The Manche department in Normandy will host the 2016 Grand Depart. One of the biggest tourist attractiins in Normandy Mont-Saint-Michel could play a prominent role.

In 2015, the Tour de France will again start in the French mainland which last happened in 2011 in Vendee. In 2016, the Manche department has been given the honour.

Manche in Normandy has already been visited by the Tour de France 23 times but it has never hosted the Grand Depart. It last held a Tour de France stage in 2013 when Tony Martin beat Chris Froome in the time trial to Mont-Saint-Michel.

That French tourist attraction could play an important role again in 2016 but the details of the first stages will be revealed at a pressconference on December 9 at Mont-Saint-Michel.

This year the Tour started in Yourshire in England and next the Dutch city of Utrecht will welcome the peloton for the strat on July 4.