After the Grand Prix Cycliste La Marseillaise and the Etoile de Bessèges, this Thursday will see the start of the Tour Med 2012. Long time unsure to take place, the race has paid its debts and has been saved by the French Cycling Federation (Fédération Française de Cyclisme or FFC) while the National Cycling League (Ligue Nationale de Cyclisme or LNC)* didn't want to register it on the calendar.

4 stages (and no longer 5 like last year was still the case) will form this race in the south of France. You can discover all details of these stages in this article whil the official website still doesn't have the maps online! Hereunder you'll find the time- and route schedule, profile and Google Maps/Google Earth version of the race route for each of the stages of the Tour Méditerranéen 2012.

The Tour Méditerranéen 2012 race route on Google Maps

1/ Thursday 9 February 2012 - Pertuis > Meyreuil - 135 km

The first stage of the Tour Med 2012 will take place around Aix-en-Provence.
Indeed, after the start from the Place Jean Jaurès in Pertuis, the riders will go through Cucuron, Cadenet, La Roque d'Anthéron and Lambesc before going east up till Jouques. They will continue their journey north and than again east to go find the climbs of the Col du Grand Sambuc (2nd category) and the Col des Portes (1st category) before passing Pourrières and Beaureceuil up until the finish line in the Rue des Mineurs in Meyreuil which is drawn after a 250 meter long straight line.

Hereunder you'll find the time- and route schedule, the profile and the race route on Google Maps for this stage. Click on each of the images to open them.

2/ Friday 10 February 2012 - Salon de Provence > Martigues - 136 km

The second stage of the Tour Med 2012 will start on the Place Jules Morgan in Salon de Provence. After the start, the stage will go north-west through Eyguières and Mouriès, the riders will climb up to Baux-de-Provence and the Côte des Baux (2nd category). From there, they'll get on a loop - via Saint-Etienne-du-Grès - which they'll do 2 times (including a second climb of the 2nd category côte). At the 3rd crossing of Baux-de-Provence, they'll not get up to the top of this côte and this will thus be seen as a 3rd category climb.

Up to just south-east of Mouriès they'll follow the same roads they followed to get on the loop in the opposite direction and that's where they'll get off towards Entressen and Istres and the finish line on the Quai Paul Doumer in Martigues where we'll know who's the winner of this second stage after a 250 meter long straight line.

Hereunder you'll find the time- and route schedule, the profile and the race route on Google Maps for this stage. Click on each of the images to open them.

3/ Saturday 11 February 2012 - La Seyne sur Mer > La Londe les Maures - 132 km

On the other side of Marseille, in La Seyne sur Mer, on the Cours Toussaint Merle Maire, the riders will start the 3rd stage. From there, they will go up north-west to the climb of the Côte du Camp (1st category) where they'll continue their journey east, coming by Signes, the Côte de la Bataillère (3rd category), Garéoult and Forcalqueiret up till Flassans-sur-Isole.

They'll go north from there and visit Pignans and Pierrefeu-du-Var before attacking the climb of the Col de Gambet (3rd category) and go on to the finish line in La Londe-les-Maures. When they cross this line, they will however still have 2 laps to go before they cross the finish line for the 3rd and last time ...

Hereunder you'll find the time- and route schedule, the profile and the race route on Google Maps for this stage. Click on each of the images to open them.

4/ Sunday 12 February 2012 - La Ciotat > Toulon / Mont Faron - 130 km

The 4th and last stage of the Tour Med 2012 will as usual arrive on top of the Mont Faron in Toulon and will follow quite an original race route.

The start of this "queen stage" of the Tour Med, 130 kilometers long, will be in the Avenue Franklin Roosevelt in La Ciotat. Once the climb of the Côte de Ceyreste (2nd categorie) done, the riders will follow a big chunk of the race route which was used for the stage the day before this stage, via Signes, Méounes le Montrieux and Néoules up to Garéoult where the riders will turn left towards La Roquebrussanne. From there, they'll follow a loop via Mazaugues and go back in the opposite direction, following the same routes, till Le Camp.

They'll turn left there and get, via Le Beausset, Sainte-Anne d'Evenos and Le Broussan, to the climb of the Col de Gardes (2nd category) and enter Toulon to start the final and maybe decisive climb of this Tour Med 2012, the Mont Faron! Last year, the last stage, which had its finish on top of the Mont Faron, was won by David Moncoutié (Cofidis) who in this way also took the final victory of this second stage race of the French road season.

Hereunder you'll find the time- and route schedule, the profile and the race route on Google Maps for this stage. Click on each of the images to open them.

The Tour Méditerranéen 2012 race route in Google Earth

You've just discovered all details of the different stages of this 39th Tour Med including the time- and route schedules, the stage profiles and a Google Maps version of the race route for each of them.

If you'd like to see the whole Tour Med 2012 race route in one overview, you can download the KML file below and open it in Google Earth.
>> Download the Tour Med 2012 race route in Google EarthThis file not only allows you to see the whole race route in Google Earth but you can also do a virtual fly-over over one or more of the stages.

* the Ligue Nationale de Cyclisme, or LNC, even though it's independent since 2008, was created by the FFC and the fact that the decision taken by the LNC was simply put aside by the FFC might thus be a bit surprising. I was planning to write an article about that but due to a lack of time I unfortunately didn't manage to do so ...
In 2011 already, after a disagreement on the teams selection (and more precisely the fact that Saur-Sojasun and BigMat-Auber 93 weren't selected for participation), the LNC wrote about the the Tour Med: In order to guarantee the organisation of the last editions of this race, the teams and the LNC have shown quite a support. The French professional teams accepted to participate in the last two editions without claiming there travel fees. The LNC answered to the financial problems by setting up a spread payment of the organisation rights, insurances and prize money. It's thus not really surprising that the LNC didn't want to take the risk once more with a race which apparently causes some trouble ...

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Tour Med | OpenStreetMap/Google Maps/Google Earth

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