While the official announcement is only planned for Tuesday 20 October at the Palais des Congrès in Paris, you are used to find here early September (and this year even a bit before for the French version) the first rumours about the Tour de France race route for next year, in this case the Tour de France 2016 which will take place from Saturday 2 July till Sunday 24 July 2016. We'll discover over the next days and weeks the whole race route of the 103rd edition of the Tour!
In this article you'll sometimes find rumours which could get confirmed later on or might be false in the end, but on the map you'll only find the stages which really seem to get confirmed. Little by little, the article will develop and will provide as usual - at least I hope so - the whole race route of the 2016 Tour de France before October 20th ...
As far as possible, I'll also share with you any rumours about the Etape du Tour 2016, the cyclosportive which is organised on the race route of one of the stages of the Tour de France 2016.
What's for sure: the Grand Départ from the Manche departement and the informations about the first three stages
As announced by velowire.com early October 2014 and confirmed on 24 November 2014 and finally officially presented on 9 December 2014, the Tour de France 2016 will start in the Manche department in the Basse-Normandie region.2 stages in line will entirely take place in the Manche, knowing that the 3rd stage will also start in this department.
The programme of the Grand Départ of the Tour de France 2016 is as usual:
Since 18 December 2014, velowire.com already presented you the race route on Google Maps for these first stages of the Tour de France 2016!
In addition to the start, we know since 15 January 2015 that the Tour de France 2016 will have a stage finish, a rest day and a stage start in Andorra. The Tour de France will visit this country for the 5th time in 2016, after 1964 (finish of the 13th stage coming from Perpignan, won by J. Jimenez, rest day and start of the 14th stage towards Toulouse), 1993 (finish of the 15th stage coming from Perpignan, won by O. Rincon, and start of the 16th stage towards Saint-Lary-Soulan), 1997 (finish of the 10th stage in Andorra Arcalis coming from Luchon, stage won by Jan Ullrich, and start of the 11th stage towards Perpignan) and 2009 (finish of the 7th stage in Andorra Arcalis coming from Barcelona, stage won by Brice Feillu, and start of the 8th stage the next day towards Saint Girons).
Apart from that, things are a bitt less certain and that's where we get to the usual activity on velowire.com in September and October ... but this time the article has been published a bit earlier, among other reasons because of the new collaboration announced below!
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![Haribo Dragolo Haribo Dragolo](/images/blog/tdf/2016/haribo_dragolo.png)
Of course you can comment the article below and if you're the first to mention a start or finish city for the right date and if it turns out to be on the map of the Tour de France 2016 at that dat, Haribo will send you a box of sweets! If you have exclusive information, I'd recommend you to send it by e-mail and I'll try to check with Haribo to give you even more sweets :).
What's next for the Tour de France 2016: the rumours about the stage cities of the 103rd Grande Boucle!
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3/ Monday 4 July 2016 - Granville > Angers
After the from the Manche department, nothing else is official, since A.S.O. has only announced the start location of the 3rd stage in Granville on Monday 4 July 2016.However, CYRILLE, our usual information provider for hotel bookings, announced that A.S.O. had asked for hotel rooms in Angers for the night of 4 July 2016. The next day, Angers Info was the first to mention a possible stage finish or start in Angers. More precisely, Angers Info mentioned Terra Botanica - an amusement and botanical park at the north of the city Angers - indicating that Christian Gillet, the President of the Conseil départemental de Maine-et-Loire, would have mentioned this possibility during a press conference for the presentation of the 19th edition of the "fête du Vélo en Anjou".
More than one month later, on 10 July 2015, Ouest France talked about it and Entreprise Angers did the same on 3 August.
UPDATE 4 September 2015 at 10.30PM: on the 1st of September, Ouest France came back on this stage finish, indicating that the hetels in the city are already fully booked. Not surprising when we know that A.S.O. already made its bookings in July and following the publication here, that other rooms have been booked!
For Angers this will be the 16th time that the city receives the Tour de France, the last one being in 2004 when the finish was disturbed by a crash before the bunch sprint which was won by Tom Boonen.
