Tour de France in the Dordogne
Bergerac and Périgueux will host closing stages of 2014 race after historic start in Yorkshire
NEXT year’s Tour de France is returning to the south-west after missing it from the 100th race – with riders heading from the Pyrenees to Bergerac on July 25 and then a time trial to Périgueux the next day.
Newspaper Sud Ouest says the Dordogne will host the two final stages of the 101th before the peloton heads to Paris for the final day and the finish on the Champs-Elysées .
Périgueux and Bergerac have spent tens of thousands of euros to get the Tour de France to visit the Dordogne – but the potential returns for tourism are immense with the race being televised worldwide.
The 101st race starts in Yorkshire on July 5 with a 190km stage from Leeds to Harrogate followed by a 200km stage from York to Sheffield. The third stage is 170km from Cambridge to London on July 7.
Details of the rest of the Tour route are being kept secret until the launch on October 23 in Paris, with only leaks from sources in towns involved giving some information.
The Tour has not been in the Dordogne since 1994, when Miguel Indurain won the time-trial, which that year was from Périgueux to Bergerac.
Sir Bradley Wiggins, the 2012 Tour winner and Olympic champion, has backed 2013 winner Chris Froome to lead their Team Sky in the 2014 Tour. Wiggins told the Daily Mail: “I think he has earned the right to lead the team again next year and do it all again.”
Photo: © Welcome to Yorkshire
