The route has been fixed, and all the cycling fans will be on the Champs Elysée on 22nd July 2012 to see… er, a blur and lots of product placement.

photo by Justin used under cc licence

Of course the really big news is you can now buy the official t-shirt with the route printed on it. Classy!

Of course, those with even more class than that will be lining the Champs Elysées on Sunday 22nd July to see the end of the Tour de France from close up (or over a lot of other people’s heads, depending on how early you get there).We should say in passing (because no-one cares that much) that the start of the 2012 Tour de France isn’t in France at all! You’ll have to hop over the border to Belgium – Liège to be precise – on Saturday 30th June 2012 to see that. Afterwards, the cyclist will be going down the east side of France, along the south coast and back up to Paris over twenty stages, and stopping at nine towns that have never been part of the race before.

Ever wondered how you get the Tour de France to go through your town? Well it’s simple. You pay.

You can check out all the route statistics here.

Official 2012 Tour de France site in English: www.letour.fr