The routes for the 2022 men’s and women’s Tours de France were announced in Paris on Thursday, October 14, and just about everyone is excited about what both races will offer.
The men’s race begins in Copenhagen on Friday, July 1 and ends in Paris on Sunday, July 24. Then, the women start their Tour de France in Paris that same day and end seven days later, atop the Super Planche des Belles Filles on Sunday, July 31.
Here are some takeaways and highlights from last week’s route announcements:
More From Bicycling
Expect a dangerous Danish “grand depart” for the men
The 2021 Tour de France was supposed to start in Denmark, but the delayed Euro 2020 soccer tournament meant Copenhagen was slated to host both the opening weekend of the Tour de France and the Euro 2020 tournament simultaneously—which is way more than most cities can handle in a weekend. So the Tour organizers pivoted to Brittany, postponing Denmark’s “Grand Depart” to 2022.
Join Bicycling All Access for the latest cycling news
The race begins on a Friday (a rarity) to allow for an extra rest day to get the riders to France after three stages in Scandinavia’s southernmost country. The long weekend opens with a 13km time trial in downtown Copenhagen that should create some early time gaps.
Stage 2 takes the race to Nyborg via the 18km Great Belt Fixed Link, one of the largest bridges in the world. The winds will be intense both on the bridge and along the coast; so expect echelons and crashes as riders fight to stay at the front and ahead of any splits. Stage 3 hugs the coastline again, but should end with a field sprint in Sønderborg. By the time the race gets to France, expect a prerace contender or two to have already lost their chances of winning the 2022 Tour.
There will be cobbles for the men and gravel for the women
For the first time since 2018, the men will tackle a cobbled stage (Stage 5 from Lille to Arenberg) with 19.4km of pavé divided into 11 sectors, the second-most since the Tour’s organizers began re-introducing them in 2004. This stage will be the most anticipated (and feared) of the first week—especially if it’s wet.
There won’t be cobbles, but the women’s race—which begins in Paris on the last day of the men’s race—features a gravel stage (Stage 4 from Troyes to Bar-sur-Arbe) with four long gravel sectors through the Champagne region of northeast France. A punchy stage filled with short, steep climbs, the stage resembles Italy’s Strade Bianche classic, and should easily be one of the most exciting in the 8-stage women’s Tour de France.
Watch: The Tour de France Femme Route
Watch: The Tour de France Route
Everyone climbs the Super Planche des Belles Filles
The climb to the ski resort atop La Planche des Belles Filles made its debut during the 2012 Tour de France and has quickly become a popular inclusion, appearing four more times since its introduction. But as if the climb weren’t hard enough already, in 2019 it was extended to include a gravel utility road with a gradient that tops-out at 24%. The organizers are now calling the extended version the SUPER Planches des Belles Filles, and while the riders aren’t likely to be too excited about it, we can’t wait.
Both the men and women will tackle it—the men at the end of Stage 7, and the women at the end of Stage 8—which means the climb will likely determine the overall winner of the women’s Tour.
It will be an exciting women’s Tour from start to finish
The women’s race has something for just about everyone: sprinters, breakaway specialists, puncheuers, and climbers, with stages of all sorts and sizes that should produce excitement from start to finish. Yes, there’s no time trial, but we think that’s a good thing, as riders will fight for every second they can as the race approaches its mountainous finale in the Vosges on the final weekend.
Given how mediocre some of the courses for the La Course events designed by the Tour organization were, many were holding their breath to see what the new women’s Tour would have in store for the riders. But it’s safe to say almost everyone is pleased—and excited.
The men’s second week will be ferocious with the return of Alpe d’Huez
Overall, the second week of the men’s race is by far the hardest of the 2022 Tour—it could decide the winner before the race’s final Rest Day. It begins with three Alpine summit finishes, the worst of which come at the end of Stages 12 and 13.
Stage 12 tackles the Col du Telegraphe and the Col du Galibier before a finish atop the 2,400-meter Col du Granon. Stage 13 is a carbon copy of Stage 18 from the legendary 1986 Tour de France, a stage featuring a trip back over the Galibier, then the Col de la Croix Fer, and finally a finish on Alpe d’Huez, which returns to the Tour for the first time since 2018. In ’86, Bernard Hinault and Greg Lemond finished the stage together, with Hinault taking the stage and Lemond strengthening his grip on the yellow jersey he had taken the day before.
While much earlier in the race than it was in 1986, this year’s Alpe d’Huez stage could see a similar result, especially if two-time defending champion Tadej Pogačar rides as aggressively as he has in winning the past two editions.
But don’t sleep on the Pyrenees
For the second year in a row, the Tour hits the Alps before the Pyrenees, and while the 2021 Tour seemed to highlight the mountains along the border between France and Spain, the race puts the Alps on center stage in 2022.
But don’t overlook the Pyrenees. Coming out of the third and final rest day, the riders face back-to-back summit finishes, including Stage 17, which ends on a steep mountain airstrip at the Peyragudes winter resort, and Stage 18, which finishes atop the climb to Hautacam, an ascent that’s crowned several Tour champions in the past.
And it’s worth noting, these stages come on the heels of a tough Pyrenean opener: Stage 16 finishes down in a valley in Foix—but not before bringing the riders over the Port de Lers and the Mur de Péguère, a steep climb with a treacherous descent. These three days are the last chances for any climbers hoping to win the 2022 Tour.
The men’s race wraps up with a long time trial—again
For the third year in a row, the men’s Tour wraps-up with a long individual time trial on the Tour’s penultimate day. But as the last two Tours have illustrated, fireworks are not a guarantee. In 2020, Pogačar won Stage 20’s ITT on a course that ended atop La Planches des Belles, overtaking his compatriot Primož Roglič to win the Tour in a dramatic fashion.
As for 2021 ... well, we don’t really remember. Just kidding: Belgium’s Wout van Aert won the stage, but the top-10 riders on the Tour’s General Classification remained unchanged on a day that was a total dud in terms of the yellow jersey battle.
The key in 2022 will be the presence of Roglič, who crashed and abandoned the 2021 Tour before the first rest day. If the two Slovenians enter the final weekend close enough to make things interesting, we’ll get another exciting showdown, one that could go a different direction given 2022’s flatter course compared to 2020’s summit finish.
Click here to find out more about the TdF 2022 route
Since getting hooked on pro cycling while watching Lance Armstrong win the 1993 U.S. Pro Championship in Philadelphia, longtime Bicycling contributor Whit Yost has raced on Belgian cobbles, helped build a European pro team, and piloted that team from Malaysia to Mont Ventoux as an assistant director sportif. These days, he lives with his wife and son in Pennsylvania, spending his days serving as an assistant middle school principal and his nights playing Dungeons & Dragons.
