The 2016 Tour de France was the 103rd edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. The -long race consisted of 21 stages, starting on 2 July in Mont Saint-Michel, Normandy, and concluding on 24 July with the Champs-Élysées stage in Paris. A total of 198 riders from 22 teams entered the race. The overall general classification was won by Chris Froome of , with the second and third places taken by Romain Bardet () and Nairo Quintana (), respectively.
Mark Cavendish of won the opening stage to take the general classification leader's yellow jersey. rider Peter Sagan won the second stage to claim yellow and held onto it until the fifth stage when Greg Van Avermaet () took the stage and the yellow jersey. Van Avermaet lost ground in the mountainous eighth stage, finishing over 25 minutes behind the stage winner Froome, who took the yellow jersey. Froome retained the yellow jersey through to stage 17 and extended his lead further following a strong performance in the stage 18's mountain time trial. Bardet won the mountainous 19th stage and moved into second place overall and despite crashing in the rain, Froome was able to extend his lead. He then held the lead into the finish in Paris.
The points classification was won by Sagan, who won three stages. 's Rafał Majka won the mountains classification. rider Adam Yates, in fourth place overall, won the young rider classification. The team classification was won by and Sagan was given the award for the most combative rider. Cavendish won the most stages, with four.
Teams
Twenty-two teams participated in the 2016 edition of the Tour de France. The race was the 18th of the 28 events in the UCI World Tour, and all of its eighteen UCI WorldTeams were automatically invited, and obliged, to attend the race. On 2 March 2016, the organiser of the Tour, Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), announced the four second-tier UCI Professional Continental teams given wildcard invitations: , , and . The presentation of the teams – where the members of each team's roster are introduced in front of the media and local dignitaries – took place in the town square of Sainte-Mère-Église, Normandy, on 28 June, two days before the opening stage held in the region. Each team arrived in World War II military vehicles, commemorating the Normandy landings.
Each squad was allowed a maximum of nine riders, therefore the start list contained a total of 198 riders. Of these, 33 were competing in their first Tour de France. The riders came from 35 countries; France, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy and Germany all had 10 or more riders in the race. Riders from ten countries won stages during the race; British riders won the largest number of stages, with seven. The average age of riders in the race was 30 years, ranging from the 22-year-old Sondre Holst Enger () to the 42-year-old Matteo Tosatto (). Of the total average ages, was the youngest team and the oldest.
The teams entering the race were:
UCI WorldTeams
UCI Professional Continental teams
Pre-race favourites
In the run up to the 2016 Tour de France, Chris Froome () was seen by many as the top pre-race favourite for the general classification. His closest rivals were thought to be Nairo Quintana () and Alberto Contador (). The other riders considered contenders for the general classification were Richie Porte (), Thibaut Pinot (), Fabio Aru (), Vincenzo Nibali (), who won the 2014 Tour and the 2016 Giro d'Italia, Romain Bardet (), and Tejay van Garderen ().
Froome, who won both the 2013 and 2015 editions of the race, had shown his form during the season with overall victories in two stage races, the Herald Sun Tour and the Critérium du Dauphiné, a race considered to be the warm-up for the Tour. The runner-up in the 2013 and 2015 Tours, Quintana, had won three stage races in the lead up to the Tour, the Volta a Catalunya, the Tour de Romandie, and the Route du Sud. Contador, winner of the 2007 and 2009 Tours, found success in stage races during the season, winning the Tour of the Basque Country and placing second at Paris–Nice and the Volta a Catalunya.
The sprinters considered favourites for the points classification and wins on the flat or hilly bunch sprint finishes were Peter Sagan (), Marcel Kittel (), André Greipel (), Mark Cavendish (), Alexander Kristoff (), John Degenkolb () and Michael Matthews (). Sagan, the world road race champion and winner of the points classification in the four previous Tours, had won the one-day classics, Gent–Wevelgem and the Tour of Flanders, and two stages of the Tour of California during the season before the Tour. Kittel's 2016 season had been successful up to the Tour as he had amassed a total of nine wins from sprints, most notably, two stages of the Giro and the Scheldeprijs one-day race. He also won both the general and points classifications of the Dubai Tour. Greipel's season total of wins so far was eight, with three Giro stages. Cavendish's form was not clear as his season was mostly spent training for the omnium track event at the Olympic Games the month following the Tour. Although Kristoff's total of wins in the season was eight, they were not in major races. Degenkolb had spent the majority of his season recovering from an injury and it was thought he could pose a threat. Matthews only had two wins so far in the season, both at Paris–Nice, including the race's points classification.
