Tour De France 2016: Stage 1 Route, Live Stream and TV Coverage
Mont-Saint-Michel, in Normandy, France, will be the starting point for the opening stage of the 2016 edition of the Tour de France on Saturday.
All eyes will be on Chris Froome at the Grand Depart as the British rider goes in search of a third yellow jersey. The Team Sky man is backed by a clutch of quality team-mates, although in competitors such as Nairo Quintana and Alberto Contador, he has some serious rivals in pursuit of glory.
A 188-kilometre, flat opening stage is unlikely to separate the rivals in the general classification too much, but it’ll be a brilliant chance for one of the riders to get a stage win on the board at the first possible opportunity. Here’s a closer look at how the run to Utah Beach is likely to pan out and all the key viewing details for one of the year’s most prestigious sporting occasions.
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Date: Saturday, July 2
Time: Noon (BST), 7 a.m. (ET), 1 p.m. (Local)
Live Stream: ITV Hub (UK), NBC Sports App (US)
TV Info: ITV 4 (UK), NBC Sports Gold (US)
Stage Set for Sprinters on Day 1
After the opening stage of the tour has moved to venues in England and the Netherlands in recent years, the Grand Depart will be back on French soil again this year. Here is a look at the profile for the opener, per BBC Sport:
The stage will run up the coastline for much of the middle section, and while that will make for a picturesque view for the riders, a congested field will have to cope with what could be windy conditions.
It’ll certainly be intriguing to see the maillot jaune contenders in action on Saturday. Froome, Quintana and Contador will not be in the hunt for the stage win, although their teams will be vying to eke out any extra seconds they can with some huge climbs to come later on in the tour.
In 2015, Froome had built up a significant lead before the final week, although he did look a little vulnerable at times as the climbing expertise of Quintana started to reel him in in the last knockings. With that in mind, the two-time winner emphasised the importance of a positive start.
"I imagine a lot of people will be looking at that last week. It’s so heavily loaded in mountains, stages 17 to 20," said Froome, per William Fotheringham of the Guardian. "For anyone trying to make up time that’s a great opportunity; obviously for whoever’s leading it will be a tough hurdle, trying to defend for four days back to back."
There is a lot of stiff competition for the yellow jersey too in 2016. As noted by Cafe Roubaix, there are plenty of stellar names set to line up for the start on Saturday:
As for the opening stage itself, it’s a run that’s set up for a bunch sprint finish, and subsequently, Etixx Quick-Step’s Marcel Kittel will be the favourite to take the win.
The 28-year-old has been in superb form in 2016. At the Dubai Tour, he won two stages before bagging another two at the Volta ao Algarve; there he got the better of Lotto–Soudal’s Andre Greipel, the man who looks best placed to challenge Kittel on the sprint to the line on Saturday afternoon.
Overall, the Race Radio Twitter feed thinks Kittel will ultimately prove too strong for main rival Peter Sagan in pursuit of the sprinter’s jersey due to the profile of the stages:
Mark Cavendish will be another man to watch. He has won Tour stages on 26 occasions, although never the first, and as such, he’s never had the yellow jersey draped around his shoulders; the UCI ProTeam will have to do a savvy job to set him up in a more prosperous position than Kittel and Greipel if he’s to stand a chance, though.
On the day, expect Kittel to ultimately be too good. There are some class sprinters in the field and that always makes for a fascinating subplot to the general classification; the 28-year-old will grab an early boost in what promises to be a drawn-out battle over the next three weeks.
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