For now, the crews are fully focused on Sunday's race at Henley, the 68th edition of the race where Oxford will be favourites following their success in recent years.
Christophe Prudhomme, the race director said: "For the hundredth edition of the race, we wanted to go somewhere new, somewhere spectacular.
The overall length of the race was increased to close to 3,000 kilometers, which made the race close to 500 kilometers longer than the inaugural edition of the race.
The Tour de France's visits to Mont Ventoux are rare enough to lend a special quality to any victory at the vertiginous finish adjacent to the observatory, but if Chris Froome does survive the final week's racing through the Alps to win the 100th edition of the race, his solo triumph on top of the Giant of Provence could well be seen as the high point.
'The Tour is finished," wrote its founder Henri Desgrange in 1904 after the second edition of the race was wrecked by cheating and crowds intervening violently to manipulate the race in favour of their local heroes.
Next June will see the 11th edition of the race – and its second year on a new course after organisers Racing the Planet decided the original location was becoming overrun by economic development.
Indeed, that is the message that both the Le Mans race organizers and the car manufacturers want to send out in the 2011 edition of the race.
"It's up to us, the riders, to make the race exciting," Armstrong said at a news conference in Luxembourg on Thursday, where the 89th edition of the race starts Saturday.
The racing in India on Sunday was far from the tame affair of the first edition of the race, with plenty of overtaking.
The 2000 edition of the race underscored the variety of yachts that enter the offshore classic, as well as the challenge to race officials to provide a level playing field for the wide range of amateur and professional sailors who participate.
