On July 7th Montpellier will host the Tour de France, and the return of the team time trial. I found out the route somewhere online last week and went out to see how tough it’ll be for the lads. The riders will start at Place de la Comedie, the center of the city…

…race up Rue de la Loge and hang a left at this fountain (and our apartment in the distant background)…

…speed down Rue Foch and under our very own Arc de Triomph…

…then fly down a couple of avenues to get out of the city. Once they clear Euromedicine they’ll dive down into Grabels, a valley town that is fast becoming an extension of Montpellier itself.

After Grabels the road goes up a little steeply, through brush land.

And past the nearly-non-existent village of Bel Air.

Then they cross the highway, wiggle down a little hill and cross a valley…

…and climb rather severely up the other side, probably passing this guy on the way.

At the other side of the donkey the road takes a dip once again. I had the speedo up to 58 kph, which is suicidal for me. I’m guessing the pros will do a bit better than that. Here’s the hill looking back.

After this the route cuts south and hooks up with the D5. From here on in I’m sure it’ll be full throttle because, other than a tiny hill to get into the city, it’s totally flat.

And that’s that. The ride was much tougher than I’d imagined. Must warn Lance and Co!