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Team Sky boss Dave Brailsford believes the ‘very exciting’ 2012 Tour de France route could be beneficial to his riders.
Running from Saturday 30 June to Sunday 22 July 2012, the 99th Tour de France will be made up of one prologue and 20 stages and will cover a total distance of 3,479 kilometres.
The 20 stages break down into 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, two rest days. The inclusion of nine flat stages in addition to more time-trailing would favour Team Sky’s riders, including new recruit and current green jersey holder Mark Cavendish.
Team Sky principal Brailsford said: "It looks like a very exciting Tour route from Team Sky's point of view.
"Notably having 90km of time-trialling as well as the prologue is more than there has been in recent years and in theory this should favour our riders.
"We'll now take this information away, really analyse it and work on the team's gameplan before sitting down with riders to identify key goals."
Stage by Stage
| Stage | Type | Date | Start and Finish | Distance |
| P | Prologue | Saturday 30 June | Liège - Liège | 6.1 km |
| 1 | Plain | Sunday 1 July | Liège - Seraing | 198 km |
| 2 | Plain | Monday 2 July | Visé - Tournai | 207 km |
| 3 | Medium mountains | Tuesday 3 July | Orchies - Boulogne-sur-Mer | 197 km |
| 4 | Plain | Wednesday 4 July | Abbeville - Rouen | 214 km |
| 5 | Plain | Thursday 5 July | Rouen - Saint-Quentin | 197 km |
| 6 | Plain | Friday 6 July | Épernay - Metz | 210 km |
| 7 | Medium mountains | Saturday 7 July | Tomblaine - La Planche des Belles Filles | 199 km |
| 8 | Medium mountains | Sunday 8 July | Belfort - Porrentruy | 154 km |
| 9 | Individual time-trial | Monday 9 July | Arc-et-Senans - Besançon | 38 km |
| 10 | High Mountains | Wednesday 11 July | Mâcon - Bellegarde-sur-Valserine | 194 km |
| 11 | High Mountains | Thursday 12 July | Albertville - La Toussuire - Les Sybelles | 140 km |
| 12 | Medium mountains | Friday 13 July | Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne - Annonay Davézieux | 220 km |
| 13 | Plain | Saturday 14 July | Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux - Le Cap d’Agde | 215 km |
| 14 | High Mountains | Sunday 15 July | Limoux - Foix | 192 km |
| 15 | Plain | Monday 16 July | Samatan - Pau | 160 km |
| 16 | High Mountains | Wednesday 18 July | Pau - Bagnères-de-Luchon | 197 km |
| 17 | High Mountains | Thursday 19 July | Bagnères-de-Luchon - Peyragudes | 144 km |
| 18 | Plain | Friday 20 July | Blagnac - Brive-la-Gaillarde | 215 km |
| 19 | Individual time-trial | Saturday 21 July | Bonneval - Chartres | 52 km |
| 20 | Plain | Sunday 22 July | Rambouillet - Paris Champs-Élysées | 130 km |
