The Dordogne (dept. 24) is placed to take advantage of speedier rail links to Paris and Spain – so enhancing tourism – as strategies for TGV routes for the South West are revealed.

The new proposed tracks for the Lignes à Grandes Vitesses connecting Bordeaux-Toulouse and Bordeaux-Spain could very well cut journey time from Dordogne to Paris to three hours and Dordogne to Spain to four hours.

Tour de France 2010

The 2010 Tour will be launched from the south side of Rotterdam, for a prologue time-trial. The launching pad will actually be set up in Zuidplein, from where the riders will move north.

The choice of Rotterdam, a vast urban centre with one million two hundred thousand inhabitants, is directly in keeping with the special start of the Tour in London in 2007. The proposed project – “Rotterdam and the Tour, a new energy” – seduced us. It fits into an overall policy that aims to an even bigger place for the bicycle in the city’s heart, while leaning on the popularity of the biggest cycling race in the world, the Tour de France. From the banks of the Thames to the biggest port in Europe: the same desire, the same will.

Lance Armstrong believes he can win an eighth Tour de France title, well aware that after 4 years of retirement, his ageing legs are not as strong as they used to be.  The 37-year-old Armstrong won the last of his record seven straight Tours in 2005, and his unexpected comeback has fans worldwide eager to see if he can add another victory to his cycling legend.