The route of the 2016 Tour de France has been presented in Paris today, with highlights including a Grand Depart at Mont St-Michel and visits to Andorra and Switzerland either side of a Bastille Day summit finish on Mont Ventoux.

The 103rd edition of the race includes two individual time trial stages totalling 54kilometres – a contrast with this year’s parcours, which had the lowest distance of the discipline in the 70 years since the end of World War II.

That conflict is acknowledged with a Stage 1 finish at Utah Beach, one of the five landing sites used by Allied forces as the liberation of France got under way on D-Day on 6 June 1944, one of nine stages described as “flat” by organisers ASO.

There are nine mountain stages including four summit finishes – besides that much anticipated ascent of Mont Ventoux, the other three are at Andorre Arcalis, Finhaut-Emosson and Saint-Gervaix Mont Blanc.

Unusually, neither of the two rest days in next year’s Tour will be in France – the first is in Andorra, the second in the Swiss federal capital, Bern.

Here’s the flythrough video of the route – including an opening sequence featuring Mont St Michel that owes more than a little to the title credits of the TV series Game of Thrones.


Le parcours 2016 en 3D – The 2016 route in 3D by tourdefrance

 

Tour de France 2016 map.jpg
Tour de France 2016 map (Image Credit: Farrelly Atkinson)

2016 Tour de France route

Stage 1  Flat                  Sat 2 July           Mont-Saint-Michel – Utah Beach Ste-Marie-du-Mont 188 km
Stage 2  Flat                  Sun 3 July          Saint-Lô – Cherbourg-Octeville  182 km
Stage 3  Flat                  Mon 4 July         Granville – Angers 222 km
Stage 4  Flat                  Tue 5 July           Saumur – Limoges 232 km
Stage 5  Hilly                 Wed 6 July         Limoges – Le Lioran 216 km
Stage 6  Flat                  Thu 7 July           Arpajon-sur-Cère – Montauban 187 km
Stage 7  Mountain      Fri 8 July              L’Isle-Jourdain – Lac de Payolle 162 km
Stage 8  Mountain      Sat 9 July             Pau – Bagnères-de-Luchon 183 km
Stage 9  Mountain      Sun 10 July         Vielha Val d’Aran – Andorra Arcalis 184 km
Rest day                         Mon 11 July        Andorra                              
Stage 10 Mountain    Tue 12 July          Escaldes-Engordany – Revel 198 km
Stage 11 Flat                Wed 13 July        Carcassonne – Montpellier           164 km
Stage 12 Mountain    Thu 14 July         Montpellier – Mont Ventoux       185 km
Stage 13 ITT                  Fri 15 July           Bourg-Saint-Andéol – La Caverne du Pont-d’Arc   37 km   
Stage 14 Flat                Sat 16 July          Montélimar – Villars-les-Dombes Parc des Oiseaux 208 km
Stage 15 Flat                Sun 17 July         Bourg-en-Bresse – Culoz 159 km
Stage 16 Flat                Mon 18 July        Moirans-en-Montagne – Bern 206 km
Rest day                         Tue 19 July         Bern                     
Stage 17 Mountain     Wed 20 July       Bern – Finhaut-Emosson 184 km
Stage 18 ITT                  Thu 21 July        Sallanches – Megève 17 km   
Stage 19 Mountain     Fri 22 July           Albertville – Saint-Gervais Mont Blanc 146 km
Stage 20 Mountain     Sat 23 July          Megève – Morzine 146 km
Stage 21 Flat                 Sun 24 July        Chantilly – Paris Champs-Élysées 113 km

 

Here’s the highlights of this year’s race, when Chris Froome of Team Sky sealed his second overall win in three years.