It’s very soon (about 2 weeks) the 105th edition of Tour de France will start. Now it is good time to prepare for watching this race. So let start from the route overview.

As a usual race will consist of 21 stage and 2 rest days. There are 8 flat stages, 5 hilly, 6 mountain (including 3 altitude finishes), 1 individual time-trial and 1 team time-trial. Racers will cover 3.351 km during competition and almost all of them in France, only 15 km during 16th stage are situated in Spain.

In this article I wouldn’t describe every stage in details but I’ll mention 10 most interesting and unusual things:

1. Prologue is absent. Race will start with 2 sprint stages. They are so flat that organizers did great job to find some climbs for polka-dot jersey. And we have 4th category climbs at 1st stage it is 700 meters hill with average gradient 4.2%; at the second one – 1 kilometre with 3.9% gradient.

2. First normal gaps in general classification can appear after 3rd stage because this day 35 km team time-trial race will take place.

3. The first hills will meet racers at 5th stage. It includes 5 climbs: 3 of them have 3rd category, 2 have 4th.

4. The 9th stage will partly repeat the route of Hell of the North – spring classic race Paris – Roubaix. It contains 14 cobblestone sections with almost 22 km common length.

5. The 2nd week will start with first real mountain challenge for competitors. They should go through the 3 mountain stages in a raw (10 – 12 stages):

 - the 10th stage, total distance is 158 km with three 1st category climbs (including Col de la Colombiere 14 km before finish) and one high-category climb - Montée du plateau des Glière

 - the 11th stage has chance to become the most exciting in whole race, because it is one of the shortest but contains 4 climbs.

 - Legendary climd Alpe d'Huez is waiting for racers at the 12th stage

6. The most difficult stage will take cyclists at the 16th stage after 2nd rest day. This stage has 218 km distance and includes two 1st category climbs in the end of the day.

7. The 17th stage! I suppose that this stage will be the most exciting and dramatic. Just 65 km… But 3 hardest climbs with the finish at 2215 m altitude on Col du Portet, total climb is about 3000m. And all this will take place after the longest stage. I think that race will be very active from the beginning because teams wouldn’t have time for any preparations.

8. The last chace for climbers to change something in general classification is 19th stage, where cyclists should go through combation Col d’Aspin + Col du Tourmalet and also Col d'Aubisque in a 20 km before finish.

9. In case of small gaps in general classification result could be reached at the 19th stage – hilly individual time-trial.

10. Tour de France will traditionally finish on Paris Champs-Élysées with so called friendship stage.