DÜSSELDORF, GERMANY

DISTANCE 14KM TERRAIN TIME TRIAL

On current race director Christian Prudhomme’s watch, the traditional prologue opener, usually less than 8km, has gradually fallen out of favour – you have to go back to 2012 for the last one - with either a road stage or longer individual time trial getting the ball rolling. It’s the latter this year, in the German city of Düsseldorf (see page 10). Heading down the east side of the Rhine, the route heads over the water with a couple of sharp bends, follows one of the city’s most iconic streets, Königsallee, before finishing back up the street it started.

“It’s a flat course on wide avenues, where the specialists can express themselves,” says course director Thierry Gouvenou. 14km is long enough for favourite Chris Froome to gain seconds and with only 23 further time trial kilometres to come before Paris, he’ll be keen to, as will other general classification hopefuls. Their focus on endurance over three weeks often sees them fall short against the specialists. The last time trial to open the Tour, 2015 in Utrecht, saw BMC’s Rohan Dennis blitz the field in the fastest speed (55.446kph) ever recorded for a Tour de France individual time trial.