The Critérium International 2010 in Corsica: a test for a Grand Départ of the Tour de France 2013?

Added: wednesday 03 February 2010 at 20:11:00

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initially published on Thursday 17 December 2009 at 11.48PM
Updated on Wednesday 3 February 2010: the route (stage cities) of the Critérium International 2010 has been announced
The rumours about a possible Grand Départ of the Tour de France 2013 from Corsica are getting louder and louder and today's announcement about the move of the Critérium International to Corsica can only amplify them.
The Critérium International 2010 in Porto-Vecchio
Today A.S.O. (the organisor of the Tour de France and many other cycling races) announced in a simple press release that the Critérium International - after 9 years in Charleville Mézières and in the Ardennes - moves to Corsica and more precisely to Porto Vecchio in 2010.

Founded in 1932 as a one day race for French riders in the Vallée de Chevreuse (my favorite cycling area near Paris!) as the Critérium National, this cycling event developed itself into the Critérium International in 1980 when foreign riders are also invited to participate. In 1978 the invitation of foreign riders on French team was not enough yet to change the name.

From 1959 until 2000 the Critérium International was organised in another place every year. From 2001 until 2009 Charleville Mézières was the race's home base with the roads in the Ardennes as its play area.

In 2010 the 79th edition of this race in the 2.HC category of the UCI Europe Tour will be organised in the area around Porto Vecchio on Corsica.

The Critérium International 2010 will take place on 27 and 28 March 2010 and will as usual propose 3 stages: a mountain stage on Saturday 27 March 2010, a stage in line on Sunday morning (28 March 2010) and an individual time trial on Sunday afternoon.

~~All details about the official route of the Critérium International 2010 will be announced in February 2010.~~
The official route of the Critérium International 2010 (stage cities)
UPDATE Wednesday 3 February 2010: yesterday the stage cities of the 3 Critérium International 2010 stages have been announced. Under the title Three stages and no let-up! (I would have said "no pity"), A.S.O. presented the route with one quite selective mountain stage on Saturday, followed by a stage in line around Porto-Vecchio made for the punchers and finally an individual time trial in the same city on Sunday afternoon.
Saturday 27 March 2010 - Porto-Vecchio > Col de l'Ospedale - 175,5 km
On Saturday the Critérium International 2010 starts with a mountain stage. This stage will be quite difficult right from the start in Porto-Vecchio with the climb of the Col de Parmentile in the south corner of Corsica. This will be followed by a circuit, first going west via the cities Sartène and Propriano, before coming back east via the cities Sainte-Lucie-de-Tallano and Levie and the climb of the Col de Bacinu. The riders will once again pass close to Porto-Vecchio before the most difficult part of the stage, the climb of the Col de l'Ospedale on top of which they'll find the finish of this first stage. A good climber will thus have a good chance to take an option on the final victory in this Critérium International.
Sunday 28 March 2010 - morning - Porto-Vecchio > Porto-Vecchio - 75 km
The next day a short stage in line, in circuits on the north and south side of Porto-Vecchio, is on the programme. In the only 75 kilometers of this stage, a leading group could well be formed and stay ahead until the finish and thus offer the stage victory to one of the escaped riders. Leaving at the right moment could be enough to take a lead and, depending on the time difference, maybe even get a chance for the final victory.
Sunday 28 March 2010 - afternoon - Porto-Vecchio > Porto-Vecchio - individual time trial - 7,7 km
In the city of Porto-Vecchio the Sunday afternoon will be reserved for the last part of the tryptich of the Critérium International: an individual time trial on a very technical circuit. A time trial specialist could thus well use this very last opportunity to win back the time he lost in the previous two stages and maybe even get a chance for the final victory of the Critérium International 2010!
The map of the Critérium International 2010 route

For this map, A.S.O. precises this route is awaiting validation, subject to prefectoral authorisations.
The first names of participating riders announced
A.S.O. seized the opportunity of the press release announcing the route to also announce the first names of riders who will be the riders to watch for in this Critérium International 2010.
The riders who have already been announced to start are for example the seven times Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong (Team Radioshack), the current World Champion Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) and the last Olympic Champion Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi). A.S.O. also announced the following French riders to be present: the unknown Christophe Moncoutié (yeah, I know, many websites and newspapers simply copied this information without even verifying it): they probably mean David Moncoutié (Cofidis), Thomas Voeckler (Bbox Bouygues Telecom), Pierrick Fedrigo (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) and Clément Lhôtellerie (Roubaix-Lille Métropole).
A preview of the Grand Départ of the Tour de France 2013?
The Tour de France 2010 will start in Rotterdam, the Tour de France 2011 most probably in the Vendée and the Tour de France 2012 in Liège in Belgium.

