After two stage races in which the stages were altered due to the bad weather conditions (snow), the Etoile de Bessèges and the Tour Med, the French cycling season continues thus weekend with the Tour du Haut Var, also known as the Course aux Mimosas Fleuris.

Who will succeed Thomas Voeckler as the winner of this race full of climbs? Will all the winners again be Franch? (last year the stages were won by Samuel Dumoulin and Julien Antomarchi)

On Saturday and Sunday, 2 stages are scheduled for this race in the south of France. You'll discover them in full details in this article. Hereunder you'll find the itinerary tables, the profile and Google Maps/Google Earth version of the route of the two stages of the Tour du Haut Var 2012*.

The Tour du Haut Var 2012 race route on Google Maps

1/ Saturday 18 February 2012 - Draguignan > La Croix-Valmer - 189.2 km

The first stage of the Tour du Haut Var 2012 will start from the Boulevard du Maréchal Foch in Draguignan to go find the first climb of this race rather quickly after the real start of the stage (at the exit sign of Draguignan), a 2nd category climb in Chateaudouble.

Immediately after the descent of this climb, another 2nd category climb will be awaiting the riders, in the Bastide de Tourtour. Via Lorgues, Cabasse and Le Cannet-des-Maures, they'll go downhill towards the feeding zone which will be in the middle of the Réserve Naturelle de la Pleine des Maures.

After having taken some new energy, the peloton will start the third 2nd category climb of this stage, in La Garde-Freinet. After a sprint (souvenir Henri Desgranges) in Grimaud they'll go on towards the finish line in La Croix Valmer (at the Forum Constantin).

A short circuit of 6.1 kilometers around that city will allow to get in some more kilometers to get to the total distance of 189.2 by crossing no less than 5 times the finish line. Only than we'll know the name of the rider who wins the first stage of the Tour du Haut Var 2012.

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

2/ Sunday 19 February 2012 - Fréjus > Fayence - 205.4 km

The second stage of the Tour du Haut Var 2012 will start on the Place de la Porte d'Hermès in Fréjus. After the start, the stage will go northwards and, via Bagnols-en-Forêt, the riders will get to a labyrinth which will be the rest of the stage. Indeed, several loops will be discovered by the riders so they can go find the 4 difficulties of this stage.

First of all, the riders will go towards Montauroux and the Lac de Saint-Cassien to get to the Col des Marjories of the first category. When they come back to Montauroux they will climb the Mur de Montauroux which will at that time not count for the king of the mountains classification and they'll than continue north to climb the Col de Mons, the only hors catégorie climb of this race.

Going towards Fayence, the peloton will cross the finish line in opposite direction and will continue towards the feeding zone close to Seillans. The riders will go on and climb the Col de Saint-Arnoux (2nd category). Turning right in Bargemon, they'll get to the climb of the last mountain, first category, the Col du Belhomme. A loop via the most northern point of this stage will bring them back to Bargemon from where they go south to Callas and Claviers followed by Seillans where they'll battle for the sprint Moïse Puginier (the creator of this race) at the entrance of the city.

Before they enter Fayence for the last time they go around the city on the south side so they can finish the stage on top of the Mur de Fayence.

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

The Tour du Haut Var 2012 race route in Google Earth

You have just discovered all details of the two stages of the Tour du Haut Var 2012 including the itinerary time tables and the profiles of the stages and for each of the them the maps with the race routes on Google Maps.

If you'd like to check out the full race route of the Tour du Haut Var 2012 at once, you can download the below KML file and open it in Google Earth.
>> Download the Tour du Haut Var 2012 race route in Google EarthThis file will not only allow you to check out the full race route at once in Google Earth but will also allow you to do a virtual fly-over of one or both stages.

* as you'll see the itinerary time tables as provided by the organisor are not very precize and the maps aren't much better either. Therefore, the maps in this article have been realised with best possible efforts to make sure they're correct but there might be some small differences especially close to the start or the finish of the stages. In any case, if you'd like to go see this race, make sure you check out locally whether you're at the right spot!

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

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