|
Click here for
our most popular Hotels in London
 Caswell
Hotel London
Situated in the heart of Westminster, the Caswell Hotel is only a few
minutes walk from some of London's greatest tourist attractions and Victoria
rail and coach stations. The hotel offers easy access to the Buckingham
Palace, Big Ben, Houses of Parliament and the Tate Gallery. A pleasant
family-run hotel, Caswell offers a range of elegantly furnished and
affordable guestrooms. A public telephone is also available. Furthermore,
begin every morning with a good English breakfast served in the hotel's
modest dining room. During leisure, guests can explore the beautiful city
and its surrounding attractions.
>> click here for last minute offers |
>> click here for year round hotel reservation |
|
Two legendary capitals, two exceptional cities, two rivals also, on
occasions. Could we have dreamt of a finer association, after the bitter
battle for the Olympic Games, than a Tour de France linking London to Paris,
Big Ben to the Eiffel Tower, Buckingham Palace to the Arc de Triomphe?
We followed the same route in the opposite direction - though much more
direct - two years ago, on the occasion of the amateur cycling event
organised to celebrate the centenary of the Entente Cordiale. The idea of a
start from London was already making headway then. As soon as the English
capital’s application was announced we experienced in fact immense pride,
charmed by the force and the fervour of such a symbolic capital asserting
with humility its desire to host the Tour de France.
When I arrived at Amaury Sport Organisation, I came across traces of a
letter relating the outlines of a preliminary project on the banks of the
river Thames. This was at the beginning of the 1980s but the venture was
left in limbo. The project is today reality: all thanks to Ken Livingstone
and Jean-Marie Leblanc. On the 7th of July 2007, the Tour will be launched
from London for a Start which will be a landmark event: the influence and
the prestige of the British capital along with the enthusiasm and the
commitment of our English hosts already makes this a certainty.
After England, we will move to Belgium, where passion for cycling is
still as strong and public success is guaranteed. The 94th edition of the
event will advance in a clockwise direction. We will plunge towards the Alps
via Picardie, the Yonne, the Bourgogne, the Ain. In this way, the riders
will attack the mountains from the very first weekend. The Tour will
discover Tignes and will return to the Iseran pass, removed from the
competition route due to snow and wind - at the very last minute! - in 1996.
Marseille, Montpellier and the Tarn will then punctuate our approach to the
Pyrenees, with a long time-trial in Albi, exactly two weeks after the
opening prologue.
The difficulties will rapidly multiply in the Pyrenees to maintain the
suspense. The crossing of the massif will be impressive and tough. The
champions will face the steep slopes of the passes of the Ariège, the
Hautes-Pyrénées and the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, including the superb Plateau
de Beille, the never before climbed Port de Balès and the fearsome Port de
Larrau.
The trilogy of the Pyrenees will terminate in a flourish with a finish at
the summit of the Aubisque, overlooking the ski resort of Gourette - a
striking confirmation of our determination to always advance where sport
guides us. The time trial in Angoulême will then separate the favourites
before the finish in Paris.
In 2007 the Tour de France will be long awaited, closely watched,
observed. The events of the summer have left their mark. Indeed, not all of
them have been resolved. But if the spirit present in Strasbourg at the end
of June is indeed the expression of a staunch and shared commitment to fight
against doping, then not only do we have nothing to fear in the future, but
everything to hope for.
Christian Prudhomme
Director of Tour de France
|
Tour
of France 2007
Discovering
London
