Tour de France 2022 – Stage 1 preview

Image 1 of 2The flat profile for stage 1 in Copenhagen of the 2022 Tour de France (Image credit: Amaury Sport Organisation)Image 2 of 2Stage 1 route for 2022 Tour de France will take riders past past Tivoli Gardens and the Little Mermaid in Copenhagen (Image credit: Amaury Sport Organisation) Stage 1: Copenhagen to CopenhagenDate: July 1, 2022Distance: 13. 2km Stage timing: 16:00 – 19:10 CESTStage type: Flat – individual time trial The start ramp of the opening time trial of the 2022 Tour de France is on Nørre Farimagsgade in the capital city of Denmark. Riders set off in Copenhagen next to Ørstedsparken, one of a number of parks that evolved from the old city fortifications and which also include Tivoli, the venue of the team presentation.

The first 8. 5 kilometres with few turns and long straights favour the pure time triallists. Riders pass by the lakes that border the Inner City and cross them twice, on Dronning Louises Bro, one of the main arteries in Copenhagen’s cycle path network, and on Fredensbro, before entering the district of Østerbro.

Here, the course forms a triangle, going along Øster Allé where riders pass Denmark’s national stadium Parken, Jagtvej, and Østerbrogade where the intermediate time is taken at Sankt Jakob’s church after 6. 6 kilometres. After Dag Hammarskjölds Allé, passing by Østerport station, and Folke Bernadottes Allé, the time trial becomes considerably more technical.

For 1200 metres, the course twists and turns on narrow streets and footpaths at the rear of Kastellet, another remnant of the old city fortifications, to reach Langelinie. Organisers ASO specifically asked for this technical section to be included so that riders would pass by The Little Mermaid, the world-famous statue from a Hans Christian Andersen fairytale. It sits on a stone just off Langelinie, and on July 1 she will be able to see the Tour peloton up close.

At the Gefion Fountain, the course reaches normal roads and becomes comparably straightforward again. The next landmark is the royal palace of Amalienborg where riders cross the courtyard, entering from the north and exiting to the west before turning left at Marmorkirken. Just over 2km from the finish, the course passes Nyhavn to cross Kongens Nytorv and turn towards the Copenhagen harbourfront where riders will speed past old landmarks like Christiansborg, the seat of the Danish parliament, and Børsen as well as new architectural highlights such as The Black Diamond which houses the Royal Library, Denmark’s main public library, and BLOX, an architecture and design centre.

On the final kilometre, three 90-degree turns bring riders onto H. C. Andersens Boulevard where the finish line is located at Rådhuspladsen next to the Copenhagen City Hall.

In 2011, Mads Würtz Schmidt and Luke Durbridge became junior and U23 ITT world champions here, respectively. Both Durbridge (Team BikeExchange-Jayco) and Würtz (Israel-Premier Tech) are on the Tour start list and will want to achieve a good result again, as will most Danish riders selected for the Tour for whom a home Grand Départ is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Würtz’s teammate Jakob Fuglsang can ride a respectable time trial, but like Durbridge and Würtz, he is more suited to longer tests against the clock.

The same is true for Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) and Mikkel Bjerg (UAE Team Emirates), though all of them can reach the top 10 on a good day; Bjerg in particular has good results from Grand Tour opening ITTs. Kasper Asgreen (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl), Søren Kragh Andersen (Team DSM), Magnus Cort (EF Education-Easypost), and Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) can all excel on a time trial like this and will try to get the best possible result – but all things being normal, they should not be able to beat ITT World Champion Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers). The same is true for GC riders like Primož Roglič ( Jumbo-Visma), Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) or Simon Yates (Team BikeExchange-Jayco), time trial experts such as Stefan Bissegger (EF Education-EasyPost), Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) or Rohan Dennis (Jumbo-Visma), and all-rounders like Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) or Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers).

The only rider who could challenge Ganna for the stage win and the first yellow jersey is Wout van Aert ( Jumbo-Visma). .