The route of the 2016 Tour de France will be officially announced next Tuesday, but the media in France have been trying to determine the route in advance of the official announcement.
Some stage details had already been announced. It was already known that the Tour will start in Normandy, but it’s predicted that it will head into the mountains as early as stage 5, with a summit finish at the ski station at Le Lioran in the Massif Central, where Michel Pollentier was the last stage winner in 1975.
The race is then expected to head to the Pyrenees where there could be two summit finishes at Pla de Beret and Arcalis (Andorra). The race is also expected to tackle the Aspin, Peyresourde and Cortals d’Encamp.
On the 14th of July, the stage is set to finish on Mont Ventoux, followed by the only time-trial in the race in the Ardèche and then three stages in the Alps which will include the climbs of the Izoard and Galibier.
Unusually enough, the Vosges are expected to be the last mountains that the riders will face before heading to Paris for the traditional finish on the Champs-Elysées.
It will be interesting to see how close this route will be to the official route announced next week.
Enda
Anticlockwise again? Nope.