Mark Cavendish of Team Dimension Data won the opening stage to take the general classification leader's yellow jersey.

Bardet won the mountainous 19th stage and moved into second place overall and despite crashing in the rain, Froome was able to extend his lead.

Each team arrived in World War II military vehicles, commemorating the Normandy landings.

[8] The average age of riders in the race was 30 years,[9] ranging from the 22-year-old Sondre Holst Enger (IAM Cycling) to the 42-year-old Matteo Tosatto (Tinkoff).

His closest rivals were thought to be Nairo Quintana (Movistar Team) and Alberto Contador (Tinkoff).

The other riders considered contenders for the general classification were Richie Porte (BMC Racing Team), Thibaut Pinot (FDJ), Fabio Aru (Astana), Vincenzo Nibali (Astana), who won the 2014 Tour and the 2016 Giro d'Italia, Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale), and Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing Team).

[20] Kittel's 2016 season had been successful up to the Tour as he had amassed a total of nine wins from sprints,[21] most notably, two stages of the Giro and the Scheldeprijs one-day race.

[18] Cavendish's form was not clear as his season was mostly spent training for the omnium track event at the Olympic Games the month following the Tour.

[26] The entire route was unveiled by race director Christian Prudhomme on 20 October 2015 at the Palais des Congrès in Paris.

[27] The defending champion Chris Froome said after the route was announced that he expected the course to suit him better than the previous year's course.

[27] The first stage started at the Mont Saint-Michel island monastery and finished north on at Utah Beach.

[26][30] The highest point of elevation in the race was the 2,408 m (7,900 ft)-high Port d'Envalira mountain pass on stage ten.

[35] Peter Sagan took victory in stage two with an uphill sprint in Cherbourg, putting him in the yellow and green jerseys.

[37] Another photo finish followed in the next stage with Marcel Kittel beating Direct Énergie's Bryan Coquard.

[38] Greg Van Avermaet of BMC Racing Team won the fifth stage after he was the only rider to survive from an early breakaway.

[40] In stage seven, the first in the Pyrenees, Steve Cummings (Team Dimension Data) soloed over the final climb, the Col d'Aspin, and descended into the finish at Lac de Payolle where he took victory.

Orica–BikeExchange's Adam Yates attacked the chasing group and as he passed underneath the one kilometre to go arch it collapsed on top of, and injured, him.

[41] In the following stage Chris Froome attacked the front of the race of overall favourites as they passed the summit of the Col de Peyresourde, descending to the finish in Bagnères-de-Luchon to take a solo victory by thirteen seconds.

[42] In the Tour's queen stage,[43] the ninth, Tom Dumoulin of Team Giant–Alpecin broke clear of the large breakaway to claim the win at the Andorra-Arcalis.

[26] Another breakaway succeeded in stage ten, with Orica–BikeExchange using their advantage of having three riders in the small group to give Michael Matthews the win.

[48] Stage thirteen's 37.5 km (23.3 mi) individual time trial was won by Dumoulin, 1:03 ahead of Froome, who extended his lead over his nearest rival (Mollema) to one minute and forty-seven seconds.

[51] Cavendish won his fourth stage the next day with a bunch sprint at the Parc des Oiseaux.

[26] In stage seventeen, as the race entered the Alps, Team Katusha's Ilnur Zakarin attacked a breakaway and held off a chasing Pantano to take the win at the summit finish by the Émosson Dam.

[56] In stage nineteen, the general classification leaders descended the wet roads of the unclassified penultimate climb at the head of the race, with only Costa surviving from the breakaway.

Froome took Thomas's bike and got back to the group, but Mollema was left isolated and finished over four minutes behind the stage winner Bardet, who had passed Costa in the final 7 km (4.3 mi) and soloed to the finish at the Le Bettex ski station.

[57] In stage twenty Jon Izaguirre (Movistar Team) took the win in Morzine, attacking on the wet descent from a three rider group that led over the final climb of Col de Joux Plane.

The best young rider was Yates, two minutes and sixteen seconds ahead of second-placed Louis Meintjes (Lampre–Merida).

[34] Of the 198 starters, 174 reached the finish of the last stage in Paris, beating the previous record high of 170 set in the 2010 Tour.

[63] In addition, there was a combativity award given after each stage to the rider considered, by a jury, to have "made the greatest effort and who demonstrated the best qualities of sportsmanship".

[68][69][70] Riders from the WorldTeams competing individually, as well as for their teams and nations, for points that contributed towards the World Tour rankings.