The Race

From 14th to 19th August 2020

The Tour de l’Avenir 2020 is maintained, this is the main good news that the Alpes Vélo organisation is happy to confirm, concerning this real Tour de France for young people (under 23 years old).
The 57th edition will take place from 14 to 19 August next, subject to obvious health problems, on a format that has been slightly reduced to six days of racing, but which does not change the vocation of the event, particularly its mountainous nature.
The new dates validated by the French Cycling Federation (FFC) and the International Cycling Union (UCI) are part of a calendar that has been globally reshaped to take account of the crisis linked to the Covid-19 pandemic and will mean a shift towards the second half of August, i.e. one week more than initially planned (7 to 16 August).

6 stages and a Grand Départ from Château-Thierry

The route undergoes several modifications. In particular, the prologue initially planned in Charleville- Mézières and the two following stages are cancelled. It is already planned to return very quickly to the towns that were unable to host the event this year: thus, the Grand Start in Charleville-Mézières (Ardennes), the stage finish in Soissons (Aisne) and the team time trial in Laon (Aisne) are already scheduled for next year.
This year, the Grand Depart will be given on Friday 14th August 2020 in Château-Thierry (Aisne). The general design of the event now provides for a first mountainous approach in the Jura and a timed stage in the Ain department, on the slopes of the Col de la Faucille. The alpine stay, with the traditional drop- off point in Savoie, presents a slightly modified programme without changing the profile of the major difficulties with a final finish maintained at altitude in the resort of Les Arcs after crossing the Iseran Pass.

Revealing tomorrow’s champions

The continuation of the Tour de l’Avenir is a determining factor for the generation of riders under 23 years of age who risked missing the opportunity to show themselves in this very special year and thus dry up the recruitment of the professional sector. The calendar for these young riders is indeed considerably narrowed and the Tour de l’Avenir is all the more crucial.
Concerning the international nature of the event, which is one of the key points of the Tour de l’Avenir, which is run under the formula of the “espoir” national teams (under 23 years of age), reasonable optimism allows us to envisage a fairly broad participation, particularly from European countries.
The prize list, especially in recent years, is the most motivating encouragement for the hopes of the world’s top nations after the successes of Colombian Egan Bernal (2017), the last winner of the Tour de France, Slovenian Pogaçar (2018) whose debut in the UCI WorldTour was sensational, and Norwegian Tobias Foss, the 2019 winner.

An adapted device for the reception of the public

If the event keeps its festive and free character, with the animations and the publicity caravan, strict measures of accompaniment and reception of the public will be set up by the organization, in coordination with the public authorities and according to the directives to be applied in August.