Unlike the third stage time trial in 2011, in which the course used in Grenoble largely set the route for the penultimate-day time trial in the Tour de France a month later, the time trial in the 2012 event was held on an independent course, running from west-to-east between Villié-Morgon and Bourg-en-Bresse, with an undulating parcours that only amounted to a 61 meters difference in altitude from start to finish.