Sam Bennett has welcomed the newly-announced route of next year’s Tour de France, saying that the thoughts of winning again at the race give him added impetus as he ends a rest period and builds towards next season. The route of the 110th Tour was announced on Thursday in Paris, featuring a race start in the Basque Country, the usual finish in Paris 3,404km later, and a mountainous route also offering a clutch of finishes which should suit the sprinters.
”There seems to be eight sprint stages,” Bennett told The Irish Times. “That makes me motivated to get back on the bike.”
Bennett won two stages plus the green jersey in 2020, but had injury issues and missed the past two editions of the race. He competed instead in this year’s Vuelta a España, Spain’s three-week tour. Bennett scooped two stages there and was in contention for the green jersey before withdrawing prior to stage 10 due to Covid 19.
”Hopefully I make my return after…it’s going to be three years, actually,” he said of the Tour. “So that [race] would be my target. I don’t know if that’s what the team wants next season, but hopefully our ambitions line up. Eight stages create a lot of opportunities. That means also that that should make the fight for a green jersey more suited to a sprinter.
”It [the green jersey] will still be something that would be very difficult to get but it will be class to get back to the Tour de France and to win at the highest level again. So that would be the aim.”
The race will begin on July 1st, with hilly stages finishing in Bilbao and San Sebastian being followed by flatter stints to Bayonne and Nogaro. These two may be the first chances for Bennett, with the sprinters also tipped to feature on stage 7 to Bordeaux, stage 8 to Limoges, stage 11 to Moulins, the somewhat hilly stage 18 to Bourg-en-Bresse and the following day’s race to Poligny. The race will finish in Paris on stage 21, where Bennett won in 2020.
Of course the Tour also offers much for the general classification riders, even if those who favour time trials must make do with just 22km on stage 16 to Combloux.
The first of eight mountain stages rears up on stage 5′s trek from Pau to Laruns, while the first summit finish occurs the following day at Cauterets Cambasque. Other tough days are stage nine to the Puy de Dôme, the extinct volcano making a long-awaited return 49 years after the famous shoulder-to-shoulder battle between Raymond Poulidor and fellow Frenchman Jacques Anquetil. Further summit finishes occur on stage 13 to Grand Colombier and stage 15 to Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc, while stage 17 includes the highest point in the race, the 2,304m high Col de la Loze.
The route of the second women’s Tour de France Femmes Avec Zwift was also unveiled on Thursday. The eight-day event will get under way on July 23rd in Clermont-Ferrand, with that followed by a hilly stage to Mauriac, a flat race to Montignac-Lascaux, a hilly clash en route to Rodez and then two flat races to Albi and Blagnac.
The big showdown will come on stage 7′s short but gruelling 90km race from Lannemezan to the top of the Col du Tourmalet, plus the following day’s concluding 22km time trial in Pau.
It is unclear if there will be any Irish competitors in the race. Mia Griffin recently signed a contract with the Israel Premier Tech Roland team, which as a WorldTour squad will have an automatic invite to the event.