Route and stages
On 24 November 2014, ASO announced that for time the first time in Tour history the department of Manche would host the 2016 edition's opening stages (known as the Grand Départ), before further details of the first three stages held in Manche were released on 9 December 2014. On 15 January 2015, the organisers confirmed that the race would visit Andorra, for the fifth time in history; after the 1964, 1993, 1997 and 2009 editions. The principality hosted the finish of the ninth stage, the first rest day and start of stage ten. The entire route was unveiled by race director Christian Prudhomme on 20 October 2015 at the Palais des Congrès in Paris. The defending champion Chris Froome said after the route was announced that he expected the course to suit him better than the previous year's course. "I think it's going to take a complete cyclist – but the stage that certainly stands out for me is Mont Ventoux", he added.
The first stage started at the Mont Saint-Michel island monastery and finished north on at Utah Beach. The second stage was held between Saint-Lô and Cherbourg-en-Cotentin. The third stage left Manche in Granville and headed south to the finish in Angers. Stage four took the race further south, between Saumur and Limoges, with the fifth stage crossing the elevated region of Massif Central to the finish at the Le Lioran mountain resort. Stage six headed to Montauban before the entrance to the Pyrenees in stage seven. This mountain range also hosted two further stages: a roller-coaster stage eight and the finish in Andorra in stage nine. The following three stages, 10 to 12, crossed the south of the country eastwards to Mont Ventoux. After an individual time trial, stage 14 took the race northwards through the Rhône Valley, which was followed by a stage that took the race into the Jura Mountains. Stage 16 ended with a finish in Bern, Switzerland. The next four stages took place in and around the Alps, before a long transfer took the Tour to the finish with the Champs-Élysées stage in Paris.
There were 21 stages in the race, covering a total distance of , longer than the 2015 Tour. The longest mass-start was the fourth at , and stage 21 was the shortest at . The race featured a total of in individual time trials and four summit finishes: stage 9, to Andorra-Arcalis (Andorra); stage 12, to Chalet Reynard (Mont Ventoux); stage 17, to Finhaut–Émosson (Switzerland); and stage 19, to Saint Gervais-les-Bains. The highest point of elevation in the race was the -high Port d'Envalira mountain pass on stage ten. There were seven hors catégorie (English: beyond category) rated climbs in the race. There were sixteen new stage start or finish locations. The second rest day took place in Bern after stage 15.
+Stage characteristics and winners Stage Date Course Distance Type Winner 1 2 July Mont Saint-Michel to Utah Beach (Sainte-Marie-du-Mont) Flat stage 23 July Saint-Lô to Cherbourg-en-Cotentin Flat stage 3 4 July Granville to Angers Flat stage 4 5 July Saumur to Limoges Flat stage 5 6 July Limoges to Le Lioran Medium mountain stage 6 7 July Arpajon-sur-Cère to Montauban Flat stage 7 8 July L'Isle-Jourdain to Lac de Payolle Medium mountain stage 8 9 July Pau to Bagnères-de-Luchon High mountain stage 9 10 July Vielha Val d'Aran (Spain) to Andorra-Arcalis (Andorra) High mountain stage 11 July Andorra Rest day 10 12 July Escaldes-Engordany (Andorra) to Revel Medium mountain stage 11 13 July Carcassonne to Montpellier Flat stage 12 14 July Montpellier to Chalet Reynard (Mont Ventoux) High mountain stage 13 15 July Bourg-Saint-Andéol to La Caverne du Pont-d'Arc Individual time trial 14 16 July Montélimar to Villars-les-Dombes (Parc des Oiseaux) Flat stage 15 17 July Bourg-en-Bresse to Culoz High mountain stage 16 18 July Moirans-en-Montagne to Bern (Switzerland) Flat stage 19 July Bern (Switzerland)Rest day 17 20 July Bern (Switzerland) to Finhaut–Émosson (Switzerland) High mountain stage 18 21 July Sallanches to Megève Mountain time trial 19 22 July Albertville to Saint Gervais-les-Bains High mountain stage 20 23 July Megève to Morzine High mountain stage 21 24 July Chantilly to Paris (Champs-Élysées) Flat stage Total
Race overview
Grand Départ and journey south
The first stage's bunch sprint finish was won by Mark Cavendish, who gained the race leader's yellow jersey; he also claimed the green jersey as the leader of the points classification, with Paul Voss () taking the polka dot jersey as the leader of the mountains classification. Alberto Contador crashed and lost 55 seconds. Peter Sagan took victory in stage two with an uphill sprint in Cherbourg, putting him in the yellow and green jerseys. Jasper Stuyven of led the mountains classification. General classification rivals Contador and Richie Porte both lost time. The bunch sprint in Angers was won by Cavendish in a photo finish with André Greipel. Cavendish's win was his 28th in the Tour and drew him level with Bernard Hinault at second on the all-time list; Cavendish also took the green jersey. Another photo finish followed in the next stage with Marcel Kittel beating 's Bryan Coquard. Sagan claimed back the green and Thomas De Gendt () the polka dot. Greg Van Avermaet of won the fifth stage after he was the only rider to survive from an early breakaway. He took the lead of the general classification by over five minutes. Stage six was won by Cavendish, who beat Kittel and claimed the green jersey.
Pyrenees and transition