Finish of the 2016 Tour de France in Utah Beach
2 July 2016: British victory at Utah Beach
Author : Marc Laurenceau
England’s Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) won the first stage of the 2016 Tour de France on Saturday 2 July at Utah Beach Sainte-Marie-du-Mont (Manche). This first stage, 188 km long, took the riders to Utah Beach, the beach where the Americans landed during Operation Overlord on 6 June 1944. The start of this first stage was given at the foot of Mont-Saint-Michel, one of the most visited tourist sites in France with three million visitors a year.
The peloton then headed for Avranches, Granville and Bréhal along the coast. At Lessay, the riders headed east through Sainte-Mère-Église before arriving at Utah Beach. The 198 riders covered 188 kilometres. Mark Cavendish won ahead of Germany’s Marcel Kittel and Slovakian world champion Peter Sagan.
At the end of the race, riders of several nationalities, guests, organisers and local representatives paid tribute to the allied servicemen who fell during Operation Overlord. They laid white roses in front of the US federal monument and observed a minute’s silence.
2016 News of the Normandy landing beaches