4/ Tuesday 5 July 2016 - Angers ? > Limoges
For the 4th stage, the first information came from du Populaire du Centre on 31 July when the local newspaper announced that this stage would connect Tours to Limoges. Apart from the fact that a start in Tours is hardly probable since Tours is at about 130 kilometers from Angers while A.S.O. booked hotel rooms in Angers and not in Tours, a reaction from Xavier Dateu, delegated to sports in Tours, came rather quickly since La Nouvelle Rubrique indicated the next day that the delegate commented: We have never discussed such a thing with ASO, even though we're regularly in touch with them concerning the race Paris-Tours. Nothing has been signed. It would cost 75,000 € to be a start city, that's not possible within the budget of the city next year. We can however start thinking about receiving the Tour in 2018.UPDATE 4 September 2015 at 10.30PM: in a TV show called Quai des Carmes on the local station Angers TV, the Mayor of Angers - Christophe Béchu - confirmed that the Tour will indeed have a stage finish here, but he said there won't be a stage start on Tuesday 5 July. Check out his declatation in the video below at 29'06":
![UPDATE UPDATE](/images/update.gif)
UPDATE 24 September 2015 at 9AM: when Ouest France published an article last week about the visit of the Mayenne department by the stage which finishes in Angers, the newspaper also mentioned a stage start in Bressuire for this stage. For now however, my informations still point to Saumur ... we'll see what gets confirmed in the next few days.
![UPDATE UPDATE](/images/update.gif)
For Limoges this would bring back the Tour de France after 6 years of absence (start in 2009, for a stage towards Issoudun) knowing that the city has seen the Tour no less than 14 times already).
5/ Wednesday 6 July 2016 - Limoges > Le Lioran
Still according to Le Populaire du Centre on 31 July (and a bit more in detail on the 1st of August), the 5th stage would also start in Limoges, the porcelain city.The La Montagne newspaper came with the information about the finish of this stage which would be at the winter sports station Le Lioran in the Cantal mountains which are part of the Massif central. Le Lioran hasn't seen a Tour finish since 1975 when the Belgian rider Michel Pollentier won the stage. In 2011, a stage crossed the village of Le Lioran and the first rest day officially took place there. This information was also published by Le Populaire du Centre which is part of the same group.
According to France 3 Limousin, the eternal second placed rider Raymond Poulidor would have confirmed this information saying: These rumours are correct.
And then ... towards the Pyrenees!
6/ Thursday 7 July 2016 - Arpajon-sur-Cère > MontaubanThe next day, one could - for example based on this very short article in La Montagne - think about a stage start in Aurillac.
![UPDATE UPDATE](/images/update.gif)
France Bleu Auvergne also indicates the information that I also received, concerning the finish of this stage. Indeed, it would finish in Montauban.
7/ Friday 8 July 2016 - L'Isle-Jourdain > Lac de Payolle
![UPDATE UPDATE](/images/update.gif)
8/ Saturday 9 July 2016 - Pau ? >
It's quite usual for the Tour de France to visit the capital of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Pau. This is even the 3rd most visited city of the Grande Boucle, after Paris and Bordeaux. According to La République des Pyrénées in its edition the day after the stage start of the Tour de France 2015 in Pau, a delegate to the Mayor of Pau - Josy Poueyto - would have declared during this start that there will be something in Pau next year for the Tour, while Christian Prudhomme, the director of the Tour de France, would have added: Josy Poueyto is the only delegate in France who is an official delegate for the Tour de France, this is the proof of the strong links between the Pyrénées-Atlantiques and the Tour de France.
It is highly probable that this is all about the start of the first stage of the Tour de France 2016 in the Pyrenees.
For the finish, I don't have any precise information for now, but this could well be in Peyragudes or in Loudenvielle (see below).
![UPDATE UPDATE](/images/update.gif)
![UPDATE UPDATE](/images/update.gif)
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Three days in Andorra
As indicated half January, the Tour de France 2016 will spend 3 days in Andorra. There will be a stage finish, a rest day and a stage start.
Following the schedule which seems to be the one of the Tour 2016 based on the different rumours, the Tour would arrive in Andorra on Sunday 10 July 2016 (precise location to be confirmed).
![UPDATE UPDATE](/images/update.gif)
![UPDATE UPDATE](/images/update.gif)
![UPDATE UPDATE](/images/update.gif)
Monday 11 July 2016 - rest day in Andorra
The next day, on Monday 11 July 2016, the riders and followers of the Tour would thus have a rest day in Andorra, before they leave again the next day.