The first Grand Départ which is still unknown is the one for the Tour de France 2013. For the Grand Départ of the 100th edition of the Tour de France there seem to be 3 serious candidates: Corsica, Tyrol in Austria (with a start from Innsbruck; Wolfgang Weiss, the man behind this project, even announced a first stage towards Salzburg or Munich and a second stage towards Friedrichshafen (Germany) where the Tour can easily cross the border to the Alsace) and the region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (with a start from Nice or Marseille).

Christian Prudhomme met Wolfgang Weiss to discuss Tyrol's nomination at the World Championships 2009 in Mendrisio, but Corsica's nomination seems to have the biggest chance for success.

Christian Prudhomme, Jean-François Pescheux (directeur des compétitions) and Jean-Louis Pagès (directeur des sites) went to the Île de Beauté from 21 till 23 October and the first conclusions after this visit seemed to be quite positive.

The local newspaper Corse Matin has published several articles about the Tour's possible visit to Corsica, including La direction du Tour de France dans l'île du 21 au 23 octobre which explains that if Corsica does not get the Grand Départ, the Tour will most probably never visit the island, La Corse attend son "cahier des charges" which presents the requirements Corsica would need to meet, Nous voulons réaliser notre rêve which describes the wish of the local politicians to get the Tour de France to visit them before going to North-America and finally the article Christian Prudhomme : "La Corse, c'est désormais une vraie candidature" in which Christian Prudhomme indicates that Corsica's nomination for the Grand Départ has now become serious.

Corsica never had the privilege to receive the Tour de France since its creation in 1903 and although Christian Prudhomme said during his visit that The only reason our race has never visited you (Corsica) , is simply that Corsica has never asked for it, the local representatives would like to correct this "mistake" as soon as possible.

With the move of the Critérium International to Corsica it's an easy step to think that A.S.O. would like to test -on a smaller scale, as they also usually do for stage cities of the Tour which get to organise a stage, for Paris-Nice for example, first- what the logistical impact would be when the Tour would start from this island!

It's even easier to think about that when you see that A.S.O. most probably made a mistake in the piucture which is shown next to this news on the letour.fr frontpage*:
* after the publication of this article, A.S.O. corrected this mistake and now shows the logo of the Critérium International instead
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Comments

Currently 9 comments!

C'est très intéressant. L'étape de montagne pourrait être beaucoup plus sélective que celle des Ardennes.
Par exemple une arrivée au sommet du Col de Bavella (par le versant de Solenzara, avec 8 derniers km à 8,7 %) pourrait permettre à un vrai grimpeur de s'imposer.

Par le passé (fin des années 90) on a quand même eu des étapes du Critérium International finissant à Gourette ou au Pic de Nore.
| alex75 | saturday 19 December 2009 at 11:12:54
Alors tu y vas et tu nous fait de belles photos , en profitons bien du paysage
| vaucaire Nath | wednesday 23 December 2009 at 20:52:01
SALUT TOUT LE MONDE !
AU CAS OU CE TOUR DE FRANCE PARTIRAIT DE CORSE EN 2013....CE QUE JE SOUHAITE VIVEMENT...VOICI DEJA MON TOUR DE FRANCE DE CORSE QUE J'ai réalsié !!!!

