2016 Tour de France unveiled
The route will start at Mont-Saint-Michel, before heading down the centre and west of France
NEXT year’s Tour de France will start at Mont-Saint-Michel on July 2 and visit three neighbouring countries, Spain, Andorra and Switzerland, before the traditional Paris finish on July 24.
After the start and two other stages in the Manche the route sweeps down towards the centre at Limoges and then Montauban and Pau in south-west France.
The route (see map below) includes plenty of mountain territory in the Pyrenees and then the riders crossing east to arrive at Mont Ventoux in Provence on Bastille Day (July 14).
The Mont Blanc takes pride of place during the Alpine stages in the final week.
There will be two time-trials, including one finishing in front of the replica of the Chauvet Cave in Ardèche.
Unveiling the route tour director Christian Prudhomme said it was an especially mountainous one, with 28 cols (mountain passes), and that they had tried hard to make it beautiful.
“We looked for challenging terrain in magnificent places – Mont-Saint-Michel sets the tone,” he said.
Unlike last year’s route, the riders will quickly arrive at challenging mountain territory, as they come to the heart of the Massif Central by the fourth day.
This comes as London, which hosted the Grand Départ in 2007 and was the arrival point of one of the stages last year, turned down the chance to open the tour again in 2017.
Leon Daniels of Transport for London told journalists the city “loved hosting the Tour de France in 2007 and 2014” however it had decided not to do so again in 2017 because of funding considerations.
“To ensure value for money we must make difficult choices,” he said.
It is now expected that the 2017 start will be in Germany, probably Dusseldorf, though this will not be confirmed until later this winter.
Mr Prudhomme was quoted on the website of Eurosport saying that “contrary to what has been reported, we are not angry at all” at London’s withdrawal and they were “still grateful for the Grand Départ in 2007”.
Last year when the tour started with three days in Britain, including two Yorkshire stages and then Cambridge to London, the hosting budget was put at £27million, but it was estimated to have given a boost to Yorkshire’s economy alone of some £102million from visitor revenues.
