la Tour de France

Author: Beach Holiday Guide

Tour de France Didi Devil

On our to do list during the planned road trip in the South of France is to try and watch a mountain stage of this years Tour de France.

Tour de France Route
We had hoped to travel at the end of July, but because the tour starts in Monaco this year and follows an anti-clockwise route around France, it means that the mountain stages in the Pyrenees occur fairly early on, with the big mountain stages on the 7th, 8th and 9th of July. Another option the penultimate stage on the 25th of July which finishes on the famous Mont Ventoux summit, in the Provence region of southern France. Nicknamed the “Giant of Provence” because it is the largest region or “The Bald Mountain” because top of the mountain is bare limestone without vegetation or trees.

Didi, the Tour de France Devil
Dieter “Didi” Senft (born 1952 in Reichenwalde, Germany) is known as the Tour de France devil or El Diablo and since 1993, he has been seen in the Tour’s many stages wearing his red devil costume.

Tour de France Dates 2009

Stage	Type	Date	Start and Finish	Distance
1	Individual time-trial	Saturday 4 July	Monaco > Monaco	15 km
2	Plain	Sunday 5 July	Monaco > Brignoles	182 km
3	Plain	Monday 6 July	Marseille > La Grande-Motte	196 km
4	Team TT	Tuesday 7 July	Montpellier > Montpellier	38 km
5	Plain	Wednesday 8 July	Le Cap d’Agde > Perpignan	197 km
6	Plain	Thursday 9 July	Gérone > Barcelone	175 km
7	High Mountains	Friday 10 July	Barcelone > Andorre Arcalis	224 km
8	High Mountains	Saturday 11 July	Andorre-la-Vieille > Saint-Girons	176 km
9	High Mountains	Sunday 12 July	Saint-Gaudens > Tarbes	160 km
R	Rest Day	Monday 13 July	Limoges
10	Plain	Tuesday 14 July	Limoges > Issoudun	193 km
11	Plain	Wednesday 15 July	Vatan > Saint-Fargeau	192 km
12	Plain	Thursday 16 July	Tonnerre > Vittel	200 km
13	Medium mountains	Friday 17 July	Vittel > Colmar	200 km
14	Plain	Saturday 18 July	Colmar > Besançon	199 km
15	High Mountains	Sunday 19 July	Pontarlier > Verbier	207 km
R	Rest Day	Monday 20 July	Verbier
16	High Mountains	Tuesday 21 July	Martigny > Bourg-Saint-Maurice	160 km
17	High Mountains	Wednesday 22 July	Bourg-Saint-Maurice > Le Grand-Bornand	169 km
18	Individual time-trial	Thursday 23 July	Annecy > Annecy	40 km
19	Plain	Friday 24 July	Bourgoin-Jallieu > Aubenas	195 km
20	High Mountains	Saturday 25 July	Montélimar > Mont Ventoux	167 km

…go to the main Self Drive Holiday in France page.

Picture: REUTERS

Tags: Europe, France, Tour de France

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 29th, 2009 at 2:12 pm and is filed under Europe. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.