This weekend the Critérium International 2012 will take place on the island of Corsica, around Porto-Vecchio, at the exact same location as where the Tour de France 2013 will have its Grand Départ with the start of the first stage towards Bastia.

For the 3rd year in row on Corsica, the Critérium International changes a little bit its set-up by swapping the two days of the race. This year, it's on Saturday that the race will start with a short stage, followed by an individual time trial in the afternoon while it'll be on Sunday that the already mythical mountain top finish on the Col de l'Ospedale will take place after a stage which will be a bit longer.

Who will follow-up on Fränk Schleck? In this article you'll discover the routes the contenders will follow with the race route on Google Maps/Google Earth, the stage profiles for the 3 stages and the time- and route schedules.

The Critérium International 2012 race route on Google Maps

1/ Porto-Vecchio > Porto-Vecchio - Saturday 24 March, morning - 89.5 km

On Saturday morning, the race will start with the usual stage with a double loop around Porto-Vecchio, the central base of the Critérium International since 2010, and which so far took place on Sunday morning.

This stage's route has once again been modified a bit compared to the previous years. While ASO deliberately made it a bit longer in 2011, they have now again reduced the distance a bit. In order to do so, the loop south of Porto-Vecchio has been reduced in length and no longer contains the climb of the Côte de Pagliaggiolo while the loop north of the city has been made a bit longer and now includes the climb of the Côte de Conca which has a 208 meters altitude, after a 2.1 kilometers climb at 5.7%.

After the start from the Quai Pascal Paoli via the Rue John Antoine Nau, the riders will start with the loop south of Porto-Vecchio, which allows them to go seak the coast line before their return in the city of departure. Following the N198 they start their trip north and turn on the D468 to get back to the coast line again. In Sainte-Lucie de Porto-Vecchio they cross the N198 to start the climb of the Côte de Conca.

Close to Favone they get to the northest point of this stage before getting back to the coast line via the N198 which they'll follow to get back to Porto-Vecchio. In Lecci they'll battle for an intermediate sprint and they'll end the stage after 89.5 kilometers at the crossing of the Rue Maréchal Juin with the Rue Commandant l'Herminier at the end of a final 1 kilometer long straight line.

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

2/ Porto-Vecchio > Porto-Vecchio - Saturday 24 March, afternoon - ITT 6.5 km

In the afternoon, it's the usual time trial in the streets of Porto-Vecchio which is programmed. However, it has been slightly shortened and it will be done in the opposite direction compared to last year. The start ramp will be installed in the Avenue Georges Pompidou while the finish will be 6.5 kilometers further, at the same place as the finish of the morning stage, in the Rue Maréchal Juin, at the end of a final 1 kilometer long straight line.

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

3/ Porto-Vecchio > Col de l'Ospedale - Sunday 25 March - 179 km

The third and last stage will take place on Sunday, after the time change to summer time (the start will be at 11.50AM, summer time), between Porto-Vecchio and the top of the Col de l'Ospedale, in the woods just before they arrive at the Lac de l'Ospedale.

After the start from the harbour of Porto-Vecchio, the riders will cross the island from east to west, via the Col de Bacinu (817m, 12 km @ 5.8%), the Côte de Levie (602m, 5.1 km @ 4.6%) and the Côte d'Abellara (370m, 5.2 km @ 6.2%) and when they arrive close to Propriano they'll start the descend south via the feeding zone in Sartène and the Côte de Sartène (303m, 2.3 km @ 4.8%) before going to the south-eastern point of the island in Bonifacio via the intermediate sprints in Roccapina and in Pianottoli-Caldarello.

Back in Porto-Vecchio they will dispute the third and final intermediate sprint before they start the final climb of the Col de l'Ospedale where the finish line will be drawn after 14.2 kilometers @ 6.2% (including one kilometer @ 10.4%), at 956 meters altitude. That's how, after 275 kilometers, the 81st edition of the Critérium International will end.

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

The Critérium International race route in Google Earth

If you prefer to see the whole race route of all three stages of the Critérium International 2012 in one view or if you want to do a virtual fly-over over one or all stages, you can download the following KML file and open it in Google Earth:

>> Download the Critérium International 2012 race route in Google Earth

The main participating riders

16 teams will come to the start of the Critérium International 2012 of which half of them is French (AG2R La Mondiale, FDJ BigMat, Bretagne-Schuller, Cofidis, Saur-Sojasun, Team Europcar, Auber 93 and the Team La Pomme Marseille).

The big international teams which will be present at the start of the race will be Euskaltel-Euskadi (Spain), BMC Racing Team, Garmin-Barracuda (United States), Team Sky (UK), Radioshack-Nissan (Luxembourg) and Project 1t4i (The Netherlands).

We'll also find the small team which is making big progress this year, Team Type 1-Sanofi (United States), and the Colombia-Coldeportes team (Columbia).

The main riders for these teams will be Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team), David Zabriskie (Garmin-Barracuda), the previous winner Fränk Schleck, and his team mates Joost Posthuma and Jens Voigt (who was so successful in the Critérium International when it was still in the Ardennes) (Radioshack-Nissan).

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Critérium International | OpenStreetMap/Google Maps/Google Earth

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