2020 Tour de France

107th edition: Aug 29 - Sept 20, 2020

Organizer's statement about revised schedule and route details

Back to 2020 Tour | Organizer's statement about revised schedule | Route details

Organizer's statement regarding the April 15, 2020 revised schedule.

Tour de France 2020: 29th August to 20th September

Following the President’s address on Monday evening, where large-scale events were banned in France until mid-July as a part of the fight against the spread of COVID-19, the organisers of the Tour de France, in agreement with the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), have decided to postpone the Tour de France to Saturday 29th August to Sunday 20th September 2020.

Initially scheduled to take place from the 27th June to the 19th July, the Tour de France will follow the same route, with no changes, from Nice to Paris. Over the last few weeks, there has been constant communication between riders, teams, the organisers as well as other relevant third parties all with the support of the UCI, who are responsible for arranging a new global cycling schedule, in which the Tour de France takes pride of place.

The organisers of the Tour de France are in regular contact with and have reached agreement with all of the different parties involved, from the local communities to the public authorities.

The women’s event, La Course by le Tour de France avec FDJ, which was initially scheduled to take place on the 19th July on the Champs Elysées, will also be postponed to a date that is still to be determined, but it will take place during the Tour de France 2020. Equally, the 30th edition of the Etape du Tour cyclosportive, originally schedule to take place on the 5th July, will be postponed to a date yet to be determined.

We would like to thank all of cycling’s stakeholders, the Tour de France’s partners, its broadcasters as well as all of the local authorities for their reactivity and their support. We all hope that the 2020 Tour de France will help to turn the page on the difficult period that we are currently experiencing

Facts about the 2020 Tour de France

Map
From Nice to Paris, the course of the 2020 Tour de France will never cross the French border. A total of 6 regions and 32 departments will be travelled through.

Stages
9 flat stages
3 hilly stages
8 mountain stages with mountain-top finishes (Orcières-Merlette, Puy Mary, Grand Colombier, Méribel Col de la Loze)
1 individual time-trial stage
2 rest days

Novelties
12 new stage cities or sites will appear on the map of the 2020 Tour, that’s over one third out of a total of 35:

Le Teil (start of stage 6)
Mont Aigoual (finish of stage 6)
Cazères-sur-Garonne (start of stage 8)
Île de Ré Saint-Martin-de-Ré (finish of stage 10)
Châtelaillon-Plage (start of stage 11)
Chauvigny (start of stage 12)
Châtel-Guyon (start of stage 13)
Puy Mary Cantal (finish of stage 13)
Grand Colombier (finish of stage 15)
La Roche-sur-Foron (finish of stage 18)
Lure (start of stage 20)
Mantes-la-Jolie (start of stage 21)

Mountains
The five mountain ranges of France will be on the menu of the 107th Tour de France. In the following order of appearance: Alps, Massif central, Pyrenees, Jura and Vosges. There will be four new climbs: Col de la Lusette and Suc au May in the Massif central, Col de la Hourcère in the Pyrenees and Col de la Loze in the Alps as well as the one to the Col de la Madeleine by a sinuous road.

Time-trial
In 2020, there will only be one time-trial that will be covered individually. It will take place on the penultimate stage between Lure La Planche des Belles Filles on a distance of 36 kilometres.

Bonus seconds
They will be distributed at the finish of each normal stage and will offer respectively 10, 6 and 4 seconds to the first three.

Bonus points
They will be given out at the top of the 8 summits of the following climbs at strategic places on the course and will award respectively 8,5 and 2 seconds (subject to the approval of the Union cycliste internationale) to the first three ranked riders:

Stage 2 | Col des Quatre Chemins
Stage 6 | Col de la Lusette
Stage 8 | Col de Peyresourde
Stage 9 | Col de Marie Blanque
Stage 12 | Suc au May
Stage 13 | Col de Neronne
Stage 16 | Montée de Saint-Nizier-du-Moucherotte
Stage 18 | Montée du plateau des Glières
These bonus points will have no influence on the points classification.

About this edition of the Tour de France:

A Tour that starts from the south of France is rare enough to allow the riders to immediately take off on an adventure in selective mountains. Indeed the menu of the opening week distinguishes itself by its diversity and a large part of mountain climbing without however just focusing on the usual great passes.

The riders will rapidly get into the thick of things: they will visit three of France’s mountain ranges in the first eight days, the Alps, the Massif Central that they will rediscover later and the Pyrenees. As soon as day 2, they will take on two climbs at over 1,500m followed on day 4 by a summit finish at Orcières- Merlette. They will discover the Col de la Lusette, in the Cévennes area on the way to the Mont Aigoual, then the Col de la Hourcère, during the stage to Laruns. The common point of these novelties: tough percentages…

It isn’t always necessary to look for the snowiest summits to favour the attacks of the climbers. The unprecedented finishes at Puy Mary and at the Grand Colombier can’t rival with the heights of the giants of the Alps and Pyrenees but the harshness of the climbs to respectively tackle during the stage of the Puys and in the final part of the day in the Jura will offer an opportunity to create big gaps. An opportunity that might be even clearer on the line set at the top of the Col de la Loze at an altitude of 2,304 metres, making it the third highest Col of Savoie. Exclusively opened to cyclists last spring, it is the first part of the future Via 3 Vallées. One reaches it after struggling on a demanding road above Méribel and without doubt it will be one of the decisive moments of the 2020 Tour.

Finally, while the climb to La Planche des Belles Filles has rapidly become a classic of the Tour, it will be slightly different this time as the riders will individually battle against the clock to defend the Yellow Jersey or a place on the final podium. After the four other French mountain ranges, the Vosges will have looped the loop of La Grande Boucle.