The 2012 Tour De France this year starts on Saturday.
The race this year sees, nine flat stages, four medium mountain stages - one with a summit finish, five mountain stages - two with a summit finish, two individual time-trial stages, one prologue and two rest days.
Liege in Belgium stages le Grand Departe this year and the racing starts on Saturday afternoon with a 6.1km prologue.
On Sunday, the race then says its goodbyes to Liege and sets off on an 198km course for Seraing.
Stage two on Monday July 2nd is from Visé to Tournai and is 207kms long. It's ten kilometres shorter for the riders the next day on the way from Orchies to Boulogne-sur-Mer before a 214km stage on Wednesday sees the riders leave Abbeville and finish in the historic town of Rouen.
Thursday July 5th sees a departure from Rouen and another 197kms to Saint-Quentin, before a 220km stage from Épernay to Metz.
Saturday July 7th sees the race get into the medium mountains with a 199km stage from Tomblaine to La Planche des Belles Filles and then a 157.5km stage from Belfort to Porrentruy.
Stage nine on Monday July 9th is an individual time trial from Arc-et-Senans to Besançon and is 41.5kms long and is then followed by a rest day which will allow the riders and everyone involved in the tour to transfer to Mâcon for the 194.5 high mountains stage to Bellegarde-sur-Valserine on Wednesday.
Setting for the start of stage 11 is Albertville, a town which twenty years ago hosted the Winter Olympics. This will be another stage in the mountains but will only be 148kms long on its way to La Toussuire - Les Sybelles.
Friday the 13th is going to prove unlucky for the riders who face the longest distance of the tour when they compete in the stage which goes from Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne to Annonay Davézieux.
The Tour De France always provides plenty of sights along the route and the finish of stage 13, which should be one for the sprinters, could provide some more as it finishes after leaving Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux in Le Cap d’Agde, a town noted for its naturist resort.
After that 217km stage, it is back to the high mountains for a stage from Limoux to Foix before Monday July 16th sees a less hillier stage from Samatan to Pau.
Tuesday is a rest day so it is back to action for the penultimate day in the high mountains with a 197km stage from Pau to Bagnères-de-Luchon, which also provides the start for Stage 17 and the 143.5km stage to Peyragudes.
Thoughts by now are turning towards the finish in Paris and stage eighteen which should be another for the sprinters is 222.5km long and is from Blagnac to Brive-la-Gaillarde.
Saturday July 21st sees a transfer to Bonneval for a 53km individual time trial which ends in Chartres.
Then we end with the final stage - number twenty and one hundred and twenty kilometres from Rambouillet to the Champs-Élysées in Paris, where the winner and jersey winners will be crowned.