Tour de France 2016 route unveiled in Paris (+ videos)

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

2016 Tour de France route

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