Tour de France 2014 Route stage 12: Bourg-en-Bresse > Saint-Etienne

Thursday, July 17th – Stage 12 of the 2014 Tour de France travels from Bourg-en-Bresse to Saint-Etienne. The ride is 185,5 kilometres and has the rolling landscape of Bourgondy as a backdrop. (Slideshow route/profile)

Tour de France 2014 route stage 12: Bourg-en-Bresse > Saint-Etienne

Tom Boonen and Bourg-en-Bresse are dear friends. Back in the days when the Belgian classic specialist still competed in the Tour, he won a stage in the capital of the Airn department. It was 2007 and with that victory Boonen grabbed the green jersey and kept it all the way to Paris.

Nothing on offer in Bourg-en-Bresse today so riders pass Lyon on the north side, going from east to west and then south. In last year’s Tour the third city of France was an arrival town, just like it was in the very first Tour stage ever. Today, however, the finish is in Saint-Etienne, the capital of the Loire department. It’s a popular arrival town in the Tour de France with 22 stage finishes since 1950.

2008 saw the last stage finish in St Etienne with Marcus Burghardt outsprinting breakaway companion Carlos Barredo for the stage win.