Tour de France 2016 route: Four summit finishes and two time trials
Tuesday 20 October 2015 19:38, UK
A Bastille Day visit to Mont Ventoux will be one of four summit finishes on a well-balanced route for next year’s Tour de France, organisers have revealed.
The 3,519km race will also include two individual time trials totalling 54km and appears ideally suited to the all-round talents of Chris Froome, who was among the big-name riders in attendance at a presentation ceremony in Paris on Tuesday.
The 2016 Tour will start on Saturday, July 2, with a first stage from Mont-Saint-Michel to Utah Beach on the Normandy coast and end with the traditional sprint stage into Paris on Sunday, July 24.
In between it will spend two days in Andorra, three days in Switzerland, tackle 28 climbs - three more than 2015 - and visit four mountain ranges.
Mont Ventoux, where Froome claimed an iconic win in 2013, will be the finale of stage 12, while the other summit finishes will be at Andorra Arcalis on stage nine, Finhaut-Emosson on stage 17 and Saint-Gervais Mont Blanc on stage 19.
The first time trial will take place on a gently rolling 37km course on stage 13, while the second is mostly uphill over 17km on stage 18.
Together they represent a significant increase in time-trialling on the 2015 Tour, when there was only 13.8km of individual time-trialling.
The number of summit finishes is down one from this year, although there is a 3km uphill finish into Cherbourg on stage two that could create early gaps in the classification.
Descents could also have an important say in the race, not least on stage 20, when the peloton will have to tackle the difficult run down from the Col de Joux Plane to the finish line in Morzine.
After leaving the northern coast, the race will head south to the Pyrenees before turning back north to Provence, the Alps and finally Paris.
Tour de France 2016 route
Stage 1: Saturday, July 2 - Mont-Saint-Michel to Utah Beach (Sainte-Marie-du-Mont) - 188km
Stage 2: Sunday, July 3 - Saint-Lo to Cherbourg-Octeville - 182km
Stage 3: Monday, July 4 - Granville to Angers - 222km
Stage 4: Tuesday, July 5 - Saumur to Limoges - 232km
Stage 5: Wednesday, July 6 - Limoges to Le Lioran - 216km
Stage 6: Thursday, July 7 - Arpajon-sur-Cere to Montauban - 187km
Stage 7: Friday, July 8 - L'Isle-Jourdain - Lac de Payolle - 162km
Stage 8: Saturday, July 9 - Pau to Bagneres-de-Luchon - 183km
Stage 9: Sunday, July 10 - Vielha Val d'Aran to Andorra Arcalis - 184km
Monday, July 11: First rest day
Stage 10: Tuesday, July 12 - Escaldes-Engordany to Revel - 198km
Stage 11: Wednesday, July 13 - Carcassonne to Montpellier - 164km
Stage 12: Thursday, July 14 - Montpellier to Mont Ventoux - 185km
Stage 13: Friday, July 15 - Bourg-Saint-Andeol to Vallon-Pont-d'Arc - 37km individual time trial
Stage 14: Saturday, July 16 - Montelimar to Villars-les-Dombes Parc des Oiseaux - 208km
Stage 15: Sunday, July 17 - Bourg-en-Bresse to Culoz - 159km
Stage 16: Monday, July 18 - Moirans-en-Montagne to Bern - 206km
Tuesday, July 19: Second rest day
Stage 17: Wednesday, July 20 - Bern to Finhaut-Emosson - 184km
Stage 18: Thursday, July 21 - Sallanches to Megeve - 17km individual time trial
Stage 19: Friday, July 22 - Albertville to Saint-Gervais Mont Blanc - 146km
Stage 20: Saturday, July 23 - Megeve to Morzine - 146km
Stage 21: Sunday, July 24 - Chantilly to Paris - 113km
