Future yellow jersey contenders are now set. Tuesday morning, the full path of the 2016 Tour de France was unveiled at the Palais des Congrès in Paris. Mont Saint-Michel, which will be given the great departure Saturday, July 2, to the classic finish on the Champs-Elysées three weeks later, the very southern 103rd edition will again by the Pyrenees before crossing the Alps abundantly third week. In between the majestic Ventoux will rise July 14.
As in 2013 and 2014 in Corsica in England, the sprinters should be able to ward off the first yellow jersey on the site of Utah Beach. Four of the first six steps also seem to have cut for speed, slightly less worse off than this year. Still, the favorites will not put long to get into the thick of it. They can test their legs once in step Lioran, with five climbs, including the sequence Pas de Peyrol – Perthus.
TDF 2016: Presentation clip – Eurosport
Three steps in Pyrenees
The Pyrenees then arrive very quickly, from the seventh day of the race. Three steps to the menu. We salute the prominence of the Col d’Aspin, too often reduced to a supporting role. It will be the first cervical Pyrenean massif. The next day, Tourmalet, Hourquette d’Ancizan, Val Louron and Peyrsourde are on the menu before a third opus almost exclusively in Spanish territory (El Canto, Beixalis the program) and now classic summit finish in Andorra-Arcalis and over 2000m. We will then halfway and the landscape will probably already cleared overall.
But the hardest will come. First with the Mont Ventoux, which will celebrate its 10th in 2016 stage finish in the Tour. The Giant of Provence boost the transition between the two main mountain ranges. As in the victory of Chris Froome in 2013, it will be scaled July 14. Digestion should be fast because the next day, the first against the clock individually before the replica of the Chauvet Cave will be on the menu. 37 km first rolling and rolling, before a technical downhill and a bump of five kilometers to finish. For wheelers, therefore, but not only. The double ascent of the Grand Colombier then completed a second very solid week on paper.
Chris Froome in the Ventoux stage in 2013. – Imago
Joux-Plane in justice?
The last week looks daunting in the Alps, with Mont Blanc in the background. No Alpe d’Huez, Galibier and Izoard, but the return of some monuments of the Alps, like Forclaz Joux-Plane or ultimate cervical Tour the day before the finish in Paris. The last two mountain stages will be short but dense. Previously, the spectacular arrival – unpublished – in Finhaut-Emosson dam will feel, not to mention the first real mountain of chrono Prudhomme era of Sallanches Megève, on lands of the world title from Bernard Hinault in 1980, and Arrival in Saint Gervais le Bettex.
Overall, the course appears well balanced and is characterized by its variety: a little over chrono in 2015, which was not complicated, room for sprinters at the start of the Tour and mountainous tantalizing rhythm, of incursion in the Massif Central to the Ventoux in passing, of course, by the Pyrenees and the Alps. Now there is more to. Highly July 2 …
- The 21 stages of the Tour 2016
| Step | Date | Cities steps | Distance |
| 1 | Saturday, July 2 | Mont-Saint-Michel – Utah Beach | 188 km |
| 2 | Sunday, July 3 | Saint-Lô – Cherbourg | 182 km |
| 3 | Monday, July 4 | Granville – Angers | 222 km |
| 4 | Tuesday, July 5 | Saumur – Limoges | 232 km |
| 5 | Wednesday, July 6 | Limoges – Le Lioran | 216 km |
| 6 | Thursday, July 7 | Arpajon-sur-Cere – Montauban | 187 km |
| 7 | Friday, July 8 | L’Isle-Jourdain – Lake Payolle | 162 km |
| 8 | Saturday, July 9 | Pau – Bagnères-de-Luchon | 183 km |
| 9 | Sunday, July 10 | Vielha Aran Valley – Andorra Arcalis | 184 km |
| 10 | Tuesday, July 12 | Escaldes-Engordany – Revel | 198 km |
| 11 | Wednesday, July 13 | Carcassonne – Montpellier | 164 km |
| 12 | Thursday, July 14 | Montpellier – Mont Ventoux | 185 km |
| 13 | Friday, July 15 | Bourg-Saint-Andéol – The Pont-d’Arc Cave (CLM) | 37 km |
| 14 | Saturday, July 16 | Montelimar – Villars-les-Dombes | 208 km |
| 15 | Sunday, July 17 | Bourg-en-Bresse – Culoz | 159 km |
| 16 | Monday, July 18 | Moirans-en-Montagne – Berne | 206 km |
| 17 | Wednesday, July 20 | Berne – Finhaut-Emosson | 184 km |
| 18 | Thursday, July 21 | Sallanches – Megève (CLM) | 17 km |
| 19 | Friday, July 22 | Albertville – Saint-Gervais Mont Blanc | 146 km |
| 20 | Saturday, July 23 | Megève – Morzine | 146 km |
| 21 | Sunday, July 24 | Chantilly – Paris Champs Elysees | 113 km |
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