The Tour de France has explored all sorts of coasts, from beaches, harbours and cliffs to rocky inlets, dykes and bays. In 2021, the peloton of the Grande Boucle will discover a Nordic variant, the fjords, when it rolls out of Vejle for stage 3, held in the southern part of the Jutland peninsula. The hometown of 1977 Ballon d’Or winner Allan Simonsen also hosted the unveiling of the profiles of the Danish stages of the 108th edition. The opening act of the Grande Boucle, a 13 km romp through the streets of Copenhagen, is tailored to the most explosive riders in the field. Although the pancake-flat course opens the door to record-high average speeds, one of the few times that the riders will have to hit the brakes will come 4 km before the line, where the Little Mermaid will watch them negotiate a tight corner. The next day, the stage starting in Roskilde, the old capital of the country, promises a fierce battle among the classics specialists, who will face a windswept 18 km section of bridges while crossing the Great Belt in the run-in to Nyborg. Finally, the 182 kilometre stage to Sønderborg that will wrap up the Danish adventure will be a fjordfest along the coast, with the sprinters itching to pounce on what will likely be the first bunch sprint of the race.
The Danish stages of the 2021 Tour de France:
Stage 1: Copenhagen (individual time trial), 13 km
Stage 2: Roskilde > Nyborg, 199 km
Stage 3: Vejle > Sønderborg, 182 km
Christian Prudhomme, director of Tour de France: “The first few days of the Tour de France often set the tone and atmosphere of a race that develops into whatever the riders want to make of it over the following three weeks. It is an exciting prospect to think that in July 2021 we will be applying the final touches to the start in the heart of a city that breathes and lives cycling. The first three stages will showcase the landscapes of Denmark and give rise to a wide range of scenarios in which power riders, echelon experts and sprinters will all get a chance to shine — a compendium of bicycle racing on flat terrain.”
The route of the three stages of the Tour de France 2021 in video: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/k3IxuimkIrhumqvLBlm
More information about the Tour de France on www.letour.fr/en/
