Tour Tidbit du Jour - 7/7/2018

Noirmoutier-en-l'Île (Noirmoutier Island), the site of the 2018 Tour's Grand Départ.

The Tour has been to Noirmoutier-en-l'Île three times in the past, in 1999, 2005, and 2011. The key feature of this small island off the coast of France in the Atlantic Ocean noted for its salt marshes, salt harvesting, and various shellfish farming, is the renowned Pasage du Gois, once the sole land route to the island available only during low tide. The interesting quirk of nature has only been used once, in 1999, during race conditions. The island was the site of an ITT in 2005 and the Passage du Gois was used for the neutral parade of 2011's Grand Départ. This year, because of scheduled TV time for the World Cup necessitating an earlier start and coinciding with high tide, the race route used the modern causeway built in the early 1970's to reach the mainland.