Nice hosts its second Grand Départ, having previously seen the race set off in 1981 with a Bernard Hinault prologue victory. It will be the 36th time that La Grande Boucle visits the town in the highly picturesque Provence region. The first inclusion was in 1906 and the latest in 2013, when Orica-GreenEdge won a TTT and Simon Gerrans took the yellow jersey.
The format of the Grand Départ is unusual, yet promising. La Grande Boucle sets off from Nice with two identical loops of almost 50 kilometres before concluding with another loop of 70 kilometres. The 1st stage starts and finishes in Nice, but moves through the city twice as well.
The first 8 kilometres of the Tour de France run uphill at shallow gradients to Aspremont. The descent leads to the valley of the Var river and continues onto a flat section of 25 kilometres before the riders cross the line for the first time.
The second loop is a carbon copy of the first. The Côte de Rimiez is the hardest obstacle. The 5.8 kilometres climb at 5.1% continues onto a false flat of 6.8 kilometer towards Aspremont.
The last loop also climbs to Aspremont and then continues to Tourrette-Levens with an 8 kilometres climb at approximately 3 to 4%. The descent moves through Saint-Martin-du-Var and the riders return to the route of the first loops just before Carros. So the finale is played out on familiar ground.
The first three riders on the line gain time bonuses of 10, 6 and 4 seconds.
Another interesting read: results 1st stage 2020 Tour de France.
Tour de France 2020 stage 1: routes, profiles, more
Click on the images to zoom
