Notes:

2009 Tour de France Official Poster

- You will find detailed information regarding the 2009 Tour de France route at the official site here.  (includes a fly-over video)

- So, the Team Time Trial is back, there will be fewer individual time trial kilometers, and it will all come down to the penultimate stage, to Mont Ventoux the day before the stage into Paris.

- Official site feed is now working for us, with voice-over in English.

- Christian Prudhomme is now presenting the 2009 Tour de France route.

- Cycling.tv feed is running behind France 3 feed.  Prince Albert of Monaco now speaking.  If you are just now tuning in, they haven't yet begun showing the 2009 Tour route.  Velonews and official site live streams not working for us.

- Cycling.tv audio now working for us.  They have voice-over in English as the topic of sports in Monaco is being presented.  2009 TDF route to follow...

- Presentation also live now on France 3 here.  Christian Prudhomme is now speaking.  -Bernie S.

- Live feed is playing for us on cycling.tv, but with no audio.  At the moment, they are showing the 2008 TDF highlights video.  2009 TDF Route Presentation to follow.

- Next update here when live coverage gets underway.

- Live streaming video of the ceremony should get underway at 11:30 CET (5:30am U.S. Eastern).

- Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme survived the recent shake-up at A.S.O. that saw the firing of president Patrice Clerc.  Nevertheless, Prudhomme is in an awkward position this morning given his recent statements that the credibility of the Tour de France depends on the anti-doping controls carried out by the French anti-doping agency AFLD (as opposed to the controls done by the UCI through 2007).  It was an extraordinary faux pas by Prudhomme given that anti-doping control is being returned to the UCI in 2009.  Prudhomme, clearly the weakest director in the history of the race, will be pulled back into line by Amaury with the warming of relations between ASO and the UCI.  (note that the "peace" does NOT include official recognition of the ProTour by A.S.O.  Quite the contrary.  See below.)  -Pete

- What is also known this morning prior to the route presentation is that, as rumored, the penultimate stage of the 2009 Tour de France will be a road stage to the summit of Mont Ventoux, the first time the Tour will visit the "Giant of Provence" since 2002.  Yes, that is the day before the race finish on the Champs-Elysees in Paris!

- Will the Team Time Trial return to the Tour de France?  That's one question many are asking.  The TTT was a victim of the ASO/UCI wars of recent years with ASO deliberately shelving the event after 2005 to undermine the UCI's ProTour Team Time Trial which had a place in June on the calendar prior to the Tour.  (A.S.O. of course has never publicly admitted as much and neither has L'Equipe.)  With no TTT in the TDF, teams had less incentive to take the ProTour TTT event seriously.  The result is that the event died.  With its death, we may see a return of the TTT to the Tour de France in 2009, or 2010 at the latest.

- According to this morning's L'Equipe, the 2009 Tour de France will indeed begin, as rumored, with a 15km time trial in the streets of Monaco, including a portion of the Formula 1 circuit.  Should be spectacular.  The last time a Tour de France started on the Cote d'Azur (Riviera)?  1981.

- UCI President Pat McQuaid, as expected, will be in attendance this morning.  This may have the effect of maintaining the mistaken belief, among many, that ASO and the UCI have buried the hatchet over their ProTour differences.  Though some in the English-language cycling media don't seem to have picked up on this, Amaury Group president Marie-Odile Amaury has made it clear:  Amaury does not recognize the ProTour and ASO will not be joining the ProTour.  Not now, not ever.  However, ASO does once again recognize the authority of the UCI as the sport's governing body.

- The normal start time for this event as in past years, and indeed the start time mentioned in this morning's (Wednesday) L'Equipe newspaper, is 11:00 CET.  If that time is accurate and live streaming does not start until 11:30 CET as announced, this suggests that opening remarks from the likes of new ASO president Jean-Etienne Amaury and Christian Prudhomme, as well as a speech by Prince Albert II of Monaco and awards presentations may not be part of the live streaming.  If that is the case, the presentation of the actual race route will of course be streamed live and possibly the highlights video of the 2008 Tour.  We'll see.

- The general route for the 2009 Tour de France was defined in May, the details were completed in September, and after race organizer Amaury Sport Organization (A.S.O.) reserved the necessary hotel rooms for the teams and race officials, all that remains is to present the route to an invitation-only audience at the Palais des Congres in Paris and, for the first time ever, to cycling fans worldwide via live streaming video.

- Welcome to today's live coverage guide for the 2009 Tour de France Route Presentation.

 Notes:

On tomorrow: Cyclo-cross LIVE

- There are geo-restricted Eurosport Spain and Eurosport Germany live video feeds. -Bernie S.

- As always, you can mute the audio on a given video feed and then play a Eurosport audio feed in the language of your choice for your race commentary.

- Eurosport audio streams now playing the race live.

- Lombardy live coverage on cycling.tv has begun.

- Giro di Lombardia LIVE now on Sporza.  Stay tuned for more live streaming coverage options.  -Bernie S.

- On tomorrow:  Cyclocross World Cup - Kalmthout LIVE

Wednesday:  2009 Tour de France Route Presentation LIVE

2005 Tour de France Route Presentation, October, 2004:  TDF organizer Amaury Sport Organization (A.S.O.) presents an award to Richard Virenque to commemorate his record seven King of the Mountains titles.
Copyright © Pete Geyer/cyclingfans.com

- Wednesday's 2009 Tour de France Route Presentation will be streamed live over the internet.  (John C., St. Louis)  Editor: This is a first and even in France there hasn't been any kind of live coverage of this event in recent years, if ever.  The presentation is typically an opportunity for A.S.O. to loudly condemn doping, sometimes followed by a presentation of an award to a, uh, French doper, as was the case in 2004 when 7-time King of the Mountains winner Richard Virenque was given a framed collage commemorating his 7 titles.  The show also features slick video highlights of the previous summer's Tour.  Stay tuned for our full coverage of this event.

- Lance Armstrong fans (and detractors) can follow his every move via the 7-time TDF champion's Twitter updates here.  (Thanks John C., St. Louis)

- Giro di Lombardia live streaming video should begin on cycling.tv at around 14:50 CET (8:50am U.S. Eastern).  Live coverage on Eurosport should begin at 15:15 CET (9:15am U.S. Eastern).  We'll list any other available live streams at race time.

- Welcome to today's live coverage guide for the 2008 Giro di Lombardia.