Noirmoutier-en-l'Île to Fontenay-le-Comte

Stage 1 - Saturday, 7 July - 189 km (117 mi)

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The Stage

This stage starts and finishes earlier than normal because of the football world cup.

A long stretch along the coast to start off the 105th Tour de France. It's the very first stage but today could already see GC riders lose lots of time if they aren't paying attention when the wind hits the peleton. And then there's something else...

Passage du Gois
Le Passage de Gois ou Gôa is a natural, periodically flooded passage leading to the island of Noirmoutier in France. It is flooded twice a day by the high tide. Length of this track is 4.125 km.

In 1999 the Tour went along this very same stretch and most of the peleton crashed. A group of 74 riders finished first, including Lance Armstrong. A second group with many other GC riders finished six minutes and three seconds later (including Alex Zülle, who would eventually finish second overall, seven minutes behind Lance). Then another group of 30, over 15 minutes behind, yet another group of 21 finished 19 minutes behind. And then finally two poor riders finished even further behind at 28 and 46 minutes.

It was quite clear the ASO was a lot more interested in spectacle than the riders' safety. A road that's under water twice a day is always going to be very slippery. Edit: turns out they are using a bridge today.

If there are no crashed then a bunch sprint seems unavoidable; Kittel's first victory?

Winner: Gaviria

Tour Touristique

The Château de Talmont was founded by the Count of Poitou in the 10th century and the first documentary records appear between 1040 and 1046. In 1138 the castle was held by Joscelin de Lezay, who was attacked by Louis VII; despite being considered invulnerable because it could be resupplied from the sea, the castle was burnt by the king. Talmont passed on to the Mauléons by the 1140s, but in 1182 Richard I of England became the lord of Talmont; he remained in control of the castle until his death in 1199, when it was returned to the Mauléon family.

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