It was Lawyer Louis Bouloumi’e who bought the G’er’moy Spring in 1854 and founded the Vittel Spa. Years later he decided to bottle the mineral water for use at home creating the Eaux Minerals de Vittel in 1882. Vittel still has one of their central laboratories located here in the city.
After a series of flat stages the Tour arrives to the Vosges mountains, three small but difficult passes. This medium mountain route could be a launching pad for an aggressive rider. At kilometer 105 the riders will take on the 8.9km Cold de la Schlucht. It was on this final climb, in 2005, where surprisingly Armstrong ended up isolated from his entire team, finishing 27 seconds behind the winner Peter Weening. With only a 4.1% grade the tenacity of the riders will determine what happens on this first climb.
After a quick descent the riders go straight into the 8.7km Col du Platzerwasel and then the final 8.4km Col du Firstplan. This last climb peaks only 20km from the finish line in Colmar. In 2001 on Bastille Day the French rider Laurant Jalabert took the win into Colmar and who can forget the winning salute of Neil Stephens pretending to cradle a baby in his arms as he crossed the finish in 1997.
