From July 10th to 12th 2016, the Tour de France will come back to Andorra after 7 years. The bikers will arrive on July 10th, and after a rest day, they will leave the country to continue with the next stage of the Tour. An event that will be full of emotions for the enthusiasts of the world of bikes.
The Tour de France
In 2016, the Tour de France will celebrate its 103rd edition crossing all the French territory and visiting 3 foreign countries: Spain, Suisse and Andorra. This year, the competition will begin at Mont Saint-Michel, that even if it has already been in a lot of Tours, it will be its first time as the start of it. 21 stages later, the bikers will arrive, as always, at the mythical Avenue of the Champs Élysées as the ending point of the Tour. This year 22 different teams, each one composed by 9 members at most, will participate and aim to the victory. This will be the 5th time that the Tour will be in Andorra, with stages inspired by the ones on last year’s La Vuelta.
July the 10th: Vielha – Arcalís
The 9th stage of the Tour will start in Vielha, in the Aran Valley, and will finish in Arcalís, Andorra. The bikers will enter Andorra by its border with Spain and will go across the mountains following an itinerary similar to the one of La Vuelta 2015. Once they arrive to Andorra La Vella, they will have to cross the Comella height and go to Encamp. There, they will divert to the Coll of Beixalís to arrive to Arcalís. After these hard 184km, the bikers will rest for a day before starting again the competition.
July the 12th: Escaldes-Engordany – Revel
After getting their strength back, on July 12th, the 198 bikers will start the 10th stage of the Tour that will take them from Escaldes-Engordany to Revel, returning to France. Christian Prudhomme, general director of the Tour and sport’s journalist, explains that “only the most bound and solid [bikers] will achieve exiting Andorra to face the Port d’Envalira”. This one being the highest point of all the Tour, located at 2240m above the sea level. The start line will be in Caldea, which will be used for the first time by the Tour de France, but has already been the start of a stage at La Vuelta.
This summer, two of the hardest stages of the Tour de France will take place in Andorra, assuring three days full of emotions that you cannot miss.
