Belle Filles. The route passes through Pinot's home village of Mérisey and may give the Frenchman a chance to overcome a painful retirement during the 2019 race. The 37km time trial will include canyon roads that will help strong time trialists such as Froome, Tom Dumoulin, and Primoz Roglic, but the final steep 1km will surely bring the race to a physical and mental crescendo. Whoever wears the yellow jersey at the top of La Planche des Belle Filles will ride into Paris as the 2020 Tour de France winner.

Saturday, June 27, Stage 1: Nice to Nice Sunday, June 28, Stage 2: Nice to Nice Monday, June 29, Stage 3: Nice to Sisteron Tuesday, June 30, Stage 4: Sisteron to Orsières-Mellette Wednesday, July 1, Stage 5: Gap to Privas Thursday, July 2: Stage 6: Le Taille→Montaigoux: Le Taille→Mont Aigoual Friday, July 3: Stage 7: Milhaud→Lavolle Saturday, July 4: Stage 8: Cazères→Roudenvière Sunday, July 5: Stage 9: Pau→Lalence Monday, July 6: Rest day Tuesday, July 7: Stage 10 Stage: Ile de Ré - Ile d'Oléron

Wednesday, July 8: Stage 11: Chatelayon-Plage - Poitiers

Thursday, July 9: Stage 12: Chavignon - Salins: Chavigny - Salins

Friday, July 10 - Stage 13: Chatel-Guyon - Puy-Marie

Saturday, July 11 - Stage 14: Clermont-Ferrand - Lyon

Sunday, July 12 - Stage 15: Lyon - Grand Colombier

Monday, July 13 Rest day 2

Tuesday, July 14 - Stage 16: Tours du Pins - Villars de Reims

Wednesday, July 15 - Stage 17: Grenoble - Meribel

Thursday, July 16 - Stage 18: Meribel - La Roche-sur-Follon

Friday, July 17 - Stage 19: Bourg-en-Bresse - Champagnol

Saturday, July 18 - Stage 20: Relais - La Planche des Belle Filles

Sunday, July 19 - Stage 21: Mantes-la-Joly - Paris