Nairo Quintana and Alejandro Valverde gave two thumbs up to today’s 2016 Tour de France route announcement, agreeing that the mountainous parcours and extended time trials could favour the Movistar duo that shared this year's final podium in paris with winner Chris Froome (Team Sky).
“It's a good parcours for us,” Quintana said in a statement released by his team. “I think the mountains really suit us, plenty of them on the course with some finishes I know and shone in in the past, like Mont Ventoux or Morzine. Also, from what I could see, the long ITT isn't completely flat, so it shouldn't be bad for us.”
The 2016 Tour de France will visit the Pyrenees, Mont Ventoux, the Alps and Bern in Switzerland, with a rolling 37km individual time trial into the Gorges de l’Ardeche valley on stage 13 and a mountain time trial between Sallanches and Megève on stage 18 separating the nine mountain stages and four mountain top finishes.
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With no cobbled stage, no prologue time trial or team time trial, the 2016 Tour de France seems tilted in favour of the climbers.
“The first part of the race will be as nervous as usual,” Valverde said. “Though it will be a little bit less stressful as we don't have any cobblestones to tackle and wind shouldn't be a huge problem except for stages 1 and 2. The Pyrenees and Andorra climbs will bring some suffering before the first rest day, and together with the Mont Ventoux, I think they might set things really straight early into the race.
"However, with those two demanding TTs and the restless final week, it can really suit us the whole team and Nairo well.”
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