Direction Carcassonne and Montpellier
10/ Tuesday 12 July 2016 - Andorra la Vella > RevelAccording to CYRILLE, A.S.O. has booked hotels in Carcassonne for Tuesday 12 July 2016, which would thus mean that the 10th stage which will start in Andorra (precise location to be confirmed) would go towards the medieval city, without being sure that it would finish in Carcassonne itself.
UPDATE 8 October at 3.48PM: several sources, and mainly La Dépêche indicated today and yesterday (yesterday in the subscribers edition of La Dépêche) that the finish of this stage would be in Revel, thus confirming the information which had already been shared a few weeks ago by Pierre Lacoue and which was shown on my map below since several days now :).
11/ Wednesday 13 July 2016 - Carcassonne >
On Wednesday 13 July, the stage would thus start in Carcassonne, and go off - also based on the hotel bookings indicated by CYRILLE - towards Montpellier, the main city of the Languedoc-Roussillon region. Midi Libre also indicated half July the possibility that Montpellier would be on the map of the Tour de France 2016, and France 3 Languedoc-Roussillon did the same, indicating that, following a visit of the Mayor of Montpellier - Philippe Saurel - that While the Mayor thinks about 2017, the director of the Tour, Christian Prudhomme, would prefer 2016, which is a very clear indication which seems to confirm that the hotel bookings are really not just a coincidence.
![UPDATE UPDATE](/images/update.gif)
According to the La Marseillaise newspaper on 23 July, this even has been confirmed since - by the Mayor himself - during a meeting of the municipal council the same day where he apparently announced that Montpellier will be a stage city (finish and start) of the Tour de France 2016.
UPDATE 7 October 2015 at 10.25AM: concerning the start of this stage in Carcassonne, La Dépêche talked about this again today, re-confirming the stage start with quite a vague description: if we can believe the information which came around yesterday, without being more precise about where / who / what / how yesterday ...
And then the Alps and maybe Italy and / or Switzerland?
12/ Thursday 14 July 2016 - Montpellier When one says stage city this means there's a stage finish and start for Montpellier, which would mean that the 12th stage - the day of the National Bank Holiday - will also start here.
Several sources, and mainly France Bleu Vaucluse on 20 July and La Provence on 31 July, announced that there would be a finish on top of the Mont Ventoux during the Tour de France 2016 and La Provence added that this would be on 14 July 2016, the National Bank Holiday. This would mean that 3 years after its last visit, the Tour would again visit the Géant de la Provence.
I think we should see coming a little bit more precise elements confirming this finish however, since what's most surprising for me is that Ventoux Magazine, usually the first one to announce a Tour visit of the Ventoux and in that case very reliable, had not at all mentioned a possible stage finish in the Tour 2016 on the Mont Ventoux ! To be confirmed ...
![UPDATE UPDATE](/images/update.gif)
13/ Friday 15 July 2016 - Bourg-Saint-Andéol > Vallon-Pont-d'Arc - individual time trial
After the Mont Ventoux (which remains to be confirmed!) we lose the trace of the Tour de France 2016 race route for now, but the Ardèche edition of e-tribune.fr announces that the Tour de France 2016 will go to the Ardèche department. We don't know much more about it for now, but the president of the Conseil Départemental de l'Ardèche would have indicated that While the habitants of the Ardèche and the people watching the Tour on TV have liked the Tour de France in 2015, they'll love it in 2016!, which seems indeed to indicate that the Tour will really have a stage in the department, while it only crossed it during the Mende > Valence stage in 2015.
Guessing on, e-tribune.fr mentions two possible places: Gerbier and the Caverne du Pont d'Arc. The last mentioned led to many discussions in the article about the rumours on the Tour de France 2015 race route but Vallon-Pont d'Arc, the small village which thanks its name to the natural bridge over the Ardèche river and which forms the entrance gate to the gorges of the Ardèche, has seen the Tour this year. The Caverne du Pont d'Arc is the fruit of a collaboration between the Ardèche department and the Rhône-Alpes region and is a replica of the Chauvet cave. It opened its doors in 2015. It is however not guaranteed that the Tour 2016 will visit these places ...
