THE ULTIMATE TRIATHLON

 Le Tour is the most famous and prestigous cycling race in the world. The course changes each year and alternates from taking clockwise and anti-clockwise routes around France and often takes in some detours through surrounding countries. The tour always climaxes on the Champs-Elysees in Paris and many of the mountain climbs in the Alps and the Pyrenees remain the same each year.

The distance and time of the Tour is comparable to running a marathon several days a week for three weeks. The vertical distance climbed traversing the Alps and Pyrenees is equivalent to climbing three Everests. Oh, and I was delighted to find out that some of the most famous of these climbs are in a category known as the hors-categorie (peaks where the difficulty in climbing is beyond categorisation!!!) The Tour de France is arguably the most physiologically demanding of all athletic events.

In 2009, the course will start with a time-trial in Monaco, before heading around the south of France to Barcelona. From here it will cross the pyrenees through Andorra, before recommencing further up France. It then winds its way through Switzerland and Italy, making it one of the most continental tours ever. The climax to the race will be on the pneultimate stage, a climb of the infamous Mount Ventoux. This is one of the greatest mountain stages ever to feature in the Tour, and coming so late in the race could provide high drama for the profesionals, and a real test for my tired legs. The final leg should be, by comparison, a procession into Paris.

Above: The 2009 Tour route.

Above: Lance Armstrong famously catches the late Marco Pantini on Mount Ventoux during the 2000 Tour.