Lille, France

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The Tour de France is the most prestigious bicycle race in the world, so it is easy to imagine that the path has to be selected extremely carefully. However, to lesser degrees the routes of all cross-country races of all types have to be selected carefully too with safety and exciting features in mind.

The Tour de France is a long race, but every stage has to be concluded in roughly the same time – the hours of daylight basically – no matter what the obstacles are. This means that not each stage may be of the same length as it would be in a stadium.

Spectators, both at the event and those keeping an eye on it on TV, expect to see some of the most striking scenery in France, whilst watching the best competitors in the world trying to give their best under demanding conditions of heat and incline. For the Tour de France is played out mostly in the mountains.

The Tour de France has been run for more than 100 years and it has always been one of the objectives of the route committee to plan a path that is roughly equally arduous as the previous races so that the athletes during the decades can be compared to a certain level.

Obviously, training regimens and the technology of the apparatus have improved a lot and the cyclists are all professionals nowadays, whereas decades ago, most, if mot all would have been part-timers – amateurs. This makes significant comparisons over decades virtually meaningless.

One of the factors to take into account is the fact that there are different types of cyclists. Some are excellent sprinters, some are power-climbers, some are marathon cyclists, so the route planners have to make certain that the course does not give one particular type of cyclist an unfair advantage.

Access for rescue services is a further consideration, because one of the most popular features of the Tour de France is seeing the cyclists storming through a tiny, out-of-the-way village that no outsiders have ever heard of. It is also a big thrill for the villagers to find themselves on the route of the Tour de France – the highlight of decades.

In fact, villages find it so appealing to get on the route, that there is a lengthy selection process, which is similar to countries applying to hold the Olympic Games. The mayor or the village will have a proposition drawn up and people will be selected and trained to present it to the route planning committee.

This is a difficult process and often means big changes to a small village, After all, they will have to be able to supply food and maybe shelter for thousands of visitors, which may be more than the total populace of the whole village itself.

This may be even more of a difficultly if the village is chosen as a rest point for an overnight stay – what with the cyclists, the mechanics, the trainers, the doctors, the planners and thousands of spectators.

Planning the route of the Tour de France is a difficult task and one for which the route planners seldom receive the recognition that they deserve.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on several topics, but is currently concerned with London Olympics 2012 venues. Click a link if you are interested in 2012 London Olympics Volunteers.