On Saturday 30 June the riders of the Tour de France 2012 will start one by one in the individual time trial in the streets of Liège in Belgium. The interesting fact is that 30 June 2012 is in exactly 100 days from now and today is thus D-100 from the Grand Départ of the Tour de France 2012!

The Province of Liège organised several animations around this calendar event today and they'll continue to do so during the 100 days which separate us from the start!

A Thalys in the colours of the Tour

The train which connects France to Belgium is called Thalys. It was thus not really surprising that the company which was born from a collaboration between SNCF (France), SNCB (Belgium) and Deutsche Bahn (Germany) wanted to be associated to this event.

That's how the Thalys in the colours of the operation The Province of Liège launches the Tour 2012 was born and it arrived this morning at 10.11AM at the train station of the Guillemins (Liège, one of the destinations which are accessible by Thalys from Paris, via Brussels). This train is decorated with the colours of the Province of Liège and photos of the 3 stage cities in the Province of Liège (Liège, Seraing and Visé) and will continue to travel around on the Thalys network until the end of the Tour de France 2012 (on 22 July).

The Province of Liège indicates that this train will thus, during four months, not only be the ambassador of the Province of Liège but also of the candidature for the international exposition Liège 2017.

Counting till the start of the Tour!

In the city of Liège, at three locations, several counters were started today which will count back to the Grand Départ of the Tour de France 2012. At 10.30AM it was first of all the counter on the Place de la Gare des Guillemins which was started, followed by the one on the Place de la République Française (where the riders will pass in the first two stages) and in the Avenue Rogier (the place where the prologue starts on Saturday 30 June; see Tour de France 2012: the race course of the first stages on Google Maps/Google Earth for more information). These counters will, during 100 days, daily update the number of days which remain before the start, just like the counter at the upper right counter on all pages of this site!

A special trophy for the winner of the time trial

The winner of the initial time trial on 30 June in the streets of Liège will not only have the right to wear the first yellow jersey of the Tour de France 2012 but also a special trophy.

Indeed, yesterday night in Paris it was presented at the Espace Beaurepaire, in presence of Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Bernard Thévenet ... no less than that! It's a sculpture which was created by the glass blower Louis Leloup from Liège and once it was revealed, Bernard Hinault said about this trophy: If there had been trophies like these, I would have wanted to win 25! (as a reminder, Hinault won five prologues in the Tour de France in his career).

This trophy currently is part of an exposition in the Espace Beaurepaire where you can also find other pieces of crystal art created by Louis Leloup, born in Seraing. Indeed, this exposition will stay there until 31 March, every day between noon and 7PM.

A information "good to know" every day

Also at the occasion of the 100 days before the Grand Départ of the Tour de France 2012, the Province of Liège inaugurates on its dedicated website for the start of the Tour 2012 a section Savez-vous que ... in which every day, during 100 days, a "good to know" information will be published!

door Thomas Vergouwen
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