The courses for the men’s and women’s road race were just revealed to the world for next year’s Olympics in Paris and they look a little intriguing.

Starting and finishing along the Seine, next to the Eiffel Tower, the men’s and women’s routes head to where my Parisian cycling friends nearly always seem to go; southwest towards the Chevreuse Valley, although I do see a big loop directly west, too, which I hope one of those Parisian buds will comment on here.

After returning to town, it looks like there’ll be at least two loops north of the Seine, with 3 climbs of the Côte de la Butte Montmartre along Rue Lepic, which is 1 km long at 6.5% and looks like this – pavé!

There will certainly be a selection on the last time up this one, but probably starting on the first. There’s 9.5 very fast kilometers to go after this before the finish back at Trocadero. If the French were involved in this one, it would have seemed tailor made for Julian Alaphilippe, or least the Julian Alaphilippe of a couple years ago.

The women’s race is 158 km and the men’s 273 km.