PARIS — While the sports world struggles to come to terms with the Lance Armstrong doping scandal, Tour de France organizers unveiled Wednesday a mountainous route for the 100th edition of the world's greatest cycling race. The 3,360km-long 2013 Tour, which starts from Corsica, will take l'Alpe d'Huez's 21 hairpins twice in the same stage, ascend the grueling Mont Ventoux and end at dusk on the Champs Elysees. But with nine of the last 14 title wins wiped out due to doping, it remains to be seen how much credibility this year's race will retain. Seven of those titles belonged to Armstrong, who was stripped of his 1999-2005 victories when the International Cycling Union ratified the United States Anti-Doping Agency's decision to nullify the American's results from August 1998 onward. According to Tour director Christian Prudhomme, however, the sport is changing. “A movement has started a few years ago and it must go on. Everybody must work on it,” Prudhomme told reporters. In a passionate outburst during the ceremony he added: “The Tour de France is our cultural heritage. It is stronger than doping.” He praised the member teams of the MPCC (Movement for Credible Cycling), who “have fiercer anti-doping rules than the UCI and WADA”. The MPCC was created in 2007 and four teams (IAM, Sojasun, Lotto Belisol and NettApp-Endura) joined the seven existing members (French teams FDJ, Europcar, Bretagne-Schuller, Cofidis, AG2R, as well as Gamrin-Sharp and Argis Shimano) Tuesday. “We will be with you,” said Prudhomme. Next year's route is expected to suit top climbers with Spain's Contador and Briton Chris Froome the likely favorites, while defending champion Bradley Wiggins might find it tough to contain the attackers throughout. Froome suggested Monday that Wiggins could concentrate on the Giro d'Italia next year while he would be Team Sky's leader on the Tour, which will feature four mountaintop finishes and some 65km of individual time trial compared to this year's 101.4km. With the first stage being totally flat, Briton Mark Cavendish, who is joining the Belgian team Omega Pharma-Quickstep from Sky, will have the opportunity to wear the coveted yellow jersey for the first time. The route will quickly go uphill as the peloton makes its way toward Calvi in northern Corsica. Following a short team time trial around Nice, the Tour will visit Marseille and Montpellier en route to the Pyrenees, with two mountain stages on the menu, to Ax 3 Domaines and Bagneres de Bigorre. The peloton will be transferred to Brittany, where the riders will battle it out on a 33km time trial to Mont St. Michel, one of 10 Unesco World heritage sites on next year's route. Organizers hope the Tour will be decided in the Alps. The last stage will start from Versailles palace gardens and finish on the Champs Elysees at dusk, with the podium ceremony being held at night. “I'm a Parisian. And I have this image of Paris as the City of Light,” said Prudhomme. IOC President Jacques Rogge, meanwhile, defended the international cycling union's anti-doping efforts Wednesday and said it would be wrong to kick the sport out of the Olympics in the wake of the Lance Armstrong scandal. — Agencies
