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Saturday 4th - Sunday 26th July 2009 - Perpignan
Tour de France 2009
Paul Francis reports.
Wednesday 8th July 2009 sees the fifth leg of Tour de France finishing in Perpignan. The Cap d’Agde to Perpignan leg passes through Port-Barcarès, Saint Laurent de Salanque, Canet-en-Roussillon, Saint-Cyprien and Argelès-sur-Mer.
The 197km long fifth leg is dedicated to Salvador Dali, who called Perpignan railway station the “cosmic centre of the universe”. The icon of surrealism, who was fascinated by the spectacle of cycling, created the Tour de France’s postcard in1959
The fifth leg finish takes place in Place de Catalogne at 17.00hrs, Wednesday 8th July.
The route approaches Perpignan from the south, as follows:-
* Route Départementale 914
* Route D’Elne
* Avenue d’Argelès-sur-Mer
* Avenue John F Kennedy
* Avenue P. Cambres
* Boulevard H. Poincarré
* Boulevard F. Mercader
* Boulevard des Pyrenees
* Place de Catalogne
5 kms of the route is through the centre of Perpignan. Over 5000 spectators are expected along with 2000 vehicles (sponsors, team and support vehicles etc).
Henri Desgrange (Editor of L’Auto Newspaper) helped create Tour de France in 1903. Since then Tour de France has captured the imagination of people worldwide.
Cycling is the second most popular sport in France with 21 million participants. Cycling is the third most popular sport in Germany, Italy, UK and United States, with 27.8, 10.4, 13.2 and 81 million participants respectively.
The 96th Tour de France 2009 is 3,500 kms long. The longest ever Tour was in 1926 at 5,745 kms long.
Tour de France 2009 consists of 21 stages. 10 flat stages, 7 Mountain stages, 1 medium mountain stage, 2 individual time trial stages, and 1 team time trial stage.
Nearly eighty Television stations will relay images of the biggest outdoor sport in the world to a global audience in 170 countries. Four Helicopters will cover the Perpignan stage alone. Twelve million spectators are expected to watch the race. Tour de France injects a great deal of valuable business activity into local economies. Two out of three spectators will not be local to the area of each leg, and will have traveled an average of 130 kms.
The fifth stage will no doubt prove to be a winner with Tour de France fans everywhere.
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