This Sunday the 105th edition of Paris-Tours will take place between Voves in the Eure-et-Loir department and Avenue de Grammont in Tours.

As you can see in the UCI cycling calendar, this Classic of the dead leaves is one of the last races of the season in France and the riders will thus want to show themselves for a last time before the well deserved winter break.

In this article you'll find everything you wanted to know about this end of 2011 season classic: the race course, a Google Maps version of it and a downloadable version in Google Earth and the time- and route schedule.

The Paris-Tours 2011 race course

In 2009, ASO signed a contract with the Eure-et-Loir department which stated that Paris-Tours would start from this department from 2009 till 2013. After a start in Chartres in 2009 and La Loupe in 2010, this year it's Voves turn to see this race start.

The distance is similar to the previous editions with 230.5 kilometers compared to for example 233 last year. After the start from the Place Maurice Maunoury at 11.25AM in Voves, the riders will follow the rues Saint-Marc, de Châteaudun, de la République, des Trois Rois and du Voisin to get onto the D29 where the real start will take place 2.8 km from the place where the riders initially left. They will stay on this road up to Orgères-en-Beauce before turning west a bit later towards Bonneval where Paris-Tours espoirs 2011 will start but also the final time trial of the Tour de France 2012. From there, they will take the D17 up to Logron where they'll get on the same parcours as last year. The feeding zone will again be in Vendôme.

The final part of the race route has been slightly modified however. It still contains the Côtes de Crochu, de Beau Soleil and de l'Epan at 28, 10 and 7 kilometers from the finish. This last climb will thus be closer to the finish line than before (but the Côte du Petit Pas d'Ane will disappear from the race course) and could thus play a more important role in the final part of the race and maybe even prevent the sprinters to satisfy their wish for the race to finish in a bunch sprint. The finish line will still be drawn in the Avenue de Grammont despite the fact that it was supposed to be the last time last year. The works for the tramway in Tours do however mean that the long straight line up to the finish will be reduced from 2,700 to 660 meters.

After a short recognition ride with Ronan Racault (BigMat-Auber 93) and Cyril Lemoine (Saur-Sojasun), Jérémy Roy, living in Tours but finally not participating in the race because his team (FDJ) didn't select him, thus spoke on Twitter about a Quick finish after the épan. For François Lemarchand, responsible for the race course of Paris-Tours, the riders won't have any momentum in the Côte de l'Epan , but will be almost at a standstill, since they approach it immediately after a sharp right turn. And if the slope isn't steep enough to break up the pack, the riders who are seeking victory absolutely have to arrive at the summit near the front, because, unlike before, there will be plenty of bends, giving riders in a breakaway a further springboard to victory. For example, a rider like Geoffroy Lequatre last year (who attacked from the peloton in the Côte de Beau Soleil and was taken back by the peloton at only 300 meters from the finish, just before Oscar Freire won it!) would not remain in the firing line of the pack for such a long time and could defend his chances of making it all the way to the end with this year's route.

Does this mean we'll see a rider in a break away win Paris-Tours this year instead of having the usual bunch sprint? We'll only know that on Sunday at the end of the afternoon (the finish is planned to be somewhere between 4.30PM and 5PM)! Anyway, Mark Cavendish (Team HTC-Highroad), freshly World Champion, still counts on a sprint finish because he will participate in this end of season classic for the very first time!

The Paris-Tours 2011 race course on Google Maps, the time- and route schedule and the profile

Hereunder you'll find the race course of Paris-Tours 2011 on Google Maps, its profile and the time- and route schedule. Click on each of the images to open them:

The Paris-Tours 2011 race course in Google Earth

Would you like to do a virtual fly-over of this race course? Or would you simply prefer to see it in Google Earth?
>> Click here to download the Paris-Tours 2011 race course in Google Earth (KML file)

Saturday and Sunday, car free days in Voves

You're planning to come to the start in Voves? You'd better prepare (as far as that's possible with the very small amount of information which is available about it) your venue! Why? Because the city came up with the surprising idea to make this weekend a car free weekend ... a surprising idea because anyone visiting the start will have difficulties in getting there and the people who live there will be double frustrated. Not only will they have the usual "trouble" caused by a cycling race (yes indeed, some people are bothered by that!) but they'll also not be able to use their cars while they'll see all the official cars driving around with no limits!

The riders will sign the list of participants on the signature podium on the Place Maurice Maunoury between 10.15AM and 11.15AM.

Paris-Tours 2011 broadcasted on TV

In case you won't be able to assist to the race on the road or at the finish in Tours, don't worry! You'll still be able to follow the race on TV!

The countries which will broadcast the race live are:
- France on France 3 between 3.20PM and 5PM and on Eurosport between 3.45PM and 5.15PM
- Belgium on RTBF 2 and VRT (Sporza)
- Denmark on TV2
- Spain on Teledeporte
- Italy on RAI
- Norway on TV2 Zebra
- The Netherlands on Nederland 1
- Dubai on Dubai Sports Channel
- Japan on J Sports
- in Africa on Supersport
- and in Europe and Asia on Eurosport

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Paris-Tours | OpenStreetMap/Google Maps/Google Earth

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