2014 Tour de France will have a bit of everything Tracing a route that limits the strengths of defending champion Chris Froome, the 2014 Tour de France will rattle over bone-jarring cobblestones, pay homage to World War I battlefields, climb unfamiliar mountains in the east of France and have only one time trial. Starting in Leeds, England, on July 5, the 101st Tour ends 22 days later, as is traditional, on the Champs-Elysees in Paris. With 25 ascents, the same as the 2012 edition won by Bradley Wiggins and only three fewer than this year's centennial dominated by Froome, the 2014 race will again suit strong climbers - perhaps even more so than in previous years because of the reduced emphasis on time-trialing. There will be only 54 kilometres (33 miles) of time-trialing in 2014 - all on a penultimate stage through foie gras country in southwest France on July 26. That is the smallest time-trial total since the specialist discipline was first introduced at the 1934 Tour. The reduction could be a disadvantage for Froome, a powerful time-trial rider who won one of the two clock-races at the 2013 Tour and placed second in the other. The clockwise 3,656-kilometre (2,271-mile) route winds through the Vosges mountains on France's eastern border with Germany before two stages in the Alps followed by a crescendo of climbing over three days in the Pyrenees on France's southern border with Spain. The Tour doesn't visit the Vosges as regularly as the two other far more imposing mountain ranges. Stage 10, in particular, could surprise riders who underestimate the Vosges. Tour organizers hope the succession of six ascents that day will exhaust all but the strongest riders, isolating them from their teammates and forcing them to then duel alone on the fiercely steep final climb to La Planche des Belles Filles, first scaled in 2012 and where Froome collected his first stage win at the Tour. "It's a real mountain stage," Tour director Christian Prudhomme said. Marking the 100th anniversary of the start of the Great War, the 2014 edition will also visit the Belgian town of Ypres that was bitterly fought over, ride on the Chemin des Dames ridge where unexploded shells are still unearthed a century later and pass through the Verdun battlefields where 700,000 were killed or wounded in 10 months of intense combat. Stage 5 from Ypres to Arenberg Porte du Hainaut will hurtle over the dusty and potentially treacherous cobblestoned paths of northeastern France that are used by the famed Paris-Roubaix one-day race. Riders will cross their fingers that they don't puncture a tire on the irregular surface. They'll also have to fight for space and position on the narrow paths that, like for Paris-Roubaix, will be hemmed in by dense crowds of screaming fans. A fall or other mishap on this stage could ruin the Tour for a race favourite before it has really begun. Nine cobbled sections will be negotiated that day. The total of 15 kilometres (nine miles) is the most on cobbled paths since 1983. The Tour last bumped across the cobbles in 2010. Prudhomme defended the riskiness of the cobbles as being "clearly part of cycling." He said organizers want to maintain suspense at the Tour. "We don't dream, absolutely not, of a world where everything is dictated in advance," Prudhomme said. 2014 Tour de France race route: Saturday, July 5* - Stage 1: Leeds to Harrogate, 191 km (flat) Sunday, July 6* - Stage 2: York to Sheffield, 198 km (hilly) Monday, July 7* - Stage 3: Cambridge to London, 159 km (flat) Tuesday, July 8 - Stage 4: Le Touquet-Paris-Plage to Lille, 164 km (flat) Wednesday, July 9 - Stage 5: Ypres (Belgium) to Arenberg Porte du Hainaut, 156 km (flat, cobbles) Thursday, July 10 - Stage 6: Arras to Reims, 194 km (flat) Friday, July 11 - Stage 7: Epernay to Nancy, 233 km (flat) Saturday, July 12 - Stage 8: Tomblaine to Gerardmer, 161 km (hilly) Sunday, July 13 - Stage 9: Gerardmer to Mulhouse, 166 km (hilly) Monday, July 14 - Stage 10: Mulhouse to La Planche des Belles Filles, 161 km (mountainous, summit finish) Tuesday, July 15 - Rest day in Besancon Wednesday, July 16 - Stage 11: Besancon to Oyonnax, 186 km (flat) Thursday, July 17 - Stage 12: Bourg en Bresse to St Etienne, 183 km (hilly) Friday, July 18 - Stage 13: St Etienne to Chamrousse, 200 km (mountainous, summit finish) Saturday, July 19 - Stage 14: Grenoble to Risoul, 177 km (mountainous, summit finish) Sunday, July 20 - Stage 15: Tallard to Nimes, 222 km (flat) Monday, July 21 - Rest day in Carcassonne Tuesday, July 22 - Stage 16: Carcassonne to Bagneres de Luchon, 237 km (mountainous) Wednesday, July 23 - Stage 17: St Gaudens to St Lary Soulan, 125 km (mountainous, summit finish) Thursday, July 24 - Stage 18: Pau to Hautacam, 145 km (mountainous, summit finish) Friday, July 25 - Stage 19: Maubourguet to Bergerac, 208 km (flat) Saturday, July 26 - Stage 20: Bergerac to Perigueux (flat individual time trial), 54 km Sunday, July 27 - Stage 21: Evry to Paris, Champs Elysees (flat) Total distance: 3,656 km First three stages being held in England