Male Team 01 - 24 Jul
Tour de France
3326 Kilometers 21 Stages
Eurosport and GCN, as well as France Télévisions, have rights to broadcast the whole race, start-to finish, with national broadcasters then offering some stages in full and the second half of most of them.
There will be 10-6-4″ at every road stage finish. There are no bonuses at the intermediate sprints.
Seven overall victories and 34 stage wins are the legendary palmarès of the squads managed by José Miguel Echávarri and Eusebio Unzué at the Tour de France. The full list can be checked out in our website’s History section.
40 appearances in the Tour de France! A historic achievement for the Abarca Sports organisation, which tackles, just like every year, the ‘Grande Boucle’ with the biggest excitement and anticipation. A race they made their debut at in 1983 and never missed since, the squad directed by ‘Chente’ and Patxi Vila in France will be facing a route as traditional as you can have, with all main ingredients from previous editions and the main particularity of its Grand Départ, the northernmost in its history, on Danish soil.
A 13km individual time trial in Copenhagen (Friday 1st) opens a three-day adventure where the wind and the stress will be key, the finishes otherwise suiting the sprinters in Nyborg (Saturday 2nd) and Sanderborg (Sunday 3rd). A first long transfer towards the Nord region and another coastal stage towards Calais (Tuesday 5th) will preceed a really crucial day in this year’s TDF: the pavé stage, with eleven cobbled sectors on day five (Wednesday 6th), finishing in Arenberg, even though not inside its famous Forest.
Following the longest stage of the race (Thursday 7th), over 220km and a torturous finish with four tough hills in the last 20km -the finishing one has 1.6km at 6% average-, we will enter the first mountain block in the Vosges, the Jura and the Suisse Romande. Friday 8th, the riders will take on La Super Planche des Belles Filles (Cat-1), 7km at 8.7% that end with max slopes of 24% and irregular pavement. Saturday 9th, the race will finish in Lausanne with the Olympic Stadium ascent (Cat-3; 5km at almost 5%). And on Sunday 10th, prior to the first real rest day, the Pas de Morgins (Cat-1) will be crested right before the arrivée in Châtel.
The stage nine finish will already get us to Savoie, where the race, with the only respite of that ‘repos’, will kick off this year’s Alps. Tuesday 12th will bring the ascent to Megève and its Altiport (Cat-2), a quite irregular 20km at 4%. A day later, on Wednesday 13th, two legendary cols: the Galibier (HC), via the Télegraphe (Cat-1), and the 2,400m finish atop the Granon (HC), not to forget the picturesque Lacets de Montvernier (Cat-2). The Alpine trio ends, no less than in ‘Quatorze Juillet’, with three Hors Categorie climbs: the Galibier via the Lautaret, the Croix de Fer -both overcome at this year’s Critérium du Dauphiné- and the most famous finish of them all: Alpe d’Huez.
Saturday 16th will mark a brief incursion in the Massif Central, with five rated ascents and the classic finish in Mende via the Croix-Neuve (Cat-2; 3km at 10%), before riding down to Carcassonne (Sunday 17th), enjoying the last rest day and starting the Pyreneez. Tuesday 19th, the riders will take on Lers (Cat-1) and Mur de Péguère (Cat-1), a succession previously tackled in recent years; on Wednesday 20th, the Aspin (Cat-1), Hourquette d’Ancizan (Cat-1), Val Louron (Cat-1) and the finish up Peyragudes (Cat-1); and on Thursday 20th, for the final mountain day of the race, Aubisque (HC), Spandelles (Cat-1) and the finish in Hautacam (HC).
Just 24 hours away from Paris (Saturday 23rd), and bringing back the tradition of holding longer ITTs than in previous years, the last time trial will be held over 40 kilometers, with gentle ascents yet overall on a slight descent -thus really fast-, from Lacapelle-Marival to Rocamadour, ending with a 2km ascent at 5%. That will be the final hurdle before entering the Champs-Élysées and covering a 40th TDF finish – which will only be the start for the women’s Movistar Team, lining up that very same day at their first TDF Femmes, another huge milestone for our organisation.