1ère étape : calvi - bastia (92 km) par le col de teghime et le désert des agriates
2 : corte - porto vecchio (160 KM) par le terrible col de sorba et celui de bavella du côté de solenzara
3 : bonifacio - ajaccio ( 205 km )par bastelica et olmeta plage.
transfert en avion = repos à hyères
4 :prequ'île de giens - hyères (23 km) clm par équipes
5 : bormes les mimosas - martigues (153)
6 : martigues - orange (176 KM)
7 : orange - voiron (234 km)
8 : grenoble - grenoble (la bastille) (140 KM) par le col de LA PLACETTE, le granier, de marcieu, du coq et la montée finale vers la bastille....terrible avec ses pentes à 20 %!!!!!
9 : challes les EAUX - flaine (172) par le col des près, de la croix fry, la colombière et la montée finale vers la station
10 : cluses - mâcon (229 KM)
11 : Mâcon - clamecy (207)
12 : Auxerre - Chateauroux (206)
REPOS A CHATEAUROUX
13 : châteauroux - ussel (171km)
14 : tulle - brive la gaillarde (43 km clm individuel)
15 : souillac - montauban ( 156 km)
16 : montauban - station du mourtis (192) par le col des ares et celui de mente par st beat!
17 : lannemezan - luz ardiden (173) par le port de balès,le col de peyresourde le col d'aspin, du tourmalet et la montée finale vers la station de ski rendu si célebre en 2003 avec les périphéties de lance armstrong...on y revient avec moi...enfin !
18 : argelès gazost - col d'erroymendi (160 km) par le col du soulor, aubisque, le col de marie blanque, le col de soudet par la moulinette (15%) et enfin la terrible montée du col d'erroymendi par larrau (10 KM à 9.1 % MOYENNE)....ça va bagarré là...grosse bataille en perpective là !
19 : mourenx - langon (169 km)
20 : libourne - niort (200 KM)
transfert en tgv
21 : versailles (château) - PARIS CHAMPS ELYSEES (26 KM CLM IND)....finale en apothéose avec hommage au tour 1989 à la fin...pour immortaliser ce départ de corse...une si belle région!

VOILA MON TOUR DE FRANCE A MOI....QU'en pensez vous ? ça pourrait donner des idées à prudhomme...non ??????? enfin , j'espère....
| elie | wednesday 06 January 2010 at 14:40:25
Elie tu as fait un très beau parcours mais ils devraient faire comme en 2009 si les coureurs partent de corse.
les pyrénées seront négociés comme premier massif montagneux ils vont passer par marseille et ainsi de suite.
Sinon les sprinteurs ne seront pas contents.
Concernant luz-ardiden cette arrivé était déja dans l'histoire bien avant que Arsmtrong gagne la bas.
Delgado,Indurain et virenque c'est du très lourd.
| fred | thursday 07 January 2010 at 14:03:54
Si le Tour de France part de Corse, il pourrait y faire deux ou trois étapes, une étape longeant la côte, un passage au coeur de l'Ile, un petit contre-la-montre;
Pour après, les étapes suivantes pourraient partir de l'importe où en France, l'avion s'imposant pour quitter l'Ile. Pourquoi alors ne pas imaginer un transfert vers le centre ou le nord de la France ?
| Pierrick | wednesday 27 January 2010 at 22:09:10
beau parcours
Le Col de l'Ospedale équivaut à l'Aspin par son versant le plus dur (12km à 6,5%)

On peut assister à une belle bagarre entre Armstrong, Evans, Sanchez...
| julien | thursday 04 February 2010 at 12:57:23
C'est un Tour qui vient trop eu au Nord de la Loire et qui ressemble aux 'organisations cyclistes de 1946' en ex-zone libre. Le Tour doit toujours passer en Bretagne, Normandie, dans les Flandres et en Picardie, en Alsace et dans les Ardennes, et faire une belle étape au moins dans un pays voisin. A moins que le Tour 2013 ne serait seulement ouvert qu'à 16 équipes françaises de 12 coureurs, l'idée d'Elie , malgré la beauté des cols proposés, est utopique.
| Journée | thursday 04 February 2010 at 23:40:11
mIS EN LIGNE SUR /

http://www.cyclisme-roltiss-over.com/
| Roland TISSIER | friday 05 February 2010 at 09:03:50
pourquoi le criterium inter. a demenager des ardennes reviendras t-il l'an prochain
| Freddy Blemont | tuesday 09 March 2010 at 21:38:34