4 years after its last visit to the department, the Tour de l’Avenir, a true “Tour de France hopeful”, returns to Indre. The route of the 58th edition to be held from August 18 to 28 has been unveiled. And the 4th stage will take place in the south of the department, 143 kms between Sainte-Sévère and Chaillac on August 22. A godsend for high-level cycling enthusiasts.
A success for Indre considers Marc Fleuret the president of the departmental council who was a candidate to host the event “We are a rural area that needs to gain notoriety, which needs sporting or cultural events”.
Because make no mistake about it, if the participants are no more than 22 years old, they are indeed part of the “gratin” of tomorrow’s world cycling and are already top-notch competitors today.
On the list, for example, we note the names of legends of their sport such as Zoetemeelk, Lemond, Indurain… And much closer to us, the Colombian Egan Bernal, winner in 2017, only 2 years before winning the Tour de France. While a year later, in 2018, during his last visit to Indre, it was Tadej Pogacar, who had prevailed. Since then, the Slovenian has won nothing less than the last 2 Tour de France (2020 and 2021).
10 stages 1137 kms
The Tour will therefore leave from Vendée on August 18 to conclude in the mountains of Savoie ten days later. The event, meanwhile, will cross the country west-east and attack the high mountains in its last three stages.
The main climbs will be the Madeleine and Iseran passes.
The last winner of the event, the Norwegian Tobias Johannessen, has just distinguished himself in the Etoile de Bessèges, from which he won the Mont Bouquet stage.
The stages (1137 km):
- August 18: prologue in La Roche-sur-Yon (Vendée), 4 km
- August 19: 1st stage La Roche-sur-Yon – La Roche-sur-Yon, 122 km
- August 20: 2nd stage Benet (Vendée) – Civray (Vienne), 153 km
- August 21: 3rd stage Civray – La Trimouille (Vienne), 154 km
- August 22: 4th stage Sainte-Sévère-sur-Indre (Indre) – Chaillac (Indre), 143 km
- August 23: 5th stage Gueugnon (Saône-et-Loire) – Saint-Vallier (Saône-et-Loire), 28 km (team time trial)
- August 24: 6th stage Saint-Amour (Saône-et-Loire) – Oyonnax (Ain), 123 km
- August 25: rest in Thonon-les-Bains (Haute-Savoie)
- August 26: 7th stage Thonon-les-Bains – Saint-François-Longchamp, Col de la Madeleine (Savoie), 177 km
- August 27: 8th stage Ugine (Savoie) – La Toussuire (Savoie), 100 km August 28: 9th stage Bessans (Savoie) – Villaroger (Savoie), 133 km