While Jean-Marie Leblanc was still in charge of the Tour de France, the race usually a lot more time trialling than it has done in recent years, and the event always kicked off with a time trial. When Christian Prudhomme took over the responsibility, he not only reduced the number of TT kilometres, he also deviated from the pattern of hosting a race against the clock on the opening day.
In 2008 the race opened with a traditional road stage for the first time in several years, with Alejandro Valverde winning an uphill sprint in Plumelec. In 2011, the time trillists again missed the chance to go for glory on the opening day when another uphill sprint on the Mont des Alouettes saw Philippe Gilbert take the first yellow jersey of the race.
Since the bonus seconds were skipped in 2008, the sprinters have had no chance to overcome their early deficits to ride into yellow, and until 2013 the last bunch kick expert to wear the coveted leader's jersey was Tom Boonen in 2006 (if you omit Thor Hushovd's stint in yellow in 2011 which was not due to his ability as a sprinter). In 2013, Prudhomme not only kicked off the race with a road stage. As it was completely flat, he gave the sprinters what at the time seemed to be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take yellow on the opening day of the race. Marcel Kittel made the most of it when he won a very confusing opening sprint that saw riders like Mark Cavendish, André Greipel and Peter Sagan being held up by crashes.
The sprinters got another opportunity to take yellow much earlier than expected as the 2014 edition of the race again kicked off with a mostly flat stage and again it was Kittel coming out on top on a dramatic day that saw Cavendish hit the deck in Harrogate.
Like Greipel, the Brit has missed out on his first two chances but both are likely to get a third chance already in 2016. After last year’s time trial, a flat road stage will again kick things off in 2016 and so Greipel and Cavendish will get an opportunity to take revenge and Kittel has a chance to take a third maillot jaune in just four years.
After the unusual two consecutive foreign starts, the Grand Depart will be back on French soil for the first time since the Corsican premiere in 2013. This year the race will kick off from the spectacular Mont-Saint-Michel which was the beautiful backdrop for the flat 2013 time trial where Tony Martin narrowly beat Chris Froome. The 188km will bring the riders to Utah Beach at Sainte-Marie-du-Mont and will be a mainly flat affair. The first 105 will follow the lumpy coastal road that includes two small category 4 climb, Cote d’Avranches (1.2km, 5.7%) and Cote des falaises de Champeaux (1.3km, 4.8%) at the 20.5km and 39km marks respectively. There are still some smaller climbs further up the road but none of them will count for the KOM competition.
In the city of Creances, the riders will leave the coast as they will head inland to get the opposite coast. The terrain is almost completely flat and the highlight is the intermediate sprint which comes at the 118.5km mark. Coming at the end of a long, straight, flat road, it is an uncomplicated affair that suits the fastest guys.
With 34km to go, the peloton will again hit the coast which they will follow for around 7km before they again turn inland. 12km later they will turn around and head back along flat roads to the finish at Utah Beach. There are no major technical challenges in the finale as the final turn comes with 5.5km to go. From there a long, straight road leads to the finish on a 6m wide road. There is a small descent with 3km to go but otherwise it is a flat finale, with the final kilometre being very slightly uphill at 0.2%.
All the sprinters have been looking forward to this stage since it was announced that they will get another chance to wear yellow. Hence, there is no chance that this won’t be a day for a bunch kick and as it has been the case in the previous opening road stages, the break will probably escape from the gun, with the only real incentive to attack being the prospective of a short stint in polka-dots. However, the peloton will spend most of the stage along the coast and if the conditions are bad, this can wreak havoc on the peloton. In any case, it should make the race very nervous and crashes are very likely, especially in the finale. On the other hand, the first stages have been surprisingly calm in recent years as the peloton seems to have struck an agreement not to make things unnecessarily dangerous. If the riders again take care of each other and it’s not too windy, it should be a pretty controlled and calm stage until the riders get to what will be a very hectic and nervous finale where the fast guys will battle it out in a sprint that suits the real power sprinters.
Utah Beach has not hosted the finish of a major bike race before.
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