UPDATE 4 September 2015 at 10.30PM: on 25 August, Le Dauphiné also talked about this possibility, but mentioning a possible time trial in the gorges of the Ardèche between Bourg-Saint-Andéol and Vallon-Pont-d'Arc (on 17 July?). The way Le Dauphiné wrote this article is very unsure however, so they might not have many concrete sources for this "information" ...
![UPDATE UPDATE](/images/update.gif)
14/ Saturday 16 July 2016 - Montélimar > Villars-les-Dombes
Still according to Le Dauphiné, the next stage could start in Montélimar and still according to the newspaper but without any clear indication on the reliability of the information, the peloton could again go off towards Gap, like in 2006, following the same roads as in the Critérium du Dauphiné 2014.
![UPDATE UPDATE](/images/update.gif)
15/ Sunday 17 July 2016 - Bourg-en-Bresse > Culoz
![UPDATE UPDATE](/images/update.gif)
16/ Monday 18 July 2016 -
R2/ Tuesday 19 July 2016 - rest day in Bern (CH)
![UPDATE UPDATE](/images/update.gif)
UPDATE 24 September at 9AM: a few days later, Le Nouvelliste confirmed that the Tour de France 2016 will not visit Crans-Montana but that Christian Prudhomme has promised a visit next time the Tour comes to Switzerland.
![UPDATE UPDATE](/images/update.gif)
![UPDATE UPDATE](/images/update.gif)
17/ Wednesday 20 July 2016 - Bern (CH) > Finhaut-Emosson (CH)
![UPDATE UPDATE](/images/update.gif)
![UPDATE UPDATE](/images/update.gif)
18/ Thursday 21 July 2016 - Sallanches > Megève
![UPDATE UPDATE](/images/update.gif)
![UPDATE UPDATE](/images/update.gif)
![UPDATE UPDATE](/images/update.gif)
19/ Friday 22 July 2016 - Albertville > Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc
![UPDATE UPDATE](/images/update.gif)
![UPDATE UPDATE](/images/update.gif)
20/ Saturday 23 July 2016 - Saint-Gervais > Morzine
![UPDATE UPDATE](/images/update.gif)
Even though the mayor of Morzine officially denied that a possible Tour de France 2016 visit would already have been confirmed, it also gave the confirmation that Morzine has send a file to be a "stage city" and that An information will be published as soon as the city will have received an official confirmation from the organisor.
This last sentence is quite direct actually in confirming that the Tour will come by and ... that's not really surprising ... Indeed, according to my information (which I got from someone who prefers to remain anonymous but who indicated that the information is for 99% sure!), Morzine will indeed be on the map of the Tour de France 2016
According to my information there would be a stage finish in Avoriaz
![UPDATE UPDATE](/images/update.gif)
21/ Sunday 24 July 2016 - Chantilly > Paris - Champs-Elysées
One thing is sure, on Sunday 24 July 2016, the Tour de France 2016 will finish on the Champs-Elysées in Paris.![UPDATE UPDATE](/images/update.gif)
L'Etape du Tour 2016
UPDATE 10 October 2015 at 5.53PM: Concerning the Etape du Tour, the cyclosportive which is organised every year on the race route of one of the most impressive stages of the Tour de France and thus also on one of the stages of the Tour de France 2016, the chosen stage remains unknown for now. However, the date seems to be known already now and would be
Sunday 17 July 2016. Indeed, the Etape du Tour is - together with 5 other cyclosportives around the world - since this week part of an association known as WACE which stands for World Association of Cycling Events and on the page dedicated to the Etape du Tour on their website the date is simply announced: NEXT EDITION : Sunday 17th of July.
We also read there that the Etape du Tour will take place in the French mountains, either in the Alps or in the Pyrenees (to be confirmed). The rumours about an Etape du Tour between Limoges and Le Lioran which have been reported in several comments below thus don't seem to get confirmed!However, several comments also indicated that several hotels are already fully booked in Pau on the 16th of July which could thus well indicate that the Etape du Tour will be the stage which starts in Pau !
