The 2016 Tour de France will start at the Mont-Saint-Michel, one of the country’s most famous tourist attractions, and visit one of the Normandy beaches where Allied forces landed on D-Day during World War II.
The race will start at the foot of the abbey on July 2 with a 188-kilometer stage to Utah Beach Sainte-Marie-du-Mont, one of the landing beaches in 1944.
The second stage will take the peloton from Saint-Lo to Cherbourg-Octeville on a 182-kilometer trek.
With next year’s race set to start in the Dutch city of Utrecht, cycling’s biggest event will be returning home for its “Grand Depart” after getting under way in England in 2014.
Race director Christian Prudhomme says “the Mont-Saint-Michel will majestically enhance the very first pedal strokes of the riders.”