UPDATE 12 October 2015 at 9.58PM: apparently A.S.O. had to change the date of the Etape du Tour. Indeed, as some of you have discovered on the new Etape du Tour website, the date has been announed officially and finally it'll be on Sunday 10 July 2016. What you didn't see however is that A.S.O. has not yet corrected the date everywhere on the website before its publication. Indeed, on the "how to register page in English, it still says Next edition: Sunday 17th July 2016 while the French version of the same page shows Prochaine édition : dimanche 10 juillet 2016!
UPDATE 18 October 2015 at 2.40PM: without being 100% sure, based on the hotel bookings by A.S.O. in Morzine on the night of 10 July, it's almost sure that the Etape du Tour will finish there. Looking at the pro stages and following the logic which says that the Etape du Tour takes place on the race route of one of the pro stages, the only logical conclusion can be that the Etape du Tour 2016 will be Saint-Gervais > Morzine on 10 July 2016.
Of course this article will regularly be updated with the latest rumours in order to get, if possible, to the complete and correct race route (as has been the case in the past few years) before the official presentation of the Tour de France 2016 on 20 October.
The table of stages for the Tour de France 2016 based on rumours
When we put this all together, we already see quite clear what the structure of the race will be, even though there are still quite some gaps to fill in and things to be confirmed. In the table below you'll find an overview of the Tour de France 2016 stages based on the current rumours. As usual, it's useless to copy this table and reproduce it elsewhere because only here it'll be updated regularly as soon as new rumours surface! By the way, any copy of the contents (even parts of it) of this article is strictly forbidden!# | date | start | finish | comments |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Sat. 2 July 2016 | Mont-Saint-Michel | Utah Beach - Sainte-Marie-du-Mont | 188 km |
2 | Sun. 3 July 2016 | Saint-Lô | Cherbourg-Octeville | 182 km |
3 | Mon. 4 July 2016 | Granville | Angers | |
4 | Tues. 5 July 2016 | Saumur | Limoges | |
5 | Wed. 6 July 2016 | Limoges | Le Lioran | |
6 | Thu. 7 July 2016 | Arpajon-sur-Cère | Montauban | |
7 | Fri. 8 July 2016 | L'Isle-Jourdain | Lac de Payolle | |
8 | Sat. 9 July 2016 | Pau | Bagnères-de-Luchon | |
9 | Sun. 10 July 2016 | Val d'Aran (ES): Vielha | Andorra Arcalis | |
R1 | Mon. 11 July 2016 | rest day in Andorra | ||
10 | Tues. 12 July 2016 | Andorra la Vella | Revel | |
11 | Wed. 13 July 2016 | Carcassonne | Montpellier | |
12 | Thu. 14 July 2016 | Montpellier | Mont Ventoux | |
13 | Fri. 15 July 2016 | Bourg-Saint-Andéol | Vallon-Pont-d'Arc | individual time trial |
14 | Sat. 16 July 2016 | Montélimar | Villars-les-Dombes | |
15 | Sun. 17 July 2016 | Bourg-en-Bresse | Culoz | |
16 | Mon. 18 July 2016 | Moirans-en-Montagne | Bern (CH) | |
R2 | Tues. 19 July 2016 | rest day in Bern (CH) | ||
17 | Wed. 20 July 2016 | Bern (CH) | Finhaut-Emosson (CH) | |
18 | Thu. 21 July 2016 | Sallanches | Megève | |
19 | Fri. 22 July 2016 | Albertville | Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc | |
20 | Sat. 23 July 2016 | Saint-Gervais-les-Bains | Morzine | |
21 | Sun. 24 July 2016 | Chantilly | Paris Champs-Elysées |
The map of the Tour de France 2016 based on rumours
As usual, I created a map of the Tour de France 2016 based on the rumours in order to allow you to better understand the race route. Again, please don't copy this map to reproduce it elsewhere (this is by the way strictly forbidden, as indicated on the copyright page) because only here this map will regularly be updated based on any new rumours!(in order to zoom in on the map, click on it when the magnifying glass shows up and then click on the arrows at the bottom right of the image to show the original size)
![The detailed map of the Tour de France 2016 race route based on rumours The detailed map of the Tour de France 2016 race route based on rumours](/images/blog/tdf/2016/Carte_TdF_2016.small.png?v=14)
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Parc des Expositions-- finally this will most probably be at the Haras (horse stable) of Saint